Post Katrina chaos turning into a race issue

[LUNN]

It seems like thats whats happening, the teeming black community displaced by the hurricane are being ignored, black congressmen accusing govt. of the same and of media debasing shoplifters who happen to be black and have no choice but to do what they are doing.

[FlyingPhotog]

On one hand, I can rationalize people taking food to feed their family. On the other hand the ones we see on TV stealing TV's and guns are only reinforcing the stereotype that blacks are lazy greedy criminals. The blacks are getting the TV coverage because they're the ones living in the flooded areas in downtown New Orleans. It's that simple.

I disagree they're being ignored. If people are shooting at cops and helicopters you wouldn't see my @ss down there handing out food & water. For the first couple days it was about impossible to even reach these areas for rescue or aid.

[Legend_Airlines]

The blacks are getting the TV coverage because they're the ones living in the flooded areas in downtown New Orleans. It's that simple..

So you're saying...the problem in downtown New Orleans isn't important and shouldn't be the focus of the media? It's a crisis and a disgrace to the USA.

[FlyingPhotog]

So you're saying...the problem in downtown New Orleans isn't important and shouldn't be the focus of the media? It's a crisis and a disgrace to the USA.

No I didn't say that all. All I said was it seems racial because blacks are the only ones we see on TV and that's because they live in that area.

[wannabepilot777]

Here it is: the population of New Orleans is made up of a great deal of blacks. Blacks fill out the majority of the bottom end of the income scale for New Orleans. When they evacuated, those with money and means got out. Poor people couldn't or choose not to. Therefore, the HUGE majority of the people in that city now are black. That means that no matter what happens, when it gets reported, its gonna have mostly or all black people in it. The fact that a very small number of people act like the sterotype only enforces why there is a sterotype. This racial outrage crap has got to stop. Its like saying TV coverage of the Republican Nataional Convention unfairly singles out rich white people.

[Crazy764]

My friend showed me this which I found pretty interesting:



A black kid "walks through chest deep water after looting a grocery store..."
Yet, a white couple "wade through chest deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store..."

[E-Diddy!]

Score 1 for the canadian.

[herpa2003]

The people who didn't evacuate were mostly too poor to do so. And most of them were black. They are used to crime in their neighborhoods it seems; for a study months before the hurricane the New Orleans police department went into one of the poorer neighborhoods and fired over 400 blank gunshot rounds during the day in the middle of the neighborhood. There was not one 911 call reporting shots fired. They were used to the gunshots, and therefore didn't hear anything out of the ordinary.

[Genessee]

There was a half decent editorial in the paper today.."Katrina exposes the `other' New Orleans. Strip away the Mardi Gras revelry and you'll find a mostly black, dirt-poor city"

Atleast he didn't blame "whitie" like some guy on the radio did.....

[srbmod]

This is a class issue, not a race issue. It was lower income people who have borne the brunt of the aftermath in New Orleans. While blacks make up the majority of the population in nearly all socioeconomic classes in New Orleans, there are lower income victims of all colors and ethnicities. These were people who could not evacuate the city because they had no means to escape (around 100,000 residents do not have cars or even access to one), and the local and state governments erred by not utilizing local means to evacuate those citizens who lacked the ability to leave.

The race issue has polarized the aftermath because the majority of the people doing the looting and the shooting are black. Now the two Yahoo! photos and the captions could be misleading. There are a small number of shops that have been able to reopen due to the areas they are in are on higher ground that received very little flooding. Without a definite location of either photo, one can come to their own conclusions based mainly by what the caption writer has written.

[Genessee]

Now the two Yahoo! photos and the captions could be misleading. There are a small number of shops that have been able to reopen due to the areas they are in are on higher ground that received very little flooding. Without a definite location of either photo, one can come to their own conclusions based mainly by what the caption writer has written.

It's also possible two different people wrote the captions. The author of the caption of photo #1 may have used "looting" in the other as well..

[Airbus_A320]

If people were to actually pay attention to the images and look at the people in them as being individuals instead of just grouping everyone the same, they will notice that there are people of other races in there too, not just blacks.

And the looting.... I'm sure that would happen anyplace that falls into chaos/anarchy. I heard someplace that downtown Ottawa was looted during the big '03 power outage. Is this true? Not that it's ok, but what can you do. Taking food and water is one thing, and people should have a right to that, and clothes if they lost everything. As those are basic human needs. But taking arms, TV's, etc, and even worse shooting at others, thats uncalled for.

Anyways, instead of doing this race issue stuff again, maybe we should concentrate on why the levies around NO were not maintained and strengthened to better deal with a hurricane like this. This type of thing happening to NO was talked about in the past, and it was known that NO would flood if a hurricane hit it, and busted the levies, and nothing was done about it. Perhaps that’s something more important for people to be discussing, than the race of those in the city. If they were all white people, I’m sure it would be the same in the end.

[Longreach747]

beats me why anyone would wanna loot an electrical shop after a hurricane like that, the goods won't exactly be in working order anytime soon....

[JJR]

It's easy for us to look at the situation and come up with conclusions, while at home, warm watching TV. While I believe in the "looting" of food to support basic life functions, ( aka Living ) I think that the stealing of T.V's and other equipment, is in a word, stupid. These poor people have to start trying to take care of themselves,on a primitive survival level, and stop the worry over things that won't be used for months to come in the NO area. (like electronic equipment). Life for these people will not be normal for a very long time. If there is a god, whatever one you choose, pray to them to help these people thru this horrible situation. God Speed to the lost souls....
-Jay

[KBOSv2]

The bottom line is these people need help, it doesn't matter what race they are.