This is interesting! Take a look at how these two seemingly IDENTICAL situations are described VERY differently by the press:
Perhaps the journalist knew something we didn’t- perhaps not. It’s still interesting.
ABEV: a bird’s eye view
An overly eclectic, likely inconsequent[ial], and blatantly fo[w]l blog on life, family, literature, law, and religion.
I commented on this photo where it was posted on Flickr. These are two different photos, taken by different photographers, from different countries, at different times. There is no way to draw a definitive conclusion regarding their respective intentions.
Posted by CJ
Very interesting. It’s amazing how the press can tweak a few words and totally change one’s perspective of the situation.
Posted by David H. Sundwall
CJ, I am a little confused by your comment.
Posted by john fowles
That may well be, CJ, but I still find it very interesting. If it’s not blatant racism, it’s at least a great exercise in how the way things are reported can change our perception.
Posted by Jordan
Jordan,
In my commment I merely meant to point out that the photos alone are not sufficient to give us any true understanding as to what happened in the two scenarios. It’s entirely possible that the captions are 100% accurate, or that they’re 100% inaccurate. Making any insinuations whatsoever of racism or bias (conscious or unconscious) is presumptuous.
Posted by CJ
This post has been removed by the author.
C’est vrai. That’s why I was careful to point out that they were “seemingly identical” situations.
Posted by Jordan
Fair enough. I just wanted to note that we shouldn’t assume anything specific or conclusive, given that what data we have to work with is far from complete. It’s entirely possible that what is mentioned is what happened, or vice versa.
Posted by CJ
What is interesting is not the black/white but the difference in different shades of skin. As has been noted, the areas the storm hit were from 67% to 90% black — so that blacks are going to dominate any group of pictures.
Sigh. We need to care for those amoung us, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.
Posted by Stephen M (Ethesis)
I would say that my daughter’s best friend is black, and she gets a vastly different level of treatment than my blond haired, company sweetheart, rifle team commander daughter.
The photographer who wrote the captions explained his rationale on a journalism website, It made sense after he did that.
Below from Poynter.org, (poynter is a well known and respected organization that promoted ethics in media)
“Chris Graythen wrote the caption for his photo of two hurricane survivors with bread and soda. “I believed in my opinion, that they did simply find them, and not ‘looted’ them in the definition of the word,” he writes. “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 – we 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.””
Posted by porter rockwell
You may want to check your image Jordan.
Posted by Kim Siever–>