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Finders Keepers, Looters Weepers!
Wow! This is the single-most blatantly racist thing I’ve ever seen. Okay, maybe not ever in the history of the world, but at least lately. Special thanks to human? for pointing this out. Fucking amazing stuff here.
These two photos are from Yahoo! News, and I’ll cite the original URL’s for you, but Yahoo tends to use temporary URL’s, never mind these will surely be changed if they catch too much attention.
First off, we have a photo of a young black man struggling through hurricane water in New Orleans:
The original URL is here, and the caption reads:
A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)
And now check out another photo of white people, in the same exact situation (original URL):
And the caption reads very differently, though the photos are extremely similar:
Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)
In other words, what these photos would have you believe is that, all other things being equal, black people “loot” and white people “find”. Cute!
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September 1st, 2005 at 1:31 am
No fucking way! When i got home from work My roommate pointed out the same thing with these two photoes!
September 1st, 2005 at 1:32 am
Oh by the way, I like the name change.
Jesus Christ, someone’s humvee of a cellphone is sitting right next to my computer moniter, and whenever someone calls on it the screen goes black and the speakers start screeching. Is that even possible?
September 1st, 2005 at 1:58 am
yes garrett. its possible. i always know when i’m about to get a call on my cell at work, cause my screen goes haywire a couple seconds before it rings…
tim, that shit is fucked up. did you see the picture in there of these rabid looking sick fucks at the NY stock exchange. they’ve had a couple of great days…
September 1st, 2005 at 2:08 am
Same thing happens if I get my cell phone too close to my monitor Garrett. No I didn’t see that photo John. You got a link?
September 1st, 2005 at 3:39 am
It’s worth noting that the pictures and the captions were provided by different news companies to Yahoo.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:56 am
Good company
Bad company
September 1st, 2005 at 7:48 am
It is worth pointing out that these are from aggregated news feeds published by Yahoo! — quite far from being racist as you are comparing apples to oranges. It would be similar to claiming your paperboy is racist as he delivers both NYTimes and the Washington Post to your home which each portray our culture very differently.
As I’ve seen this pop up on many blogs it would be nice if it was clarified for the general public who may not know about aggregated news feeds and how they work.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:18 am
I might point out that although both of these captioned photos were syndiacted on Yahoo, they were distributed by two different press agencies: the AP and the AFP. It’s not neccesarily institutionalized racism, it might just reflect the different terminology policies of two different press agencies.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:20 am
Oops, looks like Lee already pointed that out. Pardon my redundancy.
September 1st, 2005 at 10:19 am
Who the fuck cares if it’s two different news agencies? What the hell does that matter? The point stands irregardless
September 1st, 2005 at 10:24 am
um yeah.
so the fuck what. the point remains.
if whats going down in new orleans isnt the dark underbelly of instittionalized racism, then i dont know what is…….
at this point, i wouldnt be suprised if its revealed Katrina is actually a gangbanger looting black woman……
so now theyve stopped evacuations cause somebody took potshots at a helicopter…
fucking 100,000 people who have lost everything…. i seriosly hope this doesnt trn into riots…
the way they are treating folks in New Orleans is ridiculous…… thats where the fcking conspiracy is…. all these fuckers pretending like institutionalized racism isnt a reality… and then the blatent racist coverage…. makes me sick…..
FUCK THIS PROPERTY BULLSHIT. fuck it…. loot everything… take it all & then burn it all down……
R.I.P. New Orleans
one
human?
September 1st, 2005 at 10:24 am
lol…. beat me to it tim…
September 1st, 2005 at 10:43 am
okay, i dont honestly feel like people shold loot and brn it down, im jst pissed off, and i cant imagine how pissed off people down there are…..
but i will say…
1. i wouldnt have left initially. i would have stayed and tried to ride it out.
2. i would have “found” myself some food.
3. i would be strapped.
now on the news they are saying FEMA stopped the boat rescues because a boat got shot at……. they have boats and volunteers sitting around doing nothing because its “too dangerous”
its also “too dangerous” to evacuate people…..
what the fuck?
seriously. what the fuck?
you would think its “too dangerous” to send national guardsmen to iraq…..
fuck.
September 1st, 2005 at 1:03 pm
[…] eign countries ) Looting there too: Gaza evacuees: Lax IDF security allows looting (see tim’s blog for an innaressin’ contrast) So ho […]
September 1st, 2005 at 2:31 pm
[…] groceries “found” them. Blogospheric attacks here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and so on. Only, according to this story in Salon, AP […]
September 1st, 2005 at 2:39 pm
From Derek Rose’s piece on this:
Case closed on that at least. Again, this sort of detail doesn’t change what’s so captivating about this whole thing. The thing that’s engaging is what the cultural artifacts reveal about culture, and the reactions they trigger in people.
In any event, I think it’s stupid to try and chastise people for reacting to this. The whole point of journalism and communication is to elicit a response. It doesn’t always go in the direction you want it, but the whole point is that people are discussing and exercising their minds.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:45 pm
Ok, so I was busy writing up a good defense here as to how the ‘point’ does not really stand based on the idea that the case being made here is against a defined conscious effort to be racist (and attacks a publication of untouched journalistic information - Yahoo!). But then the post above me showed up and I have to say it does a great job of dismantling the so called racism with quotes from the photographers themselves..
If you want to discuss racial and social inequalities in this country you dont need to pass out more blame people have done plenty of that. Sorry Tim I think that in this case you jumped the gun, as your point does not stand irregardless in this case. I’d hate to feel the the investigator inf you is gone just because it left your blog’s title.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:47 pm
*whew it appears in my time writing you did see this too*
September 1st, 2005 at 2:55 pm
Oh god, give it a rest!
The point I’m making is that the phenomenon whether it’s real, a hoax, or a misunderstanding is a real thing in people’s minds. Rumors have as much power as real events to shape conversation.
I’m not an investigative journalist and I never once ever remotely claimed to be. In fact, I don’t care all that much for facts as I do for the Truth of what makes people tick. This story does that whether there was or wasn’t any looting or finding. So yes, my point still stands, but maybe it’s not the point you wanted me to make.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:26 pm
A “conscious” effort to be racist? Who thought that?
September 1st, 2005 at 3:27 pm
Nobody! That’s who!
September 1st, 2005 at 5:03 pm
I gotta admit to finding it strange to be on the receiving end of Tim and others hostility here. I’ve been a long tim fan and reader of the site and actually thought that by bringing to light how this juxtaposition was merely the result of a site using some basic web technology would be appreciated.
I would have thought that this was the point:
“In other words, what these photos would have you believe is that, all other things being equal, black people “loot” and white people “find”. Cute!”
I think that is not the intention of the photographs the photographers or even the publications they appear in, and I think posts on blogs like this can mislead the public into thinking so. Thats what I think is wrong here. I think that the idea that this is “a real thing in people’s minds” stems from the fact that media including blogs give misinformation about such topics because it is so tantalizing.
I never claimed you were an investigative journalist Tim, I was just playing with your old title and the fact you like to see all sides to a story. I also wasnt trying to beat a dead horse or anything so Im sorry to have not given it a rest again, nothing personal just trying to let you know where this nobody is coming from. Sorry to all…
September 1st, 2005 at 5:20 pm
Sorry, but if you read the explanation neatly documented in this post:
http://derekrose.com/wp/
you’ll see that the black man was labeled a looter because he was, well, looting (that is, breaking into a store and stealing something) while the white couple were labeled finders because they found random goods floating by.
The post, by the way, is labeled ‘idiotsphere,’ which seems quite apt given the rush to judgment by so many bloggers. Please do your homework next time.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:29 pm
You know, newspapers have editors who get paid big money to catch these kinds of things and fix them before the public gets their hands on them.
A good editor would’ve noticed the discrepancy and, out of fear of generating the very controversy we now find ourselves in, would have changed the captions in advance.
Since when do photographers have final say over what captions their photos end up with anyway? You think a photographer for SPIN or MAXIM comes up with those inane captions beneath their pics of rock stars?
Hey, I love playing the Devil’s Advocate just as much as anyone else, but there really is no defense for this.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:49 pm
I know, seriously. Good call James. The bottom line is this is an issue! It’s a talking point, a conversation starter. Nobody has to agree with me. I don’t give a flying shit, really. But don’t sit here and tell me that it’s my fault that these things exist in the media. Cause that’s fucking stupid. And I’m not trying to be hostile, I’m just being straightforward and calling it like I see it. The bottom line is that this is an issue one way or another! The very fact that we’re still talking about it and that people are getting inflamed only proves that point.
September 1st, 2005 at 6:15 pm
and there are people down there who are scared, hungry and are turning ugly as we speak. i was going to say it will be interesting to see what will happen buinteresting is the wrong word.
people have been speculating when the first terrorist act would take out a major u.s. city. well nature beat them to the punch. now we all have to deal with whatever it is that will occur down there in the next few weeks.
September 1st, 2005 at 7:45 pm
What is happeneing in New Orleans is sad and sickening. And it comes in the wake of my finally watching Spielberg’s “War Of The Worlds” a few days ago.
Say what one will about the movie, Spielberg captured (in a fictitious sci-fi movie scenario) the anguish and terror that is currently going on in the South thanks to Katrina.
When he made it, I think he was definitely using 9/11 as a template, but in light of current events I’d have to say that ANY disaster is the template for the mass hysteria portayed in that film.
Spielberg’s movie is very close to the original H.G. Wells story, while the ensuing chaos resembles the reaction to Orson Welles’ infamous 1930s radio broadcast.
On a conspiratorial note: isn’t it a fact that once upon a time the U.S. Gov’t experimented with using hurricanes and tornadoes as military weapons? And isn’t it true that the U.S. military supposedly suspended such research? And hasn’t it been rumored that the research went “underground” and continued unofficially, much like MK-ULTRA and Project Monarch?
If that wild rumor is even remotely true, wouldn’t that give the recent Tsunami disaster and former Presidents Bush and Clinton’s fundraising efforts a more sinister tone?
I hope no one feels that I am disrespecting what is going on in NO right now by bringing up these questions. I know that if I were down there, suffering among the rest, I’d be thinking along the lines of “Why does God hate us?” or “Why didn’t Bush do anything to help us?”
September 1st, 2005 at 8:08 pm
i have a feeling bush and the boys are doing all they can to help, he is, after all, cheif executive. and bythe way, where are all the countries that recieve billions in foriegn aid from the u.s. like brazil? it`s back scratching time, i believe.
and i fail to see how a scalar weather attack on our own shores would help the skull and bones. doesn`t make sense when i put my conspiracy hat on. wait a minute….i`ll try a bigger size…….nope, dots don`t connect. have to put this one down to nature. unless……..god`s in on the conspiracy.
September 1st, 2005 at 8:16 pm
and about what i`d be thinking if i was neck deep in shitty water.
1-how to get dry.
2-how to get food.
3-how to avoid groups of hungry people that i didn`t know.
4-how grateful i was to have kept my firearms from my other life.
5-how to not get photographed, or interviewed by opra winfrey or cameron diaz or any other rich idiot trying to help themselves on the back of my fucking enormous misfortune.
6-how, if i got out of the shit, i would tell the people of holland a thing or two about an entire country below sea level.
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:19 pm
I hate this whole situation. fuck it all! this is just something I heard from my interior designing teacher, but my high school is going to play host to about 300 seniors, 253 juniors, 298 sofmors, and 123 freshmen from mississippi. we already have 500 seniors, 445 juniors, 336 sofmors and over 400 freshmen. I have no idea how they are going to make this work, there just is not enough room in our school. Im a senior though so i only have to deal with it for this year, and its not like I mind at all. I say the more the merrier, I love over crouded schools, you can get away with so much more -^_^-
September 5th, 2005 at 9:31 pm
[…] ;em bloated and floating lifelessly on the flooded streets of NO. Or fuck around with the racist looting aspect of it. Cos, when you look at it real good, t […]