Black or White: America's perception

[thebullet]

I saw two Associated Press photos on TV tonight, both showing very similar scenes.

The first picture was a young black man wading through chest deep water carrying a six pack of Pepsis. The caption read: "Looter steals goods from grocery store"

The second picture showed two young white people wading through chest deep water carrying six packs of Pepsis. The capture read: "Two residents acquire goods from grocery store"


I kid you not. Welcome to America.

 

[Guest]

Cloudy started a thread about this yesterday -

Here's the link. https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?t=366549

And yes, it's pretty fucked, isn't it?

 

[carsonshepherd]

I saw two Associated Press photos on TV tonight, both showing very similar scenes.

The first picture was a young black man wading through chest deep water carrying a six pack of Pepsis. The caption read: "Looter steals goods from grocery store"

The second picture showed two young white people wading through chest deep water carrying six packs of Pepsis. The capture read: "Two residents acquire goods from grocery store"


I kid you not. Welcome to America.

Fuck.


I've been here all along. For anyone who lives in the south this isn't news.

 

[elsol]

Fuck.


I've been here all along. For anyone who lives in the south this isn't news.

*cough*

*cough*

For anyone of color, this isn't news.

Sincerely,
ElSol

 

[yui]

*cough*

*cough*

For anyone of color, this isn't news.

Sincerely,
ElSol

Yep, they always leave out the yellow girls, too.

 

[carsonshepherd]

*cough*

*cough*

For anyone of color, this isn't news.

Sincerely,
ElSol

I'm pale peach in color, but I know what I see.... Something I will never experience firsthand but only observe

 

[TxRad]

Hey don't look at me.... I'm red and wish all you people would go home...

 

[Svenskaflicka]

It all fits in with the media's "only print a pic of a black man as a criminal of some sort" tradition.

 

[TxRad]

It all fits in with the media's "only print a pic of a black man as a criminal of some sort" tradition.

One story was from AP (looting) AFP (Finding)

 

[rgraham666]

It all fits in with the media's "only print a pic of a black man as a criminal of some sort" tradition.

I'm remembering a book I read many years about a mildly famous magazine publisher.

He was working for a newspaper in the late '50s.

One of the unwritten rules around the paper was 'No niggers can die after 11:00 PM, 9:00 PM on Saturdays.'

Meaning they weren't going to stop the presses for black deaths.

Another rule was that a traffic fatality with a single white death was newsworthy. At least three black people had to die in the same sort of incident to be accorded the same respect.

 

[oggbashan]

How about Sharia (Muslim traditional law) that states that in a court a woman's statement is worth half that of a man's?

Some radical interpreters of Sharia suggest that a woman's statement is only worth a quarter or less and, whatever proportion, is the same as a slave's or non-believer's word i.e. effectively worthless.

Og

 

[Guest]

One story was from AP (looting) AFP (Finding)

I'm not disputing racial inequity in the U.S. Far from it, in fact.

But - I did not realize these pictures were from different sources. Doesn't that change matters? Are we now attempting to compare apples and oranges?

 

[Kassiana]

You are 100 times more likely to get the death penalty, at all levels of the "criminal justice" system, if you kill a white person, rather than a black person. (i.e. the police are more likely to book you, prosecutors more likely to seek death, judge more likely to grant death, jury more likely to go for death, etc.)

Just another fun fact in our racially biased nation!

 

[thebullet]

I heard the other day that something like 90% of all perps that make bail are acquited, while 90% of all perps that don't make bail are convicted.

I'm not sure of those percentages, but the numbers were startling.

It merely confirms that the poor get screwed while the rich get off.

 

[Wildcard Ky]

There are biases in every facet of our life that we usually don't notice.

Something that I think has been a blatant bias is the comparison of media coverage of the flooding of New Orleans versus the damage to smaller towns. New Orleans coverage is 24-7. There are many smaller towns in Louisiana and Mississippi that have been completely wiped off of the map. New Orleans stands under flood waters, some of these towns are gone. Media never even tried to get to these places because they weren't deemed worthy of coverage.

Even this morning the Super Dome and convention center are empty. Releif supplies are literally arriving by the convoy, people that want to go have been evacuated, but all of the focus is still on New Orleans. What about the towns where they're still trying to dig bodies out of the rubble? I guess those don't count as newsworthy because they were only towns of 25,000 people.

There is a definite bias of urban versus rural when it comes to how the media chooses to report news.

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

BBC NEWS

Press dismay at Katrina chaos


Newspapers around the world see Hurricane Katrina's chaotic aftermath as a defining moment for the presidency of George W Bush.

While there is clear sympathy for the disaster's victims, many commentators place the blame for the delayed rescue effort squarely on Mr Bush's administration.


Mexico's El Universal

The slowness with which the USA's federal emergency services have joined the rescue operation has already generated great political tension... There is no doubt that the lack of well-timed responses to assist the population will have political costs for President Bush's Republican Party in the next federal elections.



Colombia's El Colombiano

It is now urgent that the world's leaders take heed of nature's warning, look at the evidence and realise that the climate, on a global scale, is changing. This is already known from scientific reports, but they continue to ignore it, to play it down, or not to care about it.


Argentina's Clarin

Katrina had more than the power of the wind and water, because, now, when they have subsided, it can still reveal the emptiness of an era, one that is represented by President George W Bush more than anyone.


Spain's El Pais

Up until Monday, Bush was the president of the war in Iraq and 9/11. Today there are few doubts that he will also pass into history as the president who didn't know how to prevent the destruction of New Orleans and who abandoned its inhabitants to their fate for days. And the worst is yet to come.


Spain's La Razon

Proving that even the gods are mortal, it is clear that the USA's international image is being damaged in a way that it has never known before. The country will probably be able to recuperate from the destruction, but its pride has already been profoundly wounded.


France's Liberation

Bush had already been slow to react when the World Trade Center collapsed. Four years later, he was no quicker to get the measure of Katrina - a cruel lack of leadership at a time when this second major shock for 21st century America is adding to the crisis of confidence for the world's leading power and to international disorder. As happened with 9/11, the country is displaying its vulnerability to the eyes of the world.


France's Le Progres

Katrina has shown that the emperor has no clothes. The world's superpower is powerless when confronted with nature's fury.


Switzerland's Le Temps

The sea walls would not have burst in New Orleans if the funds meant for strengthening them had not been cut to help the war effort in Iraq and the war on terror... And rescue work would have been more effective if a section of National Guard from the areas affected had not been sent to Baghdad and Kabul... And would George Bush have left his holiday ranch more quickly if the disaster had not first struck the most disadvantaged populations of the black south?


Ireland's The Irish Times

This is a defining moment for Mr Bush, just as much as 9/11 was. So far his reputation for prompt and firm crisis management has fallen far short of what is required.


Saudi Arabia's Saudi Gazette

The episode illustrates that when the normal day-to-day activity of society disintegrates, the collapse of civilisation is only a few paces behind. We all walk on the edge of the abyss.


Musib Na'imi in Iran's Al-Vefagh

About 10,000 US National Guard troops were deployed [in New Orleans] and were granted the authority to fire at and kill whom they wanted, upon the pretext of restoring order. This decision is an indication of the US administration's militarist mentality, which regards killing as the only way to control even its own citizens.


Samih Sa'ab in Lebanon's Al-Nahar

The destruction caused by Hurricane Katrina... has proved that even the No 1 superpower in the world is helpless in facing nature's 'terrorism'.


Pakistan's The Nation

To augment the tragedy, the government of the world's richest nation defied the general expectation that at the first sign of the storm it would muster an armada of ships, boats and helicopters for the rescue operation. For nearly three days it sat smugly apathetic to the people's plight, their need for food, medicine and other basic necessities.


Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po

This disaster is a heavy blow to the United States, and a lesson which deserves deep thought... [It] is a warning to the Bush administration that the United States must clear its head and truly assume its responsibility to protect nature and the environment in which humankind lives.


Hong Kong's South China Morning Post

Even if our money may not be needed, at the least we should be offering moral support. Our skills in dealing with storms may be useful to help Americans prevent other such tragedies. We should be offering this help rather than shrugging off what should be our humanitarian duty.


Ambrose Murunga in Kenya's Daily Nation

My first reaction when television images of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans came through the channels was that the producers must be showing the wrong clip. The images, and even the disproportionately high number of visibly impoverished blacks among the refugees, could easily have been a re-enactment of a scene from the pigeonholed African continent.



BBC Monitoring selects and translates news from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages. It is based in Caversham, UK, and has several bureaus abroad.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/4211320.stm

Published: 2005/09/03 15:18:54 GMT

 

[thebullet]

Saudi Arabia's Saudi Gazette

The episode illustrates that when the normal day-to-day activity of society disintegrates, the collapse of civilisation is only a few paces behind. We all walk on the edge of the abyss.

I was moved by this little analysis, since these were the first thoughts that entered my head as I watched the chaos in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Perhaps I was so angry at the administration's lack of response for the very reason that this disaster opened a window on how close our civilization is to 'the abyss'.

At any time, our structured, tidy, rich society is a few days away from riots, looting, starvation, dehydration, and anarchy. Nothing could have illustrated the truth of that bizarre and frightening fact more thoroughly than the Katrina disaster.

Isn't it now decision time? Don't we have to face the reality that has been thrust so unexpectedly upon us? We face crisis within crisis in the coming years.

The short list:

1) depletion of our oil supply --> all the reputable predictions show that the world's oil sources have reached the limit of their production. For the next few years, perhaps 5-7 years production can stay at the present level, and then it will begin to decline. In the meantime, energy demand continues to rise.

2) global warming ---> If sea level rises 3 feet many of the coastal cities in the world - New York, San Diego, Miami, among just a few in the US - will become New Orleans, living behind dikes, waiting to be flooded.

We're in trouble. We are only a few days from the abyss. Katrina just made it obvious.

 

[shiresa]

Hey don't look at me.... I'm red and wish all you people would go home...

I am home fuck you very much. Generations of my ancestors are buried here. I am told I have some native (bullshit) american blood myself, but what the hell does that matter. should we all jus shoot ourselves in the head and give the world to the cockroaches? (they are much older than humanity ater all)

 

[Virtual_Burlesque]

. . . should we all jus shoot ourselves in the head and give the world to the cockroaches? . . .

At least we will leave behind plenty of video tape for them to figure out what NOT to do, providing, of course, that the cockroaches ever figure out how to run a VCR.

 

[cloudy]

I am home fuck you very much. Generations of my ancestors are buried here. I am told I have some native (bullshit) american blood myself, but what the hell does that matter. should we all jus shoot ourselves in the head and give the world to the cockroaches? (they are much older than humanity ater all)

Someone takes themselves a little too seriously, I think. Lighten up, jerk.

TxRad: Me too.

 

[timmywells]

You are 100 times more likely to get the death penalty, at all levels of the "criminal justice" system, if you kill a white person, rather than a black person. (i.e. the police are more likely to book you, prosecutors more likely to seek death, judge more likely to grant death, jury more likely to go for death, etc.)

Just another fun fact in our racially biased nation!

Getting a tad carried away with the hyperbole here. I'm unsure where those numbers you quote comes from, but in terms of actual executions and murders...

Since 1976 and up to and including last Wednesday, 981 people have been executed in the US.

Over 58% were White. 34% were Black and 6% were Hispanic, this despite those last two racial groups having virtually the same population in this country.

In 2002 a black person was 6 times more likely to be murdered than a white.

In 2002 a black person was 7 times more likely to be a murderer than a white.

In 2002 94% of all black murder victims were murdered by blacks.

Over the last 25 years, roughly 3 times as many whites have been murdered by blacks as blacks by whites. This is not a percentage, these are bodies. Percentage-wise whites outnumber blacks by around 5-1 in the USA. As a total percentage, whites murdering blacks barely registers on the chart in comparison.

Is your point that black people should not be prosecuted, or prosecuted with as much enthusiasm if they kill another black person? THAT sounds racist.

If you want to say that racism exists in this country and probably will forever, I certainly won't dispute that. And certainly economics plays a major factor in prosecution; probably much more so than race these days.

Out of the 981 people executed, I have a hunch that the smallest percentage would be people of wealth and celebrity, regardless of race.

The color of choice in the USA was, is, and likely always will be green.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

At least we will leave behind plenty of video tape for them to figure out what NOT to do, providing, of course, that the cockroaches ever figure out how to run a VCR.

Hey! I may not be a cockroach, but I know damn well how to run a VCR!

I just can't set the clock...

I have a few questions before I dive in here and I would like to think that they might be valid ones. First off, what Wildcard said struck a note with me. It seems to me, and I'm open to be corrected if I'm wrong, that many of the poor live in different areas based on race, and that those areas, and the socialization they offer, are a primary reason for some of the discrimination (often, it seems, leading to those numbers in terms of who's more likely to murder who) our nation suffers from today.

First, these towns that are smaller that were totally wiped out, were the populations primarily black? Around here, it's far more common for blacks, poor or otherwise, to live in more urban areas, poor or not, whereas whites seem to be poor in the outer lying areas. What I mean is, a trailer park around here is often filled with mobile homes owned by whites, whereas the blacks, even those in low-income housing, tend to be more urban based. Basically, if those small towns are primarily white populated, could we see the possibility that those blacks, and the sheer number of them in NO, is why the media is in such a hurry to cover the destruction there? Even if it weren't for the still extreme conditions within the city, do you think the media would be ore likely to cover the city for reasons such as race, and the political unrest it seems to be causing?

Q_C

 

[Kassiana]

I'm unsure where those numbers you quote comes from

--Actual studies of the death penalty's racial bias. Quoted in Sr. Helen Prejean's Dead Man Walking book.

Is your point that black people should not be prosecuted, or prosecuted with as much enthusiasm if they kill another black person?

--No. My point is that our criminal justice system is racially biased at all levels, as ANYONE, black or white, who kills a WHITE person is 100 times more likely to get the death penalty than if ANYONE, black or white, kills a BLACK person in the United States.

I don't know where you get the above statement from. Sounds like maybe some of your biases are coming out here. I'm anti-death penalty period, but pro-life without parole sentences for all murderers, whether they murder black, white, off-white, off-black, red, green, or purple people. I'm against racial biases in our criminal justice system as well. Thanks for imputing racism to me, though.

 

[Quiet_Cool]

--No. My point is that our criminal justice system is racially biased at all levels, as ANYONE, black or white, who kills a WHITE person is 100 times more likely to get the death penalty than if ANYONE, black or white, kills a BLACK person in the United States.

Ah, but is race really the issue in many of those instances? Does anyone have statistics on financial situations of the victims, versus those of the murdurers? How many of these crimes against blacks are being committed when both parties involved are poor, versus how many white victims who are poor? The relations between race and socioeconomic status is still in question here.

Q_C

 

[oOScarletWingsOo]

Interesting

I was just discussing this very issue with my husband this morning.

Welcome to the unbaised nature of the American press.