To Loot or To Find? Who Decides?
I was all set and ready to post about the horrific disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi. I was all suited up to climb up on my soapbox and exhort you to give to the American Red Cross in the relief effort. And you still should. But I would be remiss if on a blog called Civil Rights Watch, I did not post the following racial irony from news reports on the struggle for survival in New Orleans.
The first picture, from a Yahoo News slideshow, came with the following caption:
The second picture, also from a Yahoo News slideshow, came with this caption:
The first picture, from a Yahoo News slideshow, came with the following caption:
A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
The second picture, also from a Yahoo News slideshow, came with this caption:
Same place, same day, same situation. Tell me, kind readers, what is the difference between the "young man" who has been "looting" and the "residents" who have been, how shall we put it, "finding"?AFP/Getty Images - Tue Aug 30, 3:47 AM ET Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty
Images/Chris Graythen)
When I asked for the benefit of the doubt, I didn't just want it from Congress.
posted by YG&B | 10:24 PM
5 Comments:
That's deep. They "found" it...in the grocery store. Apparently they didn't find the cash register.
Everyone is so upset about the looting, and I guess if people are
stealing TVs and iPods then I am too, but if they're taking generators and food, can you really be mad at them? Everyone has left, the people who stayed are
the ones who can't afford to leave and have no place to go, can we at least let them scrounge for their survival?
--Daisy Bates
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
I think it is horrible that the conditions in the area have led people to believe that stealing is ok. Food and other necessities are one thing but TVs and other things are just ridiculous. We know that this world is filled with racisim and bigottry but as a minority it offends me that other minorites feel that they have a right to loot. Being from Los Angeles, this reminds me of the riots where people feel they are promoting social justice by burning and looting their own neighborhoods. They have not yet realized that by destroying their own neighborhoods that they have destroyed themselves.
Those two reporters have come out and defended themselves because so many people criticized these pictures as obviously racist. Apparently the first went into a store and took the stuff, in the other picture the store had flooded and stuff was apparently floating out.
Regardless, the meaning is there. We have all seen the racism on the news, these pictures are just good examples.
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