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.
“I have no idea who wrote these captions but I suspect it was the photo agencies”
Uhh, The Associated Press, maybe? Except the one by AFP (Agence France Wi Wi Whatever). Are you all just now seeing the flaws of the Media???
Oh man, this is the best thing I’ve seen during this whole tragedy. HA! So funny.
I would definetly say that there is a difference between “Looting” and “Surviving”. The man in the first pic is UNQUESTIONABLY looting. With what standards does one live by when beer of all things is a survival item? Is he trying to drink away his sorrows? A lot of good it’ll do him. The other photos show people towing garbage bags through the water, saying nothing about the contents. One couldn’t accurately say that they were looting or surviving. The picture depicting the two white people labeled as “finders” indicates that they have BREAD and SODA. Granted, soda isn’t the healthiest choice, but it is in a sealed container, and therefore, probably safe in the waters. There are undoubtedly other pictures that depict white people as “looters” as well, but we didn’t bother to look for any of those now did we? All we needed was enough to make the point that we wanted to convey. If you’re taking a plasma TV, you’re looting. If you’re taking FOOD AND DRINK, you’re surviving.
AS MUCH EQUALITY AS AMERICAN SOCIETY AFFORDES AFRICAN AMERICANS AND OTHER MINORITYS, THE AFRICAN AMERICANS ARE ALWAYS, AND I MEAN ALWAYS QUICK TO PLAY THE RACE CARD. SLAVERY IS OVER. SEGREGATION IS OVER. IT’S TIME TO LIVE IN TODAY. YOU CAN’T SEE TOMORROW, IF YOU’RE STILL LIVING IN YESTERDAY.
You have a valid point. The editors (if there were any) did a very poor job here. I don’t see how they can refer to the white people as “finding” food and the black people as “looting” it. That IS pathetic. But I can’t give you credit for the first pic. That’s BEER, Not FOOD he’s taking there. Since BEER is not necessary to our survival, I call that looting.
That first statement was just idiotic. I completely agree with the “looting” of food and water but that’s it. We all know people of all races took what was needed in these times. But I also know for a fact that people of all races LOOTED my place of business. You don’t see me bitching and complaining about it, i’m doing what I need to get on with things. All ya’ll care about is damn racism and it’s ashame. There are so many good people in this city, and there are very few who are responsible for giving New Orleans such a bad name. So instead of worrying about the image and perception of your race, why don’t you focus your attention on doing your part to make things better. Who knows maybe that will get published somewhere showing a black person doing some good, that would go a long way in helping the perception of African Americans in New Orleans. If everyone did a little good on their part instead of worrying about how they are perceived, this city would be a hell of a lot better place than it was before this disaster happened.
You want an image of a REAL looter?
http://www.thecobraslair.com/images/PAUL-BREMER-IRAQ-NAT.gif
To the tune of Billions…..but that’s apparently fine with many conservatives.
–Cobra
this site is race-baiting. it is obvious that AFP calls all people in this situation ‘finders’, while those other media call all people in this situation ‘looters’. people who are so quick to condemn a whole nation based on their ignorant misinterpretations of the facts are the real issue.
if you can find an example of the same organization applying some kind of double-standard, you can make a point, but until then it is clear that you have a prejudice about the united states and try to force fit everything to fit your hateful and twisted attitudes. if you hate the usa, get lost already!
The first black man in your series was clearly a looter.
He looted “beer”. Your comment about him doing it to “survive” is a crock of narrow minded race bashing because other “whites” actually took food products.
I could troll the net all day and I get you I could find some class act black rapper talking smack about killing whites and nailing their ho’s and compare them to a wholesome white collar rock band talking about meeting a girl and getting married.
Slap them side by side and I too could condem the music industry as being plagued by racist, violent blacks.
The reason I do not is it would be an unfair misrepresentation of the truth. An unfair misrepresentation somewhat akin to YOUR perverted attempts to inflame the south into another race war by condeming the labeling of a LOOTER stealing beers.
Finally how you read CONTEXT of a story from a photo is beyond me. The simple fact of the matter is those black could have been witnessed by the photgrapher as actually stealing the goods in question, while the whites where photographed simply with the goods and the photographer not being aware of their source.
The “looter” / “finder” captions COULD be the truth. But instead of you thinking along those lines you squeel “racist” media.
http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/looters.asp
You brough NOTHING to the race debate but your OWN personal hang-ups. Seek help for your own race issues, or at least at a minimum an education of the facts at hand.
Taikun is Bill O’Reilly in disguise. FACT.
having lived through “Andrew” in 1992, I have no problem with people taking whatever they can get. I do however fail to see where beer is a necessity and why this fellow did not grab some water, soda, cans of juice, baby formula (thinking of others)? That being said, having lived through “Andrew” in 1992 I have no problem with anyone taking beer!
believe me you need it! it was absolutely ludicrous that the headlines would be changed for skin color but “having lived through Andrew” in 1992, living in Homestead, riding the storm out in Country Walk, unfortunately the most looting were young african americans, those unprepared and then unrestrained.
I see that you have many photos for the “Looters” and only one for the “Finders”. It isn’t enough evidence to support your theory.
I know the white people… They’re homeless kids in New Orleans. My good friends actually…. They’re poor, too. haha… So many associated this picture with racism. The comments were probably just written by 2 different people or something. Who cares?
The Getty/AFP photographer was a man named Chris Graythen. He had this to say about the captioning of the picture of the white finders:
“I wrote the caption about the two people who ‘found’ the items. I believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not ‘looted’ them in the definition of the word. The people were swimming in chest deep water, and there were other people in the water, both white and black. I looked for the best picture. There were a million items floating in the water were right near a grocery store that had 5+ feet of water in it. It had no doors. the water was moving, and the stuff was floating away. These people were not ducking into a store and busting down windows to get electronics. They picked up bread and cokes that were floating in the water. They would have floated away anyhow. ”
It seems that the whites in the picture did in face find the item while the blacks in the picture were in fact seen taking items from store shelves. Just another case of liberal egalitarians having their “systemic racism” fantasies shattered by real differences in behavior between the races.
yes, blacks loot and water is wet. Big surprise.
The white “finders”, were they also on their roofs shooting at rescue helicopters, or was that the blacks?