There are issues of race and class lurking beneath the surface of the floodwaters in New Orleans. But as this Slate article points out, the network news anchors have been avoiding them.
That’s where the bloggers come in. This Salon.com article tells of a debate that is raging in the blogosphere over a couple of Associated Press photo captions. One describes a white person wading through water after “finding” some items. Another describes a black person walking after “looting” a store.
Perhaps if the media weren’t so shy about discussing issues of race, they wouldn’t be trying to explain away these embarrassing discrepancies.
Posted by Melissa Cooley
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- outlander on Open thread 11/23
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/23
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/23
- CapnAmerica on Open thread 11/23
- HLP on Open thread 11/23
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- outlander on Open thread 11/23
- outlander on Open thread 11/23
26 Comments
Unfortunately, there will always be racist in all walks of life. Also, unfortunately, there will be people who are not racist saying stupid things. Did the same person write both captions? If yes, than they are probably racist. If not, than one would have to know whether or not they were trying to be politically correct, or kind or whatever. There is not enough info to judge the value of the captions, racist or otherwise. Stupid post in my opinion. Meant to race-bait. I can hear the screaming now…
Seems to me that someone saw the fella coming out of the store, and the others just happened accross the items. What is the big deal. I get so tired of the “race card” being played. Do you know that we are only one generation away from over coming racizm? When the media gives air time to this type of childish stuff they only fuel the fire.
If you take (or “find”) something that does not belong to you, no matter what the circumstances and no matter what your race is, you are a thief. Let’s not dignify this topic with further discussion. Let’s Raderize it and move on.
JM good point. I also wonder what the people in the photos were taking. If one was taking a TV (seeing as how there is no electricity) and one had food/water then the distinction would be appropriate.
You have to think about what you would do if your children were starving and you obviously had to fend for yourself because help isn’t on the way. I would “find” things. This stuff is just stuff. The people that take the large electronics have not thought far enough ahead to realize that they won’t be taking the stuff with them out of the city. As for going into a store with 3 feet of water and taking food and clothes or shoes, that stuff will all be reimbursed by FEMA.Either way FEMA is feeding these people. They will be paying for the stuff that was “found” and they will be paying for the stuff that they will eventually bring in.
I don’t think it has anything to do with race, but has to do with culture.
Also! New Orleans is a very liberal and corrupt city, and that plays a big part on those who are attracted and stay in that area. It’s a big welfare city and very poor as far as income goes.
I was watching the news and they said that many people who stayed behind in New Orleans, even though they were warned and encouraged to evacute, is because many of them wanted to get their Welfare Check, which comes during the time, before they leave. Too Late.
I think Joe that you have skewed the information you have recieved, which according to what has been posted by you in the past, is expected.They didn’t leave because it was the end of the month and they ran out of money. But you know that.Such compassion moves me! Straight to the toilet.
Christianity recognizes genuine need as grounds for “stealing”. In a nutshell, the dogmatic position is..everything on earth belongs to God and it is God’s will that all have at least the minimum requirements for life.
The Aztecs od Central America used to leave the outer 5 rows of corn that they planted unpicked for those in need.
It was reported that there were two types of looting in New Orleans. Some looters took the food, water, clothes, and other items they took back to others at the Superdome or Convention Center. Others were just vandalizing and stealing for personal gain. Sure seems like there’s a world of difference between the two.
I have no problem if people were taking things they needed – water & food for example, but things like electronics is just plain stupid.
One thing to consider is that some of the people may not have access to the medications that help to keep their mental conditions under control.
NoJoCo! Good point! Plus the drug addicts in the city amping for their next fix and having serious withdrawls.
Referencing from the Louisiana governor herself.
Anon-If you look at the picture and read the article you will see that both pictures show the people taking similar things, soda and food.
Joe-Give me a break, you have no idea what you are talking about.
There was an element that looted guns and electronics. That element was small.
Others took the things they needed to survive. I should think the right would understand this. They are after all for limited government. In post Katrina New Orleans there was NO GOVERNMENT the economy only of barter and the regulation of only personal responsibility or thought to the greater good. Some took guns and pillaged. This is not dissimilar to right wing industries in America. Failing the intervention of government, such folks work for their own interests and agenda. They do not care who they hurt along the way.
But some folks took food. You would too and if you say you would not you are either a liar or simply unable to put yourself in their place. Some folks took diapers and baby supplies and distributed them to those who needed them. They are heroes. They continued something of a civilized society in the depths of the end of civilization. And given that “civilization” failed them for more than 4 days, they did the RIGHT thing.
The whole debate on looting is really pointless. Nobody waiting for a helicopter is gonna carry on a plasma screen TV! Anyone sitting on 14 DVD players and a sack of cash is gonna get questioned. The opportunists aint gonna get away with it. I only hope that those who took the basic necessities (and it’s all paid for and insured by the way) will be not only forgiven, but regarded as heroes.
JT she said it right on TV. She said Drug Addicts are loose in her city and acting irresponsible because they cannot get their next fix. She said it clear as a cloudless day.
So! You don’t know what you are talking about! You’re just another troll!
Of course, JR is a troll. Bless his heart.
Goodness JR, the blog moron has designated you as a troll. Seconded by a fool. Wow!
Joe, do yoy really believe everything you see on TV? If one believes everything they see on TV, wouldn’t that make one a true moron? Did you by chance get that from Faux News?
Question Joe:Why aren’t you in Iraq supporting the President’s war on terror?
Dagett, why are you not trying to assasinate the President.
Artraeus! Yes! I forget in this day and age, the news is all lies. They actually just had a computer animation of the governor of Louisiana. But it look so real that I believed it. They even replicated her voice using synthesizers, but it sounded so real I couldn’t resist but to think it was actually her speaking on camera live on television.
I forget that fox news is part of the vast right wing conspiricy to shell out propaganda to the mindless robots that we are.
I’m awake! I can see! Oh My! My whole life has been nothing but deceptions and lies! How can I live? Oh no! Somebody save me!
Good grief. Any city, Wichita included, is going to have thieves, druggies, etc. Surely we can understand taking food, clothes, water , whatever, in this instance.CBS (not Faux News) interviewed a man who had taken food from a supermarket. He apaologized. He and others were using gas grills to start a soup kitchen. Seems practical to me.Gee, I hope some of the oh so righteous here aren’t ever in a fix like the folks down south are.Looting is wrong but what our governement agencies DIDN’T do is much more immoral. It shouldn’t have taken DAYS to help. So much for Homeland Security.
I got a test for you oh so judgemental on the right oh so concerned with property rights.
First, fill your bath or hot tub. Now pour in some other things. Pour in some motor oil and gasoline. Mix n some dead animals. Add a little raw sewage and anything else you can find.
Now get in that tub. Soak in it awhile.
Now get out. Don’t change your clothes! Pretend that all your other clothes are under water…..(I know I’m making a stretch to ask the right to understand suffering but play along)
You got no food. You got no water. Get out and about. You’ll find more folks like you. They have no news. There is no news except rumor or guess. There is no communication. There is no order. For you the world is just what you can see.
Now you are soaked in filth. You are tired and thirsty. Is help coming? All around you is only suffering. A mother totes a baby engulfed in the same filth as you. The baby wails from hunger and thirst.
You walk along with this mother and her baby. Along the way you encounter others, submerged and just as lost in this nightmare world as you are. You find a store. Even if you had money, there is no one to take it. What do you do?
JR,I might say that I don’t have to imagine being immersed in crap when everything you write already makes him feel that way. But I wouldn’t say that. Not me, by golly.
Looks to me like the AP caption writers are a bunch of fat neopublicans with oil stock stuffed in their pockets. Probably voted for Wendel Wilkie, too. They probably take orders from the White House ultra-genius bad guys (oops — and gals — sorry) who do that kind of stuff.
We need laws to keep those ultraconservative news trolls at AP from doing that politically incorrect stuff like that, by damn. They should have some federal board review their headlines before they can put them on line.
That’ll fix it, sure.
Looters come and looters go. No matter what race, creed, religion, etc….. The real looter was the jackasses selling gas to folks in real need for $5.00+ a gallon. I saw one photo where the gas was posted at $6.07. Those are the folks that should be shot.
I would like to know where they got those nice flag colored blankets. Makes a good photo-op to hand a flag blanket to a refugee and have them wrap up in it.
When desperate folk with no hope take what they need to survive…….and maybe a little more, conservatives call it looting. When comfortably wealthy folks increase their wealth at the expense and suffering of other Americans, conservatives call that capitalism.
My name’s JR,And I got nothin’ to say,And I like to prove itEvery day.
Remember this is the south, the pictures with the different captions capture that mindset.
JR,You can’t give logic to a heartless person. Their minds are so closed to compassion you can only hope that one day in their future a tornado levels their homes, so they can understand the plight these people are going through. It’s the same people with the same mean spirited posts on whatever subject is being discusses.