Corporate Media Enforcers
I don’t have much sympathy (or outrage, frankly*) for the folks who are looting stores of TVs, DVD players, etc. Mostly, I think from a strictly pragmatic point of view, it’s a pretty stupid thing to be doing. I have complete sympathy for people who are “looting” food, diapers, fishing poles, or other supplies that are going to help them survive. Most of the major media, however, seems to equate the two and condemn them as being the dark side of human nature or some shit.
There also seems to be one tint of coverage that suggests it’s women (and on camera, the looters are always black) who are stealing to survive and men that are stealing thinks like cigarettes, beer, wine, malt liquor, and chicken. Oh wait, no they don’t say those last two. Yet. I think we’d see those reports no matter what was actually happening on the ground. Both images are direct stereotypes that white America has about blacks. I can’t believe how racist the coverage of some of this is.
*I have seen in a couple of stories where they’ve actually quoted someone as saying things along the lines of “if you oppress people all they’re lives, they’re going to take whatever chance they can get to to hit back at society” in regard to some of the looting. I can’t say that I disagree with the statement.
August 31st, 2005 at 11:41 am
There’s been a fairly significant glossing over of the fact that the reason more blacks are shown ‘looting’ is because fewer blacks had the wherewithal to LEAVE New Orleans.
I have seen some outlets depict it as stupidity, when in fact census figures show a fairly significant spread between mean / median incomes between blacks and whites in those La. parishes. Many people who stayed were there not by choice, but because with jammed highways, poor transport, and $3/gallon gasoline, the MEANS were not there to leave.
That’s the reason the SuperDome shots are so black – not choice, in the majority of cases.
And, as I’ve said elsewhere, the ‘looting’ of food and diapers and the like is hard to argue as immoral or even illegal. In a wet city, where they can’t even deliver fresh water right now, the food isn’t going to magically stay fresh and tasty in inventory as the city is cleared of all people. In fact, it’s BETTER for relief efforts and cleanup for food to be taken and eaten, because rotting food in all that water is just another disease factor. People in the city need to eat to be able to be evacuated. Who are they supposed to be paying for this food right now? Who’s running the cash registers (which are all electric, and thus not working anyway)?