New Orleans: Black people "loot." White people "find."

a public service to racists...

As a public service to racists everywhere, and in particular to the squemish anti-racists evident in this thread, I propose the following truth in labeling law be observed by all media.

In any emergency brought on by an act of God, in any resulting looting:
1) all white folks shall be referred to as "finding";
2) all black folks shall be termed "looting";
and
3) all people of mixed or otherwise indeterminate race shall be called "shoplifting."

When you think about it, it's only fair that the racists should clarify the facts for the benefit of the morally superior race conscious anti-rascists - right? Otherwise we won't know who to organize our consciousness raising groups with or direct our censure against.

Now - help me here - how do we label the Asians, the Indians, and the Hispanics?

Ah, Here's one.
4) all people of Native American descent shall be labled "Churchilling."

-Orson*
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*A whitie (lacking all cracker breeding) who actually shared a two bedroom apartment with a black buddy from Detroit for three years, recently, when down on his (OK - our) luck.

 

My personal opinion;

Who cares what Yahoo puts in their captions?

Possibly thousands of people (of ALL colors) have died as a result of this disaster, and thousands more are still in jeopardy.

A major city in the United States is now mostly underwater, the residents lucky enough to survive have been living like animals, and someone is concerned about a damn picture caption on Yahoo??? Could you trivialize the situation any further??

Instead of playing semantics, I think it would be much better if everyone took some time to donate to the relief efforts. I've already done so through the Salvation Army, which I think is a much better utilization of time & effort than arguing about picture captions.

 

RE: GDE & Roz

And I am on the right, and I'm delighted at another sharp and temperate poster. And Bruce's point is to the point.

 

resurget cineribus and all that

You roomed with somebody from Detroit? Wow, you're brave.

 

Reality check.

Thanks Bruce.

 

No, I just looked at the photo.

It wasn't a picture of the man alone.

There is no surety so the issue is contrived.

This isn't about America, history or clouds in the sky. It is about two photos with captions.

I am not denying anything. I am seeing what is there without extrapolation.

There are many truths and one reality. Let's not miss the tree of reality for the forest of sociology.

 

Re: a public service to racists...

You are doing the same projecting as Rosalind.

 

Respectfully, who is "you"? I hope you're not referring to me, because if you are please go back and take a look at my previous posting.

In case you lack the time, I'll give you the Cliff's Notes version:

I said that CaptionGate (and the underlying causes) was something that should be looked at LATER.

I didn't think I had to literally say "this is not the time to be concentrating on bad editorial decisions because hundreds of people (if not thousands) have died and many more are stranded in dire circumstances".

Good gracious alive.

=======

TO ALL:

And one last thing... yes, what happened is tragic and sad. But, the world is still turning on its axis and life goes on. And in this country racism, intolerance and bonehead editing decisions are not going to go away just because we wish it would or because some people think it's not that important. If it's ignored, it gets worse.

And think about this: In the city of New Orleans alone, the majority of the stranded look to be black. These people are going to have to rebuild their homes and buy new cars, etc. Bankrate (I believe) just ran an article not too long ago saying that black homebuyers - whose credit and credentials were EQUAL to those of whites - were still being given higher interest rates on home loans. Add to that the fact that not too long ago (too), the automobile finance industry was outed for the same thing when it came to auto purchases by qualified blacks. Now, does anyone not believe that there will be some unethical race and/or racism-based business practices in play for black victims of Katrina when it's time to rebuild? (It's a very sad given that the otherwise poor and ignorant will get "got".. I need to mention that just in case people look too closely at what I wrote and purposely misconstrue my meaning).

Racism is not isolated, and doesn't happen in a vacuum, folks. It's also not quantifiable; there's no such thing as being a "little bit racist". Either it is or it ain't. The captions were just (like was mentioned earlier) another EXAMPLE of it. And if it can rear it's ugly head over looting/appropriating what the heck are we to expect when it's time to rebuild? This thing has long-term, macro-level implications that need to be considered and addressed - just maybe not right this minute (as I said earlier).

 

Whatever. We're going to have to agree to disagree. You'll never try to see where I'm coming from, so I have no intention of extending that courtesy to you.

 

As Yahoo has made clear, those are not Yahoo's captions.

One captioned photo is taken from one source and another from another source and so on.

There was not some single editor captioning photos differently.

A great tragedy has here (in this thread and throughout this forum) been turned into an episode of 'My Favorite Shibboleth.'

 

I have my reality. You have yours. Others have theirs. Sometimes they converge, but we all will perceive them through the lenses of our own experiences.

Racism is something I am forced to deal with on a daily basis, so yes, it's personal. And, since that is the case, I honestly don't care about people, who don't have to live in my skin, NOT agreeing with me. I'm the one who has to get through this life, hopefully no worse for the wear, in the skin I'm in - and, I wouldn't trade it even if it were possible.

Isn't self-preservation the first law of nature?

 

Good explanation Rosalind. I am so sick and tired of the sentiment that people are too "civilized" and "enlightened" to talk about racial differences and racism. If you are not white, OR you're white and grew up in a mostly non-white culture, that attitude of "don't talk about race or you're a whiner" is just shockingly ignorant and totally insulting. Just because thse people have never been forced to deal with racial issues, they think people who have been need to shut up and never talk about theirs so their self-image as righteous people won't be disturbed. I see this mostly on the right but even sometimes on the left and it irritates me no end. It's like telling someone to shut up if they have a political disagreement, because it's not polite to talk about political differences. Keeping it out of conversation may be appropriate for the dinner table, but not in a forum type discussion.

The truly civilized attitude is to actually have these discussions and to be able to enter into dialogue on them.

 

I'd guess that literally millions of photographs of New Orleans exist. Many thousands of them have captions. I expect that people can "prove" any point that they want to make by selecting among them until they find an illustration.

I agree with Bruce.

What America needs right now is to come together in compassion and cooperation. Many of us feel anxiety, but it solves nothing to direct it at scapegoats and at familiar self-destructive political hatreds. That's counter-productive.

Right action and right speech.

 

I'm about to make a statement that will make your blood boil, but I'll explain it.

Black people are far more statistically likely to be criminals than whites in this country. This isn't perception, distorted or otherwise, it's reality.

And it may well be more likely that a black person striding down the street in New Orleans today with a stereo is more likely to have looted it than a white person in the same position. We need to be honest--dead cold straight honest--when we're talking statistics.

But of course, we need to understand the reasons behind these statistics:

Black people in this country are more likely to be impoverished. And poverty makes you statistically more likely to steal.

Black people in this country are more likely to suffer alienation from society due to racism. And the more alienated you are from a society, the less likely you are to regard the social contract.

Black people in this country are at most one or two generations removed from Jim Crow laws, and any over 50 have memories of their sting. And such abuse makes you more likely to be bitter towards your society; such bitterness often makes you more likely to become a criminal.

And when you factor out all of the above, I'll bet that blacks are no more or less likely to loot than whites.

 

Now THAT makes a lot of sense. Thanks qvatlanta for bringing that perspective to the whole topic....

 

No truly civilized person would seek to create racial strife in the midst of this crisis.

 

Yes, I must agree with Carl, Excellent points!


Abner

 

Re: Re: Lets not...

Welcome aboard Rosalind! You make some EXCELLENT POINTS!


Wow!


Abner

 

Re: resurget cineribus and all that

You bust me up Unk!


Abner

 

Agree 100%, but don’t excuse bad behavior because of past injustices. Two wrongs don’t make a right. People eventually have to take it upon themselves to change other peoples’ perception.

As you said, these perceptions are based on statistical facts. A businessman who sees a group of blacks looting his store doesn’t think to himself, “these people could just as easily be white if race relations in this country were better.” All he thinks is “these criminals are stealing my stuff, so the next time I see a group of blacks come into my store, I’ll expect them to steal my stuff also.” Right or wrong, it’s human nature.

Blacks have been dealt a shitty hand in this country, but at some point you need to forget about the past and realize that no one is going to improve your life for you. If you want to change other peoples' perception then maybe you should change yourself.