Black People "Loot," White People "Find"

alicia banks
August 31 2005, 5:47PM

ditto!!!!!!!

i am enraged at the racist editing etc...

ie
is there not one single black person looting water????

must we all be shown exclusively lotting tv's and toys????

shame!!!!
ab

Nyah Molineaux
August 31 2005, 9:26PM

I am not surprised by people showing black people as looters and every sort of criminal act. Thoughts about black people have been created since the 1500s (I am reading Black and White by Winthrop Jordon, it is a very interesting book).

What I think is the most interesting thing is that people were not able to leave because there was not enough money to leave; and Bush says our economy is going well, what a joke.

Furthermore, I have learned today that the funding for the leeves were cut short this year, even though they knew the hurricane was going to come.

cmoney
August 31 2005, 9:26PM

The biggest looters I saw today are Shell, Exxon/Mobil and Chevron. These bastards jacked up the price of gas by as much as 90 cents a gallon in one day based upon hysteria. In fact, it was the same gas that was in the gas station the night before. You tell me who is doing the looting. A few desperately hungry people who were left behind to fend for themselves by the local, state and federal government or the billionaires who elected George Bush? It's easy to blame "those people" for looting when we sit back in ouor comfortable homes and news studios. I am sure every single one of those reporters would do the same thing, if not worse, if they were hungry, thirsty and had children to feed. By the way, I saw several white people and cops "looting" too. We need to help. not blame now.

Clay Cane
September 1 2005, 10:20AM

Thanks for the shout out! You are right - it's no shocker ... I'm waiting for someone in "mass" media to mention it, which will cause a complete backlash of people in power crying it isn't racism. Sad times!

Regan DuCasse
September 1 2005, 11:35AM

I saw a riveting picture of a pair of black feet in shoes made of cereal box cardboard and rubber bands.
Had this person been photographed stealing Air Jordans (virtually the only unisex shoe), would the caption or photo been as compassionate?
One couldn't tell if the feet were of a male or female, young or old.
I agree...photos of lawlessness by white people are few...or captioned with far more bias.

Desperation has no color...

Ctee
September 1 2005, 1:34PM

Who give a sh@! that there looting it not like any of the food(etc.) will be any good in a couple of days. Is it me or does it seem like the country is moving kind of slow!!!!!!!

Eric
September 1 2005, 7:54PM

You have to keep in mind that the two descriptions were written by two different people, and so their interpretation of the situation might have differed.

Regardless, we see examples of this bias in the media all the time, and yet the only "black" television network revolves around entertainment (rap videos and black popular culture). I know a lot of people may disagree, but: there are some things that are a LOT more important than culture.

Bklynbro
September 2 2005, 2:34PM

Please see all the facts about this at:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/katrina/looters.asp

Sean
September 3 2005, 5:55AM

That is so funny. Call it your "jim crow" slip. And that snopes.com is just a PR move. Finding and looting are not similiar. New Orleans is such a mess because it was a mess to begin with, and the storm just made it worse. I used to live in Texas and visted New Orleans like a summer home. I'm not surprised by the response. I'm not surprised that we will begin to see how impovershed black people are in New Orleans. It's one of the most violent and poorest cities in the country. They needed help before the storm.

Cynthia
September 4 2005, 1:53AM

We are suffering from PTHS (Post Traumatic Hurricane Stress)

By Cynthia Jones

The next time you hear a white person say that a black people should be shot and killed for taking a television set, tennis shoes or jewelry in New Orleans after the hurricane tell them this.

The so-called looters suffer from a medical condition known as PTHS (Post Traumatic Hurricane Stress).

If the looters were, white all the media: CNN, Fox, NBC, NBC CBS and ABC would have medical doctors and psychiatrist from all over the country on television stating the following. “Well these poor white people who are looting are suffering from PTHS .” They would say oh they don’t know what they are doing because they have suffered watching their loved ones die before their eyes, and losing everything they own. They are dazed, confused and hungry.

They would say oh these white people have PTHS, which means they are suffering from a chemical imbalance and that the left or right side of their brain is not functioning. When that happens, a person loses all sense of right and wrong. So, they normally they wouldn’t take things, but because PTHS they don’t know what they are doing.

They would say because these people are suffering from PTHS taking such items as a television set, jewelry or anything that they had before they lost everything makes them feel better. They would say this might not make sense to a regular person, but remember these people suffer from PTHS.

They sure wouldn’t send the national guard in there to arrest white people for stealing television sets, food and water.

I’ve watched picture after picture of national guardsmen in army tanks and guns loaded driving right by people who needed help. If the national guardsmen can bring in guns, why couldn’t they bring in food and water and take people to a shelter?

You can come to kill us over stealing a television set, but you can’t us bring us food or water? You really expect us to believe this.

And really, you white people are more concerned about some stupid property that can never be sold, because it is damaged. So, what difference will it make that Radio Shack’s radios and TV sets are stolen? The store can’t sell it. The food is going to rot anyway.

Because these are black people, you see them taking something you own, you are more concerned about your property then people. Your reaction is how dare you black people steal our property. It’s like slavery. Because you stole the masters property you must be killed so you know who’s the boss.

Also, if this were white people, they wouldn’t have left in the city to die in the first place. If these were white people they would have provided buses to get them out before the hurricane.

Notice that after the hurricane, FEMA found 500 buses and they got school buses from across the state to get people from the Superdome to Houston. Why didn’t they get those buses before the hurricane and get the people out?

Well, because they were poor and black.

Wake up Black America to what just happened in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. They wanted you dead and they still want you dead.

a_jinni
September 4 2005, 5:49PM

Kanye spoke the truth and challenged a lying president and doing so with class and calmness, he spoke what is in his heart, to stop and injustice….many of us including myself have called out bush by swearing, yelling and being rowdy, "bush a bastard and a liar", but not KW, called BUSH out on the TRUTH!!!, Bush doesn’t care about all American, especially black people. Hallelujah there’re is hope for the world.

Yes realize the white privilege structure and all the inequality in the world, esp. in America, then demand change by ADVOCATING for the change you want to see in the world [a play on a quote by Gandhi jii) be JUST & FAIR ---- we can build a better world community, if we work for it and believe it and of course spread the hope and determination to others.

There is both classism and racism, don’t kid yourself if you think racism is over, it is as prevalent as classicism, that is how the lower class just took it up the A** with all of the conservative BUSH policies that have been passed over the last 4 years and some of the more recent bills like the energy bill and the bankruptcy bill.

If only congress would smarten up and demand a 10 percent fuel efficiency hike for next year’s car fleet and progressive increases for the foreseeable future like 2-5 whatever is attainable,. That would reduce fuel costs and save the environment too. Let’s look for proactive solutions instead of more drilling and other supply side arguments, conservative don’t have good ideas that are sound in their mechanisms. So let’s not blindly follow them.

-PS if you like Kanye then you will like Immortal Technique
-PS if you hate Kanye then you will love to hate Immortal Technique more.

----a_jinni

Mike
September 6 2005, 5:08AM

2 photos taken by 2 different photgraphers. 2 captions written by 2 different writters. Both photos were NOT posted at the same time nor were they published in the newspaper at the same time. It is very easy to make any news story racist if you examine every news article for an opposite angle and do a cut & paste. I saw the photos up close and it is true the white people have food in their hands and the black person has a box of Sketcher shoes. Now I will do a search for a caption of a white person looting and a black person looking for food. Come on people, this is not about black and white!!!
That damn New Orleans mayor and Governor are to blame first. Are you telling me that they did not have a prior plan to evacuate New Orleans? They have known about this flooding problem for over a hundred years. There has been several articles published by scientists detailing the effects of such a disaster with many solutions. What happens if New Orleans were bombed by terrorists, what was their plan for that? I can't believe the mayor did not have a plan of evacuation. The first job of any Governor should be to speak with all the mayors and have them submit a plan for evacuating their cities. And in the future tweak it as new mayors get elected and intelligence & technology changes. I'm sure they must have considered their city a target for terrorists, since Mardi Gras brings on a lot of tourists. What the hell is with that mayor to blame the Federal government, he should take responsibility. HE IS DEFINITELY NO Rudolph Giuliani.