Why are the deaths of black people not as moving as others?

[bermudat]

Millions have died in Africa, even African children, but the response is not the same. Somehow it seems 'more poignant' when any other race dies.



<http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/mediamix/2005-01-05-media-mix_x.htm>
<snip>

CNN's Anderson Cooper talked Wednesday to Buddhists who were in a temple in Sri Lanka when the wave struck. It killed 50 of 59 people inside, including 15 children.

"This is not starvation like in Somalia with people dropping dead on the side of the road, or Rwanda with neighbor killing neighbor," says Cooper, who covered both of those stories. "This is a much more personal story. Block after block, house after house, village by village are personal stories of loss. Just about everyone you talk to has lost someone.

<snip>

[bobweaver]

1. It's racism, which is a subset of classism. Anybody who is not part of the

ruling class "doesn't really matter," and that includes members of different races. The ruling class will never, ever admit this, but it is true.

[UdoKier]

2. Slow inexorable death due to war & starvation compared to sudden death

by tsunami.

Most Americans probably think of the asians that died as "brown people" too. And don't forget that America completely ignored the genocide of hundreds of thousands of E. Timorese at the hands of the fascist Indonesian government for decades. It's not like Africans have a monopoly on having their suffering ignored by the west.

But Cooper's comments are typical for him. Clueless, shallow, and slightly bigoted.

[LiberalVoice]

3. A quote from a scene in "Hotel Rwanda"

"You're dirt. We think you're dirt, Paul ... The West, all the superpowers ... They think you're dirt. They think you're dung ... You're not even a nigger. You're African."

[Mistress Quickly]

4. With the tsunami

it was BAM suddenly thousands and thousands of people are dead.

In Africa, at least pertaining to America, we became aware of the problem in the 80's, money was raised, events held, and such, but people's attention moved them on.

I mean, how long did you expect them to care that thousands and thousands of Africans were dying everyday from disease and malnutrition? I mean, it's just how it is 'over there', right? /sarcasm

That's my $.02

[roguevalley]

5. I don't know. I consider them all terrible. Sudan is going to be

such a terrible mark against us all.

[neweurope]

6. It's racism. And racism is in us all. The Red Cross once did a test:

They asked people to give money with a picture that showed a "white", a "yellow", a "red" and a "black" child.

Then they ran the same ad again but this time with a picture of only the "white", the "red" and the "yellow" child. Without the "black" child they got much more money...


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Remember Fallujah!

Bush to The Hague

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

7. Geez...

First off, let's take a look at the title of the article:

"Grim story takes its toll on veteran journalists"

So... approx. 150,000 journalists were killed in the disaster? :)

I've re-read Cooper's comments about six times now, and I still don't get how this is somehow more "personal" than a famine or a war.

[SoCalDem]

12. The reporting has now morphed into how it's affecting the JOURNALISTS

and of course we have the pedophile angle to "spice" it up...After a few days, the faces of suffering people "just don't pack the punch", so it HAS to be about the people we "know and love"----the Journos:puke:

They are conveniently holed up in the 5 star hotels that were somehow spared from the destruction. They have bottled water, people to do their laundry, they have safe food and a clean place to sleep, BUT because they are THERE, and we "know" them, the worry-factor is about THEM now :grr:

"How you holdin' up"
"Aren't YOU afraid to touch that disease-ridden dog"?
"Are YOU having nightmares"?
"Isn't it DIFFICULT for you to be there"?

This is ALWAYS the way it is though, the "reporters" do not speak the language, know the customs or understand the culture. They are just rich westerners toting cameras and pointing them at people who now have lost the only thing they had left.....their dignity:cry:

[Solly Mack]

8. Because way too many white people think other white people dying

is more tragic. That it deserves worldwide notice. That their deaths are ever so much more important.

Yeah, I could have simply typed "racism", but spelling it out drives the point home ever so much better, don't you think?

The covering of "brown" people over "black" people works the same way.

See, brown isn't black.

Also, some white folks can feel bad about brown people dying in a natural disaster because "they weren't killing each other like animals" (which is what I heard a real idiot say about Rwanda and why he didn't care)

Cooper is selling story. A story that should sell itself simply because of the human toll. And had it been majority white people dying, he never would have interjected the comparions with Africa.

But because America is such a racists country..and it is...he has to explain why the tsunami victims were more deserving of coverage and more tragic than deaths of black people.

[One_Life_To_Give]

9. Movies

White Female - Helpless
White Male - Hero

Non-White Female - Takes care of Herself
Non_White Male - Villain

[neweurope]

10. Applause! Absolutely right. But these movie stereotypes are only

so successful because we ARE racists at heart. I even remember having read some scientific studies about it. Not only humans but even animals seem to be racist. Only education and/or compassion/religion - enlightenment - can overcome this inbred racism.

[American Tragedy]

11. I had a chihuahua that apparently disliked black people

Really, really embarrassing. I never understood it. The dog would snarl and howl whenever he came in contact with a dark complected individual.

[neweurope]

14. I was married once to a black person. It is always said that children

see no difference. Well, my little niece, then three - being Germans all of us are white - was scared to death of him the first year. And it really had nothing to do with her upbringing because my sister and her husband didn't see a difference themselves at all. Speak of embarrassing... !

[BonjourUSA]

13. Tsunami killed people in Kenya and Somalia... Who is speaking about ?

No comment

[JI7]

15. Westerners,Australians visit these Asian places a lot

for vacation or even to live for a few months or years. they know the destroyed areas. they have seen how things were before. they saw the native people who work and live their lives there. so when they see the destruction and dead they think of how things were before. they see the dead and think of how the it includes people they have seen and known while in that area. they see the dead kids and they think of how those kids would play around there. also, Whites are among the dead also.

when it comes to Africa and especially those areas where people have been dying because of war,hunger,disease etc for years they don't have a direct knowledge of the place. most of them have never been there themselves. they see those areas as just how things are. not places they have gone to for vacations and a good time.

when Anderson Cooper says in the quote you post "This is a much more personal story" it probably is , for HIM.

as someone else said, the Tsunami has also killed people in Africa. why haven't we heard much about that or seen any of it ?