On Looting in Haiti and New Orleans

There is an institutionalized racism in the way these poor black disaster victims are treated. The victims of Katrina were treated with so much presumption, as if you could assume they were going to loot, because they were black. Just like we know that the people in Haiti are bad because they’re black.

And:

When the media reports on disasters, they’re inevitably going to focus on the dramatic and antisocial, even if it’s one percent of the population committing these acts. And even back then, the looting myth always came to the fore of media reports.

The Looting Lie from CampusProgress.org. (Via misterjt)

Also see:

• Stop calling quake victims looters (via Liz)
• dear newscasters: just because haitians are black doesn’t mean the situation is or should be compared to hurricane katrina. just sayin’ (FriendFeed.com Thread)

Previously: On Haiti, Part 3 and Post-Katrina New Orleans, Part 1