Media the true disaster of Katrina
By Daily Bruin Staff
Oct. 4, 2005 9:00 p.m.
The Katrina disaster did not bring out the worst in human
nature, but the worst in U.S. racism. The submission
“Disaster brings out worst in human nature” (Sept. 25)
is the type of piece that fans the flames of hatred.
By comparing the victims of Hurricane Katrina to
“animals” and accusing them of being uncivilized,
author Melissa Lin dehumanized the victims of this disaster by
characterizing them with words she would never use to describe a
group of white people afflicted by a similar disaster.
As the Los Angeles Times recently acknowledged in an article
titled “Katrina Takes a Toll on Truth, News Accuracy”
(Los Angeles Times, Sept. 27), “rumors supplanted accurate
information and media magnified the problem. Rapes, violence and
estimates of the dead were wrong.”
On the Sept. 29 edition of PBS’ Jim Lehrer show, the
station admitted there was no evidence of rape in Louisiana and
that talk of snipers and widespread looting was totally
unconfirmed.
Descriptions of “looters” were also plagued by
racial bias. As Tavis Smiley and Kanye West have bravely pointed
out, the white victims of Katrina who “looted” stores
for both necessities and things they did not need were described as
“finding food,” while black victims were described as
looters, regardless of what they took.
That the media and much of the non-black public bought into
these reports unquestioningly speaks to the reality of racism in
this country. Since blacks are already stereotyped as rapists,
looters and gang members, few bat an eye when the news features
blatantly inaccurate reports of black people allegedly committing
crimes, or when Melissa Lin describes the victims of this hurricane
in dehumanizing, hateful language.
It is quite common for people in a disaster situation to do
“crazy” things, such as stealing, that they would not
do in a normal situation, either out of necessity or out of a
feeling of having nothing more to lose.
However, in disasters affecting white people, we rightly focus
on the losses of the victims, not on actions done out of
desperation.
Considering that few, if any, victims of Katrina looted, raped
or murdered anyone, it is not the victims who reflect the worst in
human nature, but the shameless U.S. media and writers such as
Lin.
Polish is a graduate student in the Teacher Education
Program.
