Heartless racist captions on Yahoo found — Click here to see actual slides.
Yes, I seriously doubt that this gaffe was intentional. But some of these captions — such as a picture of a helpless woman who has done nothing while the caption says she is going to go loot– are unconscionable. All of these pictures are a disgrace. Someone needs to apologize for their publication. The worst part is when white folks are seen coming from a torn open store they are not looting. They are “finding.”
Found by TwelveTwo on Metafilter
UPDATE (9/4) : The “finding” slide has been removed and Yahoo mentioned this in a memo to the public. The still offensive looting pics of people with food remain as far as I can tell. Read the comments for a run-down.
The criminal opportunism that becomes looting in poverty-stricken communities inevitably ends up as a racist caricature — in a nation with a long history of racism. Looting is happening in the lily-white communities in Gulf Coast Mississippi. You’re right. It’s not “reported” to us as looting.
I’ve lived and worked in the stretch from Morgan City, La. to Gulfport, Ms.. Getting pulled over to be checked out by a redneck sheriff — because there are both Black and White folks in the vehicle — isn’t considered racist or profiling. Just SOP. In the dear old Deep South.
Or Chicago. Or you name it.
Great post john. Thanks to you or Tentwelve for taking the screen shots to preserve the evidence too. It’s a disgrace.
Thanks for the update. How a media outlet can be so cluelessly racist is beyond me.
So calling a looter a looter is racist, you should find a white person looting and have a balance???
I am glad Mr. Dvorak (open minded views) are here to guide us, this person is not stealing from the real owner but is only helping the owner relocated to a safer area, such a nice person!
I wonder if Mr. Dvorak’s house is being robbed by a black person he would say it would be racist to call the robber a robber, unless the robber is white then the robber would be a robber. So the only solution is to have a black and a white robber at the same and then you could say “robber”, I guess.
If it walks like a Duck………
America is in decay. Sad to say but true.
Very astute John. This is *right on the money!* (I was put off earlier by your “ga-ga” remarks about Apple fans’ incomprehensible devotion to iPods. IMHO, Apple makes the best hardware + software in the world — AND they have SOUL, too…) After reading this, I would say you have SOUL too, John! I was pleased to discover that.
Thanks for sharing…
Absolutely sickening.
It sure is sad state of affairs. Where are people going to buy groceries, are the stores open?
Will the ‘looters/finders’ have a place to store their groceries? or will they starve because the police are guarding the stores. I bet the groceries stores would be happy to have the food eaten. THey will write it off anyway.
No one had a TV or DVD in any of the photos, Just food.
Gross.
Ronnie, I think your comment here is very ignorant. You have obviously missed the point and regretably made a fool of yourself. The people in these areas are of different backgrounds and even though what they are doing is considered looting, they really have no other choice with help nowhere in sight and the need for food and fresh water is growing. You would be doing the same if you were in their shoes. With the mindset you’ve shown here, I only wonder how you even came by dvorak.org.
What else is new here (America)? You all acted surprised as if you never watched TV?
Check out the Fox network, pickup your local newspapers and watch your local news and after awhile this shouldn’t come as a surprise. And while at it, continue jumping sidewalks as Blackman is walking towards you.
Cheers!
Was looking for that pattern as it happens everytime. That’s sick. Many right wing knuckleheads were complaining that the people that stayed were wasting taxpayer money by having to be rescued, as if they had the money to fly out and stay at some resort. The mean-spirited, racist, anti-poor tone has spread like a virus now that this administration has given license for every crackpot to spew his idiocy. The war veterans I know from real wars are all disgusted by the fascism and hijacking/destruction of the USA, while at the same time getting their benefits cut the majority of the time. Wait until these Iraq soldiers come back. Everyone talks a good game about supporting the troops, but sporting a stick on ribbon on your car is phoney. You support them by NOT supporting this administration of draft dodger’s disregard for people brave enough to fight. All you arm-chair generals, go enlist you chicken shits!
I noticed that most of the articles are from the AP the one that uses the word finders is not. If the AP article used the word finders I would be more suspect of racisim. Unless I’m wrong in some way and the same people wrote all of them.
ronnie, next time take the time to actually READ the comment and the link!
“you should find a white person looting and have a balance?”
Yahoo DID find a white couple who were looting. However, the white couple were not called looters, they were called residents. And the activity they were doing was not called looting, they were finding.
So to put it simply, it’s implicit that black people are not “residents.” And furthermore, when black people go into a store and take food, they’re criminals. But when white people do it, they’re only being resourceful.
One of the blue light special shoppers shot a cop in the head.
Don’t get me wrong here, the press are scumbags that need to be taken out and bitch slapped, however, the “Finders” caption could very well have been people “Finding” soda and bread floating in the water. Now, would I eat bread that was floating in flood water. Probably not. But I get the feeling that this was what the caption meant.
Now, if you want to talk about scumbag press people. I turned on my TV to see CNN Headline News covering the aftermath on their entertainment hour (I forget the name). They were talking about the reporters covering different stories. They showed in interview with a man and two children. The man was talking about how his house was split in two. His wive was swept away in the waters and he didn’t know where she was. Truly a touching story. However the scumbag talking head started talking about how “harrowing” ther reporters were covering these stories. I almost jumped through the TV screen to try to throttle the idiot!
The press just keep lowering them selves over and over again!
Yes the comments may seem racist but keep in mind there’s a pretty good argument for people taking necessities like bread water or milk for children, but exactly why does that guy need beer? I think the concern or disgust people have with that picture isn’t about him being black but the fact that with all the tragedy going on he choose to steal beer.
The Disgrace is that every one reading this is only looking at the headline and not at the picture, what the hell does he need beer for, it’s not a necessitiy, at least there taking something they might actually need. Let’s face it evything there will probibly be going to waste so people should take what they need to survive. Last time i checked NO ONE every needed Beer to survive.
“finding/looting” food and necessary items….isn’t the issue, though, it’s breaking into stores that sell jewelery, leather clothing, etc. that gets old fast. When it jumps from need to greed…that is what is so pathetic about this situation. Human nature is UGLY when mass chaos becomes the status quo..
Sure, a looter is a looter. Doesn’t matter if they’re black or white. The fact that OUR PRESS seems to think it’s okay to identify a BLACK as a looter, but call a white looter something else….is pathetic.
Anyway….if I were there, and thirsty, and hungry, and all the stores were under a few feet of water….I think I’d liberate some things, as well. It’s not like the big corporate chain stores are going to salvage anything. They’ll write it off, destroy it, and restock.
If you lived in the NO area, and are capable of walking through waist deep water and carry objects, and you did not leave with the 24 hours of notice you received, then being a looter is not the poblem, being an absolute idiot is the issue.
As somone that grew up in the Gulf Coast I can say that 90% of the poor in the area are black. Since 99% of the looting is done by the lower class, then you can bet a majority of those will be black given the demographics of the area. So showing 50% white and 50% black looters isn’t a fair representation of what’s happening down there.
That said it doesn’t matter if your’re white or black, if you’re looting your’e a “looter” and the media should report it as such. Don’t call it “finding” that just made me sick.
I think some people don’t realize that these people are hungry. They have just lost everything. They can’t just run down to McDonalds. There is no more McDonalds! THERE IS NO PLACE TO BUY FOOD. They have to survive somehow until help comes.
Blah, too much coverage on looting. Romans looted Rome while it burned. It’s a group thing. Once you watch several other people haul things off, you say what the heck, especially if it’s food or something you really need. There’s aways criminals around. Do expect them to be anything but themselves if the opportunity presents itself?
Dave M., READ THE F-ING link. It’s perfectly clear that the white couple were also looting: “Two residents wad through chest-deep water after finding bread and soad FROM A LOCAL GROCERY STORE…” They didn’t find it floating. They didn’t find it on the ground. They didn’t find it in a tree. They friggin’ stole it!
Everyone commenting is freaking out one way or the other, but did any of you notice that all the screen shots in which the people are referred to as looters are from the AP and the one shot with the “finders” is from the AFP (Agence France-Presse). The AP is not the AFP. I would imagine that Yahoo just used the text supplied by both agencies. And really they are not a news agency, just an aggregator. And it’s probably the AP’s style to call people looters and the AFP’s style to call people finders. Simple as that. Yahoo is not racist. And the AP and AFP are probably not either.
If you are still looking for controversy then consider the fact that the AFP is French and they didn’t call Americans looters, but the AP did.
I feel bad for all of the people suffering from the devastation, but if you look closely in that first photo, the man is clearly carrying a plastic tub full of bottled beer. It doesn’t appear he is “finding” food, but rather helping himself to a bevy of alcoholic beverages. I’m sure all of the people trapped in that mess would like nothing more than to toss back of no-longer cold ones and forget for a while, but the truth is these people should have gotten out of the area– not linger and loot.. And should their drunken asses needed to be rescued, are they going to be sober enough to help the person risking their life to save them or are they going to complicate the matter? It’s not always “black and white.”
You are jumpping to conclusions as well. One can imagine that the caption relfects the observations of the photographer before/after the shot was taken. The caption isn’t just tacked on afterwards willy nilly. The text serves to put the shot into context. The fact that most of the looters are black reflects the population in the area, not racism.
Basically it’s not the fact that they are calling it “looting”… it’s that in ALL the pictures with the black folks it’s called “looting” and the last picture with the white couple it was called “found”.
That’s what I noticed.
Fish you are right about the examples that Dvaorak in his wisdom choose to show, but there are Hundreds and Hundreds of pictures he picked only a few.
Looters are Looters white, black, red, green whatever, and yes I can understand when they take food and water, maybe. But if you looked through all the pictures looters, mostly black (because it is New Orleans which is mostly Black) but also some whites where taking TV’s, Radio, Stereos, Furniture etc…….
And Micheal is right if you stayed (unless unable to leave because health etc..) in NO then being a looter is not the problem “being an absolute idiot is the issue.”
I wonder if the cop that was shot thinks that they are looters…
Let’s see, the city told people to get out of New Orleans before the storm and if they could not on their own take a free bus ride to some shelters, one being the Superdome. On the most part the people chose to be in the situation they were in as they were warned many times.
I understand there may have been a few that could not make it out before the storm but from what I have seen on the news these people are wading through waist deep high water with little or no problems when they could have done some walking on dry pavement before the storm hit.
If correct there were about 12,000 that finally came to the Superdome before Katrina hit and most of those were black and they are not looters they used common sense.