writing and erasing
I have been glued to, reading and watching and reading and watching, with very little in the way of words.
Lost in the Flood: Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?
Good article, but I find it interesting he said this:
However sympathetic I might be to people liberating necessities during a disaster in order to survive, I can't muster the same tolerance for those caught on camera helping themselves in a leisurely fashion to dry goods at Wal-Mart. Those people weren't looting as much as they were shopping for good stuff to steal.
After he said this:
I don't recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn't risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he'd have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.
And referred to this five-part Times-Picayune article from 2002, "which reported that the city's 100,000 residents without private transportation were likely to be stranded by a big storm. In other words, what's happening is what was expected to happen: The poor didn't get out in time." (Bolding mine.)
These people are left having to fend for themselves because their fucking city never bothered to formulate a plan to safely evacuate them. If they survive, and that's looking like a big IF right now, they've lost everything, what little they may have had. They are not used to being given anything, not used to anything coming easy. If their families and homes and jobs are gone, what are they supposed to do and where are they supposed to go and how are they supposed to get there? It's hard to barter when you have nothing to barter with.
(And a related article: U.S. Poverty Rate Was Up Last Year)
I've been shouting it from the rooftops for the past year. It is surreal to see it all go down like this.
Lost in the Flood: Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?
Good article, but I find it interesting he said this:
However sympathetic I might be to people liberating necessities during a disaster in order to survive, I can't muster the same tolerance for those caught on camera helping themselves in a leisurely fashion to dry goods at Wal-Mart. Those people weren't looting as much as they were shopping for good stuff to steal.
After he said this:
I don't recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn't risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he'd have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.
And referred to this five-part Times-Picayune article from 2002, "which reported that the city's 100,000 residents without private transportation were likely to be stranded by a big storm. In other words, what's happening is what was expected to happen: The poor didn't get out in time." (Bolding mine.)
These people are left having to fend for themselves because their fucking city never bothered to formulate a plan to safely evacuate them. If they survive, and that's looking like a big IF right now, they've lost everything, what little they may have had. They are not used to being given anything, not used to anything coming easy. If their families and homes and jobs are gone, what are they supposed to do and where are they supposed to go and how are they supposed to get there? It's hard to barter when you have nothing to barter with.
(And a related article: U.S. Poverty Rate Was Up Last Year)
I've been shouting it from the rooftops for the past year. It is surreal to see it all go down like this.