racist!!

01 Sep 2005

Okay, people. I am tired of this “black people loot, white people find” thread (i.e. here, here). For the record, I do think in a lot of the discussions about the looting, corrupt cops, and the general chaos in New Orleans that racism really is the elephant in the room, but, I think this particular case is silly.

What everyone seems to be ignoring is that these pictures and captions came from two different news agencies: AP and AFP. So, it’s more likely just a difference in chosen wording between the two agencies rather than some internally intrinsic bias or racism in one media entity. Further, the chick in the “white people” picture looks she might be of mixed ancestry, anyway. At most, it probably reflects that the AFP is more sympathetic to “looting”/”finding”, whereas the AP might not be. Realistically it probably means nothing.

Stressing this rather silly example makes it hard for more serious accusations of bias and bigotry to be taken seriously.