Sigh...

[pecunium]

What'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.

Comments

[ladymeow.livejournal.com]

Right... I love how the white couple just happened to "find it" and the black kid "looted it."

That's just wonderful.

[kibbles.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's fucked up.

[ladymeow.livejournal.com]

Is there any way we can complain about this, and possibly have the caption changed?

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

The CNN site, however states that the black guy was towing groceries.

No implication of looting.

I am amused to note that the pic sinboy had on his journal of a guy hauling about a dozen pairs of jeans was a white guy.


Food/water/medicine, I cut slack.

A dozen pairs of jeans?

Not so much.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Forgive for being intolerant, but I don't care that CNN got it right, The folks at Yahoo got it wrong.

If they want to paint people scavenging food as looters, fine (we disagree, but fine) but to say the black ones are looters, and the white ones are merely doing what they have to to stay alive is wrong.

It implies the black ones are supposed to sit on their asses and wait for help, or just roll over and die.

Which is bullshit.

TK

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

food, water, medicine, blankets, clothes--that's one thing.

VCRs and jewelry? That's a different thing. Or, as you note, a dozen pairs of jeans.

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

Not disagreeing. Merely pointing out a lack of consistency.

And that CNN got it right does not balance out Yahoo getting it wrong.

[spimby.livejournal.com]

Um, I'm pretty sure that's a black woman in the top picture.

[gwai-lol.livejournal.com]

wow. its so depressing to see how bad things still are in 2005.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I do wonder how much insurance fraud this is going to lead to. Shops with, "lost" inventory in moveable goods, people who, "can't find," precious heirlooms (though I know most of the people in New Orleans, as anywhere else don't, carry that sort of insurance, so it's mostly the well to do with the chance to commit such fraud).

TK

[betnoir.livejournal.com]

OTOH, I will say that the scavenging during the riots in L.A. (some of the most prominent happening at a discount department store four blocks from where I used to live), I do consider looting.

That was taking advantage of a situation of civil unrest.

And, to nuance the NO sitatuation further...

A jacket for your child so they don't catch cold - OK
Those dozen pairs of jeans - not OK

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Possible, but not to my eye, if it is, she is high yellow and could pass.

The average person is going to see a white woman.

TK

[lagilman]

Yeah. Anyone taking perishables? Whatever. Far better than leaving it to rot. Clothing? Okay, I'm not going to say I wouldn't do the same thing if everything I owned was suddenly gone and there was no laundry alternative. If a fresh pair of jeans makes you feel more human, more able to deal, I'm going to look the other way.

Cash from the casinos? Between you and your god. But bribe money won't get you further than charity, at this point.

Electronics? Jewelry? Dude, where you gonna plug it IN? Get over here and take your "looter" tattoo like the scum you are.

[spimby.livejournal.com]

"The average person is going to see a white woman."

Yeah, because we're all special, here on LJ.

[phoenixw.livejournal.com]

"We don't just report the news! We shape it!"

There are times when journalists really, really annoy me.

[lietya.livejournal.com]

Sigh, indeed. Good catch. I, too, like how they "found" it - clearly, it was just lying there on the [grocery-store-surrounded] ground.

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

If it makes you feel any better, that things in N.O. are so bad right now, and so many people are finding out just how crappy the evacuation plan for people without cars was (as in, there was none), the police are doing nothing to stop "looting" from drug stories and groceries. (That's what I just heard a few minutes ago.)

[batagur.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure. She looks non-white but one can not judge by the picture.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Excuse me? Not conspiracy.

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

[spimby.livejournal.com]

"She looks non-white but one can not judge by the picture."

Well, that is what we're all doing, isn't it?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm not worried about the situation on the ground (vis a vis looting), but rather dismayed at the responses of the outside world, and the sad amount of pervasive, and subtle, racism we still soak in.

TK

[batagur.livejournal.com]

I don't know. Are you?

[madwriter.livejournal.com]

Yes, there is that. I've seen a number of pictures of looters being arrested, and so far all of the arrestees are black. I don't know if that's because police only went into black neighborhoods, or only arrested black looters, or those folks were the only ones having their pictures taken, or I just haven't seen enough pictures. I'm hoping it's the last choice, but I'm not so certain--especially after seeing the reactions you describe.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I've been a journalist. It's hard work, and done under pressure, but (as I said to betnoir what I want is consitency. This isn't a news issue, it's a class/race issue.

If they said everyone who snagged something, no matter what it was, was looting, then fine. We disagree, but fine.

To make a distinction, absent some evidence, between two people taking the same sorts of things, well that's a horse of a different color.

TK

[spimby.livejournal.com]

I deleted that comment, as I thought it inappropriate for a stranger's journal. I apologize for it.

"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.