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pecuniumWhat's wrong with these pictures?
Nothing, right?
Well, if you go and look at them here and here you will see that the couple in the first picture are just grabbing needed food, where the kid in the second has looted a grocery.
The only differences I can see between them are the color of their skin, and the bag of food the kid has (and the guy has a knapsack, so it's possible they have more than a "bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and come home right away." Absent knowledge of what's in the bag, and of how many people the kid might be taking it too; or of when he might be rescued, I'm willing to cut him the same slack the ones in the top picture get.
The food in those groceries is doomed. The perishables will perish and the semi-durable (canned goods) will probably be unsalvageable by the time they get the waters out of the city for not only are the pumps not capable of more than an inch an hour (as I recall reading) but they put the water into Lake Ponchartrain, which would be, until they repair the levee breaches, a Sysiphean task, since it will just run right back into town, charging anyone with looting; for food, is pointless, but the distinctions made here... sigh.
Nothing, right?
Well, if you go and look at them here and here you will see that the couple in the first picture are just grabbing needed food, where the kid in the second has looted a grocery.
The only differences I can see between them are the color of their skin, and the bag of food the kid has (and the guy has a knapsack, so it's possible they have more than a "bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and come home right away." Absent knowledge of what's in the bag, and of how many people the kid might be taking it too; or of when he might be rescued, I'm willing to cut him the same slack the ones in the top picture get.
The food in those groceries is doomed. The perishables will perish and the semi-durable (canned goods) will probably be unsalvageable by the time they get the waters out of the city for not only are the pumps not capable of more than an inch an hour (as I recall reading) but they put the water into Lake Ponchartrain, which would be, until they repair the levee breaches, a Sysiphean task, since it will just run right back into town, charging anyone with looting; for food, is pointless, but the distinctions made here... sigh.
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no subject
Date: 2005-08-30 11:09 pm (UTC)On the all too human assumption that I'm average (which I'm not) I, who have black family, saw a white woman.
As to conspiracy? No, I see it as lazy frames of reference. The folks at Yahoo haven't set a policy and the guy who wrote the cutline on the black kid is product of a culture which assumes blacks, as a class, are more likely to steal, and so calls it looting.
I don't posit intent, nor yet concerted action. I'm observing a difference.
Now, if you can tell me what the difference is, in those pictures, which makes one looting, and not the other, then things are different, but I sure as hell can't see one.
TK
no subject
Date: 2005-08-30 11:13 pm (UTC)"Now, if you can tell me what the difference is, in those pictures, which makes one looting, and not the other, then things are different, but I sure as hell can't see one."
I have no idea. Maybe the people in the top picture had food handed to them by cops who commandeered the store (which is happening) and the one on the bottom smashed and grabbed and got his picture taken right after. None of us knows, so... I think you're digging for an offense by contrasting those two pictures and speculating that there's a racial motive behind the captions.
no subject
Date: 2005-08-30 11:15 pm (UTC)As an editor (which I've been) I'd have spiked the looting caption, because until someone is convicted, that's a libel.
TK