Questions of racism in hurricane photo captions; Yahoo responds

[sabra]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Blogs_raise_questions_of_racism_in_hurricane_photo_cap_0902.html

Questions of racism in hurricane photo captions; Yahoo responds
RAW STORY


A French news agency has yanked a photograph surrounding the New Orleans hurricane that raised questions of racism, RAW STORY has learned.

The photograph by Agence France Presse shows two white hurricane survivors carrying food as they wade through flood waters. The caption reads, "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."

The second, by the Associated Press, shows a black man, who also carries food. 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..."

Critics, including Salon.com, focused on the words "finding" and "looting."

In a statement, Yahoo News says AFP asked them to pull the photos, and they have complied: "Since the controversy began, the supplier of one of the photos – AFP – has asked all its clients to remove the photo from their databases. Yahoo! News has complied with the AFP request."

[JoFerret]

1. Got sent this yesterday

...why is AFP yanking its photo?

[Karenina]

41. It's not about the photo

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CAPTION.

Language matters.

[JoFerret]

49. Of course

...but why the AFP? The AFP photo (with caption) is not the issue. THAT was my question.

[Swede]

2. Racism for all the world to behold.

They can't deny it.

[Child_Of_Isis]

3. Yahoo! News has complied with the AFP request.

It's not enough. We want a public apology on television. Every half hour. Boycott Yahoo.

[Mabus]

What about AP

They're just as much to blame. Why couldn't the AP have run a caption that said the kid found food? I think AP needs to apologize more than AFP unless they (AP) can prove the kid had a bagful of electronics, i.e., looting as opposed to surviving!

[JoFerret]

4. Racism is embedded in what and who we see

....in the MSM and elsewhere. For the first time in many years we are seeing the actual and hidden face of so much of the USA - the poor, the dispossessed and the desperate. Only now with this disaster do we see what is the actual and unacceptable face of the nation. By focussing on the outbreaks of lawlessness we do not have to see the desperation the misery of their lives before this happened, and now.

[CanSocDem]

15. it's easier to shoot the 'lawbreakers' than to create an equitable society

eom

[Straight Shooter]

5. We don't know what those "whites" have in their backpacks, do we?

Nor do we know what the young man has in his hefty bag.

You know what? I don't f*cking care what either one of them has. I'm glad they're alive when the photo was taken. I hope they're still alive and their families to whom they were taking the groceries or whatever.

Sheesh. I don't think there were clerks in the store. They were probably tending to their own families or long gone. Focusing on looters is a red herring. It just stirs the pot and accomplishes nothing.

[daninthemoon]

7. Amen! Survival is all that matters now.

[Roy]

9. Yep, then we don't have to face the racial implications of this

And, if we don't confront in your face racism, there is no dialog addressing an important issue that divides this country and even used as a tool for political gain.

We can then pretend that racism don't exist, and move along. right??

[brentspeak]

16. There was racism and/or classism from both whites & blacks re. NO

The lack of urgency on the part of the White House. A lot of posts (but not all) that litter FR.

On the other hand, white tourists in the Convention Center and the Superdome were the first targets of the gangbangers. Some Good Samararitan African-Americans managed to protect whites in other parts of the city, though.

[Roy]

26. If what you post is true then, then I think your wrong

when you say gang bangers, my code word alert is activated 'big time'.

But ignoring that, gang bangers as you call them without mentioning who are what gang they are attached to, are not representative of the black community.
These gang bangers (as you so loosely label some faceless people) target anyone with valuable possessions or vulnerabilities having nothing to do with race.
If you and I were in the same place, I think I will be more justified to fear 'your gang bangers', than you.

[brentspeak]

30. What would you prefer I call them?

Am I supposed to be worried about offending members of the gang community? Needless to say, it should be clear that I'm not insinuating that they're representative of black people. But, unfortunately, it had something to do with race:

"Mr McNeil's father, Peter, said his son was with about 60 other foreign tourists who had fled the Superdome.

"People were just staring at them and making suggestions that they were going to kill them."

John's sister Susie said he saw shocking acts of violence amid fierce racial tension in the Superdome.

"It's turned into a black against white thing," she said. "My brother has witnessed murders, stabbings, rapes . . . it's like a Third World country."

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16473521%255E2862,00.html

[Judi Lynn]

34. Interesting you were able to find this article showcasing the experience

of some Australians who were not only in this shared nightmare, but in a foreign land and city. How they were perceiving those around them would have been intensified, and possibly misinterpreted, by the unfamiliarity.

Could you explain this peculiar passage from this Australian article:

The two couples had huddled under a bridge next to the Convention Centre since they were evacuated from their hotel on Monday.

Mr Jones said they were terrified by the violence.

"It's a battle zone. There's shooting, dead bodies in the street," he said, adding they had to steal to survive. "We're looters, like everyone else."
(snip/...)

I'd like to get your esteemed reading of it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I do note, that their remarks seem to depart from anything I've read, seen, or heard from American causasian people stuck in the MEpublican-sponsored (due to _Bush's (MEpublican Congress enacted) severe cuts in repairs and strengthing of the levee system, etc., etc.) American mega-disaster.

It would take a special kind of person to use their summary of what actually happened in New Orleans.

It's also the rare, heartbreaking, soul-wrenching, nightmare-inducing, grief-ridden hell-opening which still can't be mined by intrepid racists for remarks which can be used in their eternal search for legitimacy.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Roy]

36. Your thoughts, so call'em what you want....

The article you linked to did not have a reference to gangs or gang bangers that I saw. so the code word usage seems to be born out. And, this "gang community" is apparently the way in which you wish to see the people there.

Most of the images I saw and hear of from there indicates that there are a lot of people helping other people.

I don't know what these people saw or felt, and the accusations they made seems to be painting broadly and somewhat contradicts some of the officials who are there on the ground and the middle of this disaster.

I'm just wondering why once again someone is saying that are stabbings, rapes, and murders, but it was someone else who witnessed all this.

"My brother has witnessed murders, stabbings, rapes . . . it's like a Third World country."

Law enforcement officials when asked, simply says basically that they have heard of incidents.

Where are the bodies of these murdered and stabbed people? where of the victims of these rapes?

so far, all I have seen is attempts to deflect attention from incompetence, possibly to ward off murder charges due to their benign neglect.

[brentspeak]

38. Here's a couple of more articles that fill the story out

http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0509/02/A01-301624.htm

Nearby, about 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans Convention Center grew ever more hostile after waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead.

Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they went in to check out reports of assaults.

"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-09-02-neworleanspolice_x.htm

n front of the center, the body of an elderly man rests under a blanket in the median. Refugees who now call the sidewalk their home say the man died of illness three days ago.

But despite the grim presence of the body, many prefer being outside on the hot sidewalk to staying inside the filthy convention center where urine stains the carpet and bathrooms long ago overflowed.

"There are bodies in the kitchen, babies (teen-agers) who had their throats slashed," says Joseph. "One is in the cooler."

There's other articles I read yesterday that I can't locate right, one of which would back up my earlier contention that it was members of the black community who protected some of the tourists elsewhere in the city. But hopefully you get the idea that I'm not the one who's writing all this.

[bluedonkey]

32. Her post is true

I heard eyewitness accounts of it.The same gangs fighting each other now,set one of the malls on fire,they're shooting at helicopters and ambulances.NO had a serious gang problem before the hurricane and yes,most of them are black.It's not racism,it's a fact!

[Roy]

37. Again with the third party witnesses.......

This is the sensationlism the news hounds (???) love to run with, but even they are reporting the some say, they say third party lines.

There may be a lot going on, but why is it not being reported directly?

Where are the bodies, where are the people that were directly injured or family members affected by all this lawlessness and killings? Why is every account witnessed by someone other than the person relating the incident?

Any incidents with this big an impact on people already devastated to this degree and so vaguely reported on is highly suspect for me.

[blondeatlast]

33. And of course, we white people, put into the same situation, would

NEVER do the same...

:sarcasm:

[JoFerret]

50. What's your point?

.

[Judi Lynn]

6. So glad to see this illuminated. My God. What could be more blatant?

It's a "MEpublican's" dream. Total freedom to slur (steal honor) without fear of consequences.

This is evil, DU'ers.

[Roy]

8. Yeh, pull'em...... that way we don't have to pull the racism

nt

[donheld]

10. I think it's a bit too late to hide the racism

We've seen that photo, plus many other obvious signs of the racism. The world has seen the true heart of many americans.

[Voltaire99]

13. From Iraq to New Orleans, the truth is inescapable

A people and land once celebrated by Whitman for the heights of its spirit is now revealed as heartless, corroded, dead to human need, but in love with its expensive trinkets and distractions--fiddling while the world burns and drowns.

The project for the US in the 21st century is the reclamation of its heart. Alas it is a long road back from spiritual, intellectual and moral poverty, and no realistic person expects such to happen through our corrupt political system. The culture must respond through those ways and means over which power has no hold.

[Roy]

27. True, very true. And I hope your right.

nt

[rayofreason]

11. Tip of the iceberg

The real story is that all of the elites in NOLA got out, leaving the inner city poor - almost all african-american - to fend for themselves. There was no plan to evacuate, or deal with a total flood scenario, even though they new it was possible. It is the responsiblity of local government (not state, not federal) to prepare for local emergencies. The ruling elites in NOLA failed miserablely because they didn't care about the poor folks who would have no resources to fall back on.

[Vincardog]

12. Right a F5 is a local problem

Please :sarcasm:

[Spazito]

25. Wow, I see the right wing talking point of the day is being spread

far and wide! Congrats for doing your part, too bad it will fail as have all the other pathetic attempts.

[rayofreason]

46. talking point?

Go ahead. Give the city government a pass. I hold the city government accountable for the failure to plan (that must be a right wing thing to do). They put all of those people in the Superdome with no plan to get them out. If you are going to put a pile of people into a shelter you should have a plan to get them out when the shelter becomes untenable. It seems that the city's plan was to have all these folks walk to the Superdome, ride out the storm, then walk back home. Some plan. Meanwhile, there seem to have been plenty of buses around.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

When the levees broke, the (now flooded) buses should have been on hand to quickly load those people up and get them the hell out of there. Instead the buses were nicely lined up where they would be flooded.

[Skittles]

31. it's not just "elites" who go out

it was anyone with the means to get out. I don't consider myself "elite" by a longshot but I would have had the means to get out. You are correct that the poorest of the poor are left with few, if any options. And a lot of people, especially conservatives, and most CERTAINLY the current coccupants of the White House, have a hard time understanding that.

[Up2Late]

14. What total BullSh*t, If anyone should offer a correction, it should be AP

AP is the one that made the prejudicial, racist accusation, AFP gave the people in their picture the benefit of a doubt by not labeling them as Looters.

AP should have issued a correction.

[Pacifist Patriot]

17. Absolutely!

[Mabus]

18. You got it - eom

[tuvor]

19. So why is AFP still captioning pics of black people as "LOOTERS"?!

Looters hit a drug store in the French Quarter district of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina. Fresh floods, fires and looting rode in the destructive wake of Hurricane Katrina, deepening a humanitarian crisis that left hundreds feared dead and sections of New Orleans submerged to the rooftops.(AFP/James Nielsen)

http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050831/photos_wl_afp/050831100019_zhpvj5dd_photo3http://news.yahoo.com/photo/050831/photos_wl_afp/050831100019_zhpvj5dd_photo3

[yardwork]

40. How do we know that woman didn't pay for her items?

This photo was taken in an unflooded section of the French Quarter. The store has signs all over the window saying "open." Her things are in the store bags - do looters bother to bag their items?

The woman in this photo looks like I looked when I bought supplies at one of the few remaining stores open in my area after we had a hurricane, years ago. She looks exactly the same - except that her skin is darker than mine.

Where's the proof that anybody in this photo is looting?

[Up2Late]

44. Does the caption say "THESE looters hit THIS Drug store..." No.

The caption is a true statement, "Looters (DID) hit a drug store in the French Quarter district of New Orleans in New Orleans, Louisiana, following Hurricane Katrina." That is a true statement.

I think it's unfortunate that they put this picture of this woman, carrying food or supplies from what could be an undamaged, possibly open for business store above that caption.

It WAS reported on NPR that the Police were standing outside a Winn-Dixie store, and when witness asked the Police, "So, they are distributing food here?" The Police reportedly said, No, we're not distributing it, but we're not stopping this either.

What should have been the caption? If this actually was a store being "Looted" it should have read something like:

"Thousands of Americans, having been abandoned by their Government to fend for themselves in the Storm Ravaged City of New Orleans, take it upon themselves to collect food items, while they wait to be evacuated, 6 days after the order was issued.

You never know, she might be bringing needed water or medicines to some dieing, Older Americans, trying to save a life.

Or they could be looters, but in America, we are supposed to assume someone is Innocent until PROVEN (in a court of Law) to be guilty.

AND Come On! If they are evacuating this City for 1 to 2 months, if not longer, what would they do with most of this food if it was STILL on the shelves 2 months from now? :shrug:

They would throw most of it away! So why not save a few lives Now?

[TankLV]

45. It's pretty clear - they leave the "assumption" and guide you to their

point - that these people are looters.

Only idiots and repuke apologists refuse to see it.

[kath]

20. Daily Kos shows more photos on this issue - 1 from AFP with "looting"black

people, and one from AP with a white person who "looks through his shopping bag" after emerging from the broken window of a storefront. So clearly BOTH wire services are guilty of this bias.

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/8/30/192236/013/241#241

[Judi Lynn]

29. Thanks for the second set of photos, kath. God! I'm sure you noticed, too,

that the man closer to the store ALSO has NOTHING in his hands which would mean he is NOT stealing.

I deeply appreciate seeing this.

[KansDem]

21. This makes it clear: Whites loot to survive; Blacks survive to loot.

:sarcasm:

[Karenina]

43. THAT is why

a "shoot-to-kill" order has been issued to the "Iraq-hardened NG."

[mvd]

22. How did this ever get past the editors?

More needs to be done than just taking off the photos IMO.

[Roy]

28. Don't be surprised if it is learned this was ordered by the editors

Racism doesn't have social, economic, nor ethnic boundaries.

[JoFerret]

51. They weren't juxtaposed

by the editors (I assume.) Rather they were put together by someone watchful and attentive with an eye for media analysis. Yhe racism is blatant but still could easilky have been unconscious. The photos and their captions come from two sources. Therein lies the rub. If both had said looting ...

[Festivito]

23. On Diane Rehm today, reported AFP photographer said food was floating.

Cannot recall who said it, it was a she. Said she had talked to the photographer and he had said that food was floating in the water, such that the picture was labeled that the food was found.

Interesting ONE: I wonder how food just happens to find itself floating.

Interesting TWO: Amazing that only the WHITE persons' photos are redacted.

[progressivebydesign]

39. Okay. bags of bread would float if they came from a bag or a store.

Not to say this was not racism, but perhaps, if we calm our thinking we might realized that the photographers witnessed the one man looting,and witnessed the other people finding the bread. There is that slim possibility that the phographers in question witnessed the incidents, as they were there to shoot the photos. I think the point in all of this is that this entire situation has become very racially charged, as we all believe that this would not have disintergated into such horror had it been mostly affluent white citizens left behind. I think we can all agree on that.

[NorthernSpy]

47. my gawd, what universe are you living in?

we all believe that this would not have disintergated into such horror had it been mostly affluent white citizens left behind. I think we can all agree on that.

Huh? Pray tell, at just what point did this situation "disintegrate into such horror"? Perhaps 10,000 people are currently floating face-down in stinking flood water. Exactly what new "horror" could possibly overshadow that?

And, "had it been mostly affluent white citizens left behind"? What the hell? One of the chief perks of being an affluent white citizen in America is NOT getting left behind in the face of Destruction.

I think we can all agree on that.

Who the hell is "we"? I'm pretty sure that I want no part of whatever "we" you fancy yourself belonging to.

[Judi Lynn]

48. So glad to see your post. I thought I must be losing it, as the post

you address was so obnoxious I finally assumed I misunderstood it.

I Appreciate your comments.

[Davros]

24. Already Fox News is manipulating reality...

[Judi Lynn]

42. Kick.

:kick: :kick: :kick:

[NNN0LHI]

52. Blatant racism n/t