New Orleans Reporting

[Anoushik]

As the resident expert on sevs (I live in the hood - east Bakersfield), I unfortunately have to agree that much of this awful behavior you've witnessed on TV is a cultural trait.

 

If we ever had something of that magnatude occur here I can promise you they wouldn't behave any better.

 

The only difference is they would want me as their leader.

 

Think I'm kidding???

 

Here is a picture of my next door neighbors.

 

http://xtremefight.com/images/sevs.jpg

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Please, what's wrong with them? What's wrong with you?

[Anoushik]

Under NO circumstances could I EVER picture them behaving in such a primitive and savage manner. (just calling it what it is - primitive and savage)

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Not everyone's behavior was like that. That's one of the problems in this great tragedy, generalizing and accusing without really knowing what happened. What about the government? It wasn't savage to lock these people up for days without any food, water, conditioning, toilets... It wasn't savage and primitive to send help in looking for survivors stuck on the roofs for days?

[Anoushik]

And as far as the whole 'poverty' conundrum everyone mindlessly spits, who is to blame? The 'racist society' I presume? As far as these peoples' condition in the socioeconomic ladder, they have no one to blame but themselves, I'm sorry.

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We have to be able to put ourselves into other people's shoes. That's the only way we will ever understand other human beings and the choices they make.

[phantom22]

I can assure you that in the event of a natural disaster where they would be required to evacuate, the residents of the upscale Black neighborhood of Baldwin Hills, LA would pack a few necessities in their Mercedes or BMW and peacefully drive to some Hilton Hotel in a safe zone.

 

Being in poverty for generations creates a mind warp.

Edited September 8, 2005 by phantom22

[Anonymouse]

I can assure you that in the event of a natural disaster where they would be required to evacuate, the residents of the upscale Black neighborhood of Baldwin Hills, LA would pack a few necessities in their Mercedes or BMW and peacefully drive to some Hilton Hotel in a safe zone.

 

Being in poverty for generations creates a mind warp.

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Yea, that's why you didn't hear any reports of those poor Asians after the tsunami, looting, raping or shooting others, or for that matter those poor Hispanics in Central America after hurricane Mitch, or for that matter the thousands of Hispanics at New Orleans who survived this.

[armjan]

Yea, that's why you didn't hear any reports of those poor Asians after the tsunami, looting, raping or shooting others,

i heard of rapes at makeshift places where survivors gathered and other criminal activity like kidnapping children.

 

 

Hispanics at New Orleans who survived this.

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I specifically saw 3 hispanics on a 1000 to 1 camera shot of them looting a tv store and carrying it on their backs.

 

Have you considered the reason why a lot of poor ppl were left behind is b/c they didn't have a freakin car to go out with and/or resources to stay.

Most have credit cards they can use, but if you got nothing to spend, then why not stay behind to the only thing you have left.

 

You have to think like a poor person then maybe you'll understand why they stayed behind.

 

and phantom22, that comment about the rich, yes, ofcourse that's how things work out. Shit flows downwards in life. what's the surprise, you see class inequalities in our everyday lives man! I mean, everytime I come to glendale, I see those cool rabiz guys sitting in decked out benzos & beamers, I am reminded of these class differences. I can't afford to sit in those cars and not worry about car payments!

Edited September 9, 2005 by armjan

[DominO123]

Some will even use tragic occasions like this to expose their primitive ignorant racism.

 

Only black traits? Well, only US media will tape people stealing shops, and report crimes that are happening, while other medias will ignore those and concentrate on human tragedy... , repeat: US media wasting time on crimes when a city is drown is enough evidences of Black "inferiority" for some hate mongering morons.

 

Tsunami? How the hell during such a tragedy, could any news agency report stealing of shops or few rapes or killing, when tens of thousands, of people just died there... And again I repeat, ...

 

... The thing this shows, is not that Blacks have primitive "sub-humain" behavours, but rather, while elsewhere in the world, when such crimes happen, media reporting concentrate on the tragedy, while in the US..., they still think of sensationalist coverage of shop stealing.

[Azat]

Yea, that's why you didn't hear any reports of those poor Asians after the tsunami, looting, raping or shooting others, or for that matter those poor Hispanics in Central America after hurricane Mitch, or for that matter the thousands of Hispanics at New Orleans who survived this.

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Cant comment about Mitch or the Asians but I can tell you that there were MANY Hispanics that were looting in New Orleans(Have seen many shots) and less than 10% of the population is Hispanic in New Orleans with 60% Black and FOR SURE they were MAJOR looters during the King fiasco in LA. Blacks were setting buildings on fire but Hispanics were looting big time

[vava]

... The thing this shows, is not that Blacks have primitive "sub-humain" behavours, but rather, while elsewhere in the world, when such crimes happen, media reporting concentrate on the tragedy, while in the US..., they still think of sensationalist coverage of shop stealing.

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100% agreed.

[ED]

100% agreed.

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and,

 

what is a few looting compars to what rich and powerfull get away with in this coutry? now bush is going to invastigate himself, again?.......I'm sick of watching this administration get away with murder every time when they are cought,

 

did you know no matter when how or who you are, even if you have a malibu ocean front home like so many filty rich, FIMA will compansate you up to 200K for your loses? talk about buracracy,

have we heard from oil companies yet?

wile nation suffers gas prices are going up and up every day and there profits amont to 8 BILLON for a quarter, and talk is (allready) be ready for even higher prices in this winter...as john would say.....GIVE ME A FREaKING BREAK.

Thank god bush has dispached good old dick cheney to the disaster zone!????

 

soon look for intance coverage from Iraq to divert attantion from New Orleans,

[Azat]

Ed I think the 200K limit has been lifted. And it is not just Malibu. ANY home that cannot be insured(as in insurance companies would not do it for a reasonable price because it is too risky) the government will pay for it completely now

[Anoushik]

Only black traits? Well, only US media will tape people stealing shops, and report crimes that are happening, while other medias will ignore those and concentrate on human tragedy... ,  repeat: US media wasting time on crimes when a city is drown is enough evidences of Black "inferiority" for some hate mongering morons.

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Very well said, Domino.

 

And what is this about looting? Most media said that people were stealing food. It's not looting. It's survival. During the 1988 earthquake in Leninakan, my mom says that she was one of the people who suggested breaking into the bread stores to get bulki and such to us kids. Granted, it was just food. She says that after the disaster a couple of women were prosecuted for breaking into jewelry stores and stealing jewelry.

 

Most of the images shown to us as looting were of people carrying food. It's ridiculous to concentrate so much on that issue.

[Accelerated]

I dont know about Mitch, but I know this much about the tsunami in Asia: The rebels in both Aceh Province (Indonesia) and Sri Lanka (Tamil Tigers) declared an immediate ceasefire to allow for aid to move freely, foreign agencies were invited and encouraged to enter the effected areas with no danger to their safety and there was no buildup of additional military/police forces.

[Anonymouse]

Oh those poor blacks, it was a tragedy and they were stealing to survive. What did they steal? Some essentially vital things such as electronics!

[vava]

Oh those poor blacks, it was a tragedy and they were stealing to survive. What did they steal? Some essentially vital things such as electronics!

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I think those were isolated cases - and it's not JUST a "black" trait (as you put it) as similar has happened elsewhere - even in Armenia!

[DominO123]

I dont know about Mitch, but I know this much about the tsunami in Asia: The rebels in both Aceh Province (Indonesia) and Sri Lanka (Tamil Tigers) declared an immediate ceasefire to allow for aid to move freely, foreign agencies were invited and encouraged to enter the effected areas with no danger to their safety and there was no buildup of additional military/police forces.

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Rebels have some form of organizations,... individual crimes not. This is entire another issue.

[MosJan]

U.S. THANKED ARMENIA FOR HELP

 

09.09.2005 07:51

 

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ The statement issued by the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan says, “The U.S. Embassy, on behalf of the American people and the U.S. Government, would like to express its heart-felt gratitude for Armenia’s generous donation of $200,000 to Hurricane Katrina relief efforts. The American people are touched and deeply grateful for the generous offers of help we have received from the Armenian Government, and from governments, individuals, and private organizations around the world."

 

<!> Reproduction in full or in part is prohibited without reference to "PanARMENIAN.Net"

[Azat]

AMGA.TV collected 100K the other day on TV.

[Anonymouse]

I think those were isolated cases - and it's not JUST a "black" trait (as you put it) as similar has happened elsewhere - even in Armenia!

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We are talking about degrees, not kinds.

[Azat]

el shat glux tsavatsretsik

[Armat]

Here is an interesting eye witness account slide show.I specially like his take on reporters

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?...&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1

[armjan]

Here is an interesting eye witness account slide show.I specially like his take on reporters

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?...&Uy=nyvoby&Ux=1

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Instead of trying to write back that it's not a black, its a circumstance thing,

i want to just say wow, what a great avtar Armat.

 

Anony would probably say that the reason the white chick got hit was b/c the runner was black

Edited September 10, 2005 by armjan

[Vayri7X]

Shut up , indeed , little man. I'll repost this for you to think of , you Ayn Rand worshipping, masturbatory, cowardly misanthrope. Your teeming intellect is not quite so sharp as you rehash the most stupid of white American stereotypes. If your quasi-libertarian drivel were even framed to assert anything but the most tired of stereotypes , I would bother, you wanna be anarchist ( more like a Rayndian, suburban-spewed, myopic right-libertarian navel-gazing cornocopia of kak) . However, I have yet another wake and funeral to tend to. And then it is off to a benefit for the vicitms of Katrina and the lived implications of your drivel.

 

And you note the fault of the government. I concur, but see that you yourself are only rehashing your own views, as you have claimed anarchist in the past. But seriously, give it up and join your buddies the neo-cons; they are masters at blaming the victims. Moreover, where do you live that you spout this drivvel so freely? Step up, little boy, and come to my neck of the woods to say that. Drop by Oak Cliff when you stop through Dallas;-). Do not reply to me. I got no time for you. K__em ko hokey !

 

 

by Tim Wise

 

Sometimes it can be difficult, having a conversation with those whose political views are so diametrically opposed to one's own.

 

But even more challenging, is having a discussion with someone who simply refuses to accept even the most basic elements of your worldview. At that point, disagreement is less about the specifics of one or another policy option, and more about the nature of social reality itself.

 

This is what it can be like sometimes, when trying to discuss the issue of white privilege with white people. Despite being an obvious institutionalized phenomenon to people of color and even some of us white folks, white privilege is typically denied, and strongly, by most of us.....

 

To truly understand a nation, a culture, or its people, it helps to know what they take for granted.

 

After all, sometimes the things that go unspoken are more powerful than the spoken word, if for no other reason than the tendency of unspoken assumptions to reinforce core ways of thinking, feeling and acting, without ever having to be verbalized (and thus subjected to challenge) at all.

 

What's more, when people take certain things for granted, anything that goes against the grain of what they perceive as "normal" will tend to stand out like a sore thumb, and invite a hostility that seems reasonable, at least to those dispensing it, precisely because their unspoken assumptions have gone uninterrogated for so long.

 

Thus, every February I encounter people who are apoplectic at the thought of Black History Month, and who insist with no sense of irony or misgiving that there should be no such thing, since, after all, there is no White History Month--a position to which they can only adhere because they have taken for granted that "American history" as told to them previously was comprehensive and accurate, as opposed to being largely the particular history of the dominant group.

 

In other words, the normalcy of the white narrative, which has rendered every month since they popped out of their momma's wombs White History Month, escapes them, and makes the efforts of multiculturalists seem to be the unique break with an otherwise neutral color-blindness.

 

Sorta' like those who e-mail me on a semi-regular basis to insist, as if they have just stumbled upon a truth of unparalleled profundity, that there should be an Ivory Magazine to balance out Ebony, or that we need a White Entertainment Television network to balance out BET, or a NAAWP to balance out the NAACP.

 

Again, these dear souls ignore what is obvious to virtually all persons of color but which remains unseen by those whose reality gets to be viewed as the norm: namely, that there are already two Ivory Magazines--Vogue and Cosmopolitan; that there are several WETs, which just so happen to go by the names of CBS, NBC and ABC; and that the Fortune 500, U.S. Congress and Fraternal Orders of Police are all doing a pretty good job holding it down for us white folks on the organizational front. Just because the norm is not racially-named, doesn't mean it isn't racialized.

 

Likewise the ongoing backlash against affirmative action, by those who seem to believe that opportunity would truly be equal in the absence of these presumably unjust efforts to ensure access to jobs and higher education for persons of color.

 

We are to believe that before affirmative action things were fine, and that were such efforts abolished now, things would return to this utopic state of affairs: to hell with the persistent evidence that people of color continue to face discrimination in employment, housing, education and all other institutional settings in the U.S.

 

So if the University of Michigan gives applicants of color twenty points on a 150-point admission scale, so as to promote racial diversity and balance out the disadvantages to which such students are often subjected in their K-12 schooling experience, that is seen as unfair racial preference.

 

But when the same school gives out 16 points to kids from the lily-white Upper Peninsula, or four points for children of overwhelmingly white alumni, or ten points for students who went to the state's "top" schools (who will be disproportionately white), or 8 points for those who took a full slate of Advanced Placement classes in high schools (which classes are far less available in schools serving students of color), this is seen as perfectly fair, and not at all racially preferential.

 

What's more, the whites who received all those bonus points due to their racial and class position will not be thought of by anyone as having received unearned advantages, in spite of the almost entirely ascriptive nature of the categories into which they fell that qualified them for such bonuses. No matter their "qualifications," it will be taken for granted that any white student at a college or University belongs there.

 

This is why Jennifer Gratz, the lead plaintiff in the successful "reverse discrimination" suit against Michigan's undergraduate affirmative action policy, found it a supreme injustice that a few dozen black, Latino and American Indian students were admitted ahead of her, despite having lower SATs and grades; but she thought nothing of the fact that more than 1400 other white students also were admitted ahead of her and her co-plaintiffs, despite having lower scores and grades.

 

"Lesser qualified" whites are acceptable, you see, while "lesser qualified" people of color must be eliminated from their unearned perches of opportunity. This is the kind of racist logic that people like Gratz, who now heads up the state's anti-affirmative action initiative with the financial backing of Ward Connerly, find acceptable.

 

This kind of logic also explains the effort of whites at Roger Williams University to start a "white scholarship fund," on the pretense that scholarships for students of color are unfair and place whites at a disadvantage.

 

This, despite the unmentioned fact that about 93 percent of all college scholarship money goes to whites; despite the fact that students of color at elite and expensive colleges come from families with about half the average income of whites; despite the fact that there are scholarships for pretty much every kind of student under the sun, including children of Tupperware dealers, kids whose parents raise horses, kids who are left-handed, kids whose families descend from the founding fathers: you name it, and there's money available for it.

 

While there are plenty of whites unable to afford college, the fault for this unhappy reality lies not with minority scholarships, but rather with the decisions of almost exclusively white University elites to raise the price of higher education into the stratosphere, to the detriment of most everyone.

 

But to place blame where it really belongs, on rich white people, would be illogical. After all, we take it for granted that one day we too might be wealthy, and we wouldn't want others to question our decisions and prerogatives come that day either.

 

Better to blame the dark-skinned for our hardship, since we can take it for granted that hey're powerless to do anything about it.

 

Whites, as it turns out, take most everything for granted in this country; which makes perfect sense, because dominant groups usually have that privilege.

 

We take for granted that we won't be racially profiled even when members of our group engage in criminality at a disproportionate rate, whether the crime is corporate fraud, serial killing, child molestation, abortion clinic bombings or drunk driving. And indeed we won't be.

 

We take it for granted that our terrorism won't result in whites as a group being viewed with generalized suspicion. So Tim McVeigh represents only Tim McVeigh, while Mohammed Atta gets to serve as a proxy for every other person who either has his name or follows a prophet of that name.

 

We take it for granted that our dishonesty will be viewed in purely individualistic terms, while the dishonesty of others will result in aspersions being cast upon the entire group from which they come.

 

Thus, Jayson Blair's deceptions at the New York Times provoke howls of indignation at any effort to provide opportunity to journalists of color--because after all, diversity and quality are proven by this one man's exploits to be incompatible--but Jack Kelley's equally egregious fabrications and fraud at USA Today fails to prompt calls for an end to hiring white guys as reporters, or for scrutinizing them more carefully, or for closing down whatever avenues of opportunity have helped keep the profession so white for so long.

 

We take it for granted that we will never be viewed as one of those dreaded "special interest" groups, precisely because whatever serves our interests is presumed universal.

 

So, for example, while politicians who pursue the support of black, Latino, gay or other "minority" voters are said to be pandering to special interests, those who bend over backwards to secure the backing of NASCAR dads and soccer moms, whose racial composition is as self-evident as it is unmentioned, are said to be politically savvy and merely trying to connect with "normal folks."

 

We take it for granted that "classical music" is a perfectly legitimate term for what really amounts to one particular classical form (mostly European orchestral and piano concerto music), ignoring that there are, indeed, classical forms of all musical styles, as well as their more contemporary versions.

 

We take it for granted that the only controversy regarding Jesus is whether or not he was killed by Jews or Romans; or whether the depiction of his execution by Mel Gibson is too violent for children, all the while ignoring a much larger issue, which is why does Gibson (and for that matter every other white filmmaker or artist in the history of the faith) feel the need to make Jesus white: something he surely could not have been and was not, with all due apology to Michelangelo, Constantine, Pat Robertson, and the producers of "Jesus Christ Superstar."

 

That the only physical descriptions of Jesus in the Bible indicate that he had feet the color of burnt brass, and hair like wool, poses a slight problem for Gibson and other followers of the white Jesus hanging in their churches, adorning their crucifixes (if Catholic), and gracing the Christmas cards they send each December.

 

It is the same problem posed by the anthropological evidence concerning the physical appearance of first century Jews from that part of Northern Africa we prefer to call the "Middle East" (and why is that I wonder?). Namely, Jesus did not look like a long-haired version of my Ashkenazi Jewish, Eastern European great-grandfather in his prime.

 

But to even bring this up is to send most white Christians (and sadly, even many of color) into fits, replete with assurances that "it doesn't matter what Jesus looked like, it only matters what he did."

 

Which is all fine and good, until you realize that indeed it must matter to them what Jesus looked like; otherwise, they wouldn't be so averse to presenting him as the man of color he most assuredly was: a man dark enough to guarantee that were he to come back tomorrow, and find himself on the wrong side of New York City at the wrong time of night, reaching for his keys or his wallet in the presence of the Street Crimes Unit, he'd be dispatched far more expeditiously than was done at Golgotha 2000 years ago.

 

But never fear: we needn't grapple with that because we can merely take it for granted that Jesus had to look like us, as did Adam and Eve, and as does God himself. And indeed, most whites believe this to be true, as proven by every single picture Bible for kids made by a white person, all of which present these figures in such a way.

 

Consider the classic and widely distributed Robert Maxwell Bible Series for children, popularly known as the "blue books," which are found in virtually every pediatrician and OBGYN's office in the U.S. In Volume I, readers learn (at least visually speaking) that the Garden of Eden was in Oslo: a little-known fact that will stun Biblical scholars to be sure.

 

It would all be quite funny were it not so incontestably insane, so pathological in terms of the scope of our nuttiness. What else, after all, can explain the fact that when a New Jersey theatre company put on a passion play a few years ago with a black actor in the lead role, they received hundreds of hateful phone calls and even death threats for daring to portray Jesus as anyone darker than, say, Shaun Cassidy?

 

What else but a tenuous (at best) grip on reality can explain the quickness with which many white Americans ran around after 9/11 saying truly stupid shit like "now we know what it means to be attacked for who we are?" Now we know? Hell, some folks always knew what that was like, though their pain and suffering never counted for much in the eyes of the majority.

 

What else but delusion on a scale necessitating medication could lead one to say--as two whites did on CNN in the wake of the first O.J. Simpson verdict--that they now realized everything they had been told about the American justice system being fair was a lie? Now they realized it! See the theme here?

 

That's what privilege is, for all those who constantly ask me what I mean when I speak of white privilege. It's the ability to presume that your reality is the reality; that your experiences, if white, are universal, and not particular to your racial identity.

 

It's the ability to assume that you belong and that others will presume that too; the ability to define reality for others, and expect that definition to stick (because you have the power to ensure that it becomes the dominant narrative).

 

And it's the ability to ignore all evidence to the contrary, claim that you yourself are the victim, and get everyone from the President to the Supreme Court to the average white guy on the street to believe it.

 

It is Times New Roman font, one inch margins, left hand justified. In other words, it is the default position on the computer of American life. And it has rendered vast numbers of its recipients utterly incapable of critical thought.

 

Only by rebelling against it, and insisting on our own freedom from the mental straightjacket into which we have been placed as whites by this system, can we hope to regain our full humanity, and be of any use as allies to people of color in their struggle against racism.

 

by Tim Wise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh shut up! Will you please pull your head out of your ass and tell me what it is that you find so distasteful in what I said? What exactly did I say that pissed you off? Please learn to control your emotions. Tragedy happened no one disputes, but it sure isn't an excuse for rape and murder. Perhaps the looting, we can dismiss, the rest we can't. It remains that blacks have been more prone to this than others in the past and present. So all the excuses you make won't absolve that.

 

And as far as the whole 'poverty' conundrum everyone mindlessly spits, who is to blame? The 'racist society' I presume? As far as these peoples' condition in the socioeconomic ladder, they have no one to blame but themselves, I'm sorry.

 

As far as the hurricane and the response, the Federal government is to blame. But what does this prove? It proves that government is incompetent, period. The levees were set to break and officials were warned a year in advance of the necessary changes that had to be made. They even outlined a worst case scenario for New Orleans from a hurricane and described exactly the situation we have now. You can read this in last Friday's (September 2) edition of the LA Times, Calendar Section.

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[armjan]

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"civilization is 6 meals away from anarchy."

-smart guy

Edited September 11, 2005 by armjan

[Armen]

No one talks about Iraq anymore.