Evidence of my racist society

[usregimechange]

"A young (black) man walks through chest deep floodwater after looting a grocery store in New Orleans..."

"Two (white) residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans..." –captions at Yahoo News, Aug. 30, 2005

[Greyhound]

1. I can't believe people try to deny it, but I'm pretty sure that it's a

racist world.

[FVZA_Colonel]

2. I'm not saying this ends debate entirely, but

snopes.com did a piece on this: http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/looters.asp

[Montauk6]

5. It's funny, when referenced SNOPES I thought you were going towards

the hypocritical distinction as being an urban legend.

[dutchdemocrat]

6. The wonderfully unbiased Snopes?

Here's what they wrote about Michael Moore in 2002. This page has now been wiped and replaced, deleted from google's cache and not available in the waybackmachine.

Claim: Two days after September 11 -- while all other planes were grounded -- a secret flight arranged by George W. Bush flew Osama bin Laden's relatives out of the USA.
Status: False.

Example:

BIN LADEN FAMILY ALLOWED TO FLY DURING GROUND STOPPAGE?

Michael Moore was on the Daily Show on Comedy Central and alleged that when all the nation's planes were grounded for 3 days after 9/11, the Bush Administration gave permission for a private Saudi jet to visit 5 cities to pick up around 20 members of the bin Laden family, over the objections of the FBI.

Origins: This just goes to show what a little bit of fact flipped onto its side and then spewed by a public figure can do.

--snip--

How Michael Moore could have spun all of this into the tale he now spouts is beyond us.

The sum total of the evidence Moore cites is a 30 September 2001 New York Times article, most of which negates what he claims:

In his first interview since the attacks, Saudi Ambassador Bandar bin Sultan, also said that private planes carrying the kingdom's deputy defense minister and the governor of Mecca, both members of the royal family, were grounded and initially caught up in the F.B.I. dragnet. Both planes, one jumbo jet carrying 100 family members, and the other 40, were eventually allowed to leave when airports reopened and passports were checked.3

Note that these planes were grounded, they were "caught up in the F.B.I. dragnet," and they were not allowed to leave until "airports reopened and passports were checked." This is hardly evidence of "secret flights" taking off "two days" after the attacks "over the objections of the FBI."

Moore seems to have fixated on a single sentence in that article:


The young members of the bin Laden clan were driven or flown under F.B.I. supervision to a secret assembly point in Texas and then to Washington from where they left the country on a private charter plane when airports reopened three days after the attacks.1


Note that this is a single-source item, that it is wrong about the date on which the flight it describes took place, and that even if it were literally true, it still belies Moore's claim that bin Laden family members were ferried out of the country before the FBI had a chance to question them — as do other news accounts...

--snip--

Some folks play fast and loose with the facts when they've an axe to grind, however, and in Moore's case his axe is "the dastardly Republicans and how they're responsible for every ill ever visited upon the USA." In this case, inventing a bin Laden jet that secretly flew out of the country while the rest of us were barred from the skies, and peopling it with folks who were spirited out of the FBI's grasp by a U.S. president intent upon paying back some unnamed (but darkly hinted at) favor, is a handy way of reinforcing the stereotype of Republicans as callous and greedy politicians whose paramount values involve money, not people.

[FVZA_Colonel]

14. I've seen people on this site repeatedly refference Snopes before.

Who is to say that the Michael Moore piece represents everyone on the staff there? The fact is, we were never given the context about those two shots, which is why I think it is logical that people could assume a racial bias.

[Erika]

3. Yes, the Blacks looted for food

and the Whites searched for food. Yes, our society is still very racist.

[merwin]

4. To their defense, they were probably captioned by 2 different people.

One of which is a racist bastard.

If you read the two statements, they are worded completely different. If they were from the same author there would have been more similarity in the sentence structure.

[ladylibertee]

8. Then the media is as well because they were saying the same

[Krist]

10. he was probably a freeper

Racists==freepers

[Kailassa]

7. racist gamers

I play an online game, and quite a few players I've encountered have confided in me, when they learnt that I'm not American, that they are black, but have asked me not to tell anyone because of the treatment they believe they would receive if the predominantly American player base was to find out. I hope they are wrong to think anyone would care, but the racist epithets I've heard used by angry teenagers have been frightful. I stir them up by telling them I'm black, and that I'm anything else they care to put down.

Don't take this as an accusation, any non-white in Australia could tell you about the racism here, even if the whites rarely acknowlege it exists.

[ladylibertee]

9. I'm sorry but it seems like racism is global and mostly well,

whites. I'm not trying to be smart, but it seems like globally, in europe, south africa, united states and now Australia that whites always seem to be continually the oppressors of blacks.I just do not get the "MENTALITY" I mean, is it genetic?

[Kailassa]

12. Not just Now in Australia

The "nice" way to get rid of these ignorant blackfellas that thought they could own land, in the old days, was to teach a tribe to drink sweetened tea, and then give them sugar laced with arsenic. That was after picking out the prettiest lubras and most useful men for personal use.

It all comes down to theft; theft of land, theft of people, and when payscales don't equal the cost of living, theft of livelihoods.

Once you have treated somebody so badly that your own conscience could suffer, you have 2 choices, change and try to undo the harm you've done, or vilify that person or group so intensely that you can justify continuing the maltreatment.

No, ladylibertee, it's not genetic. It's just power + conceit + greed + accumulated guilt.

[Krist]

11. right on

yeah folks use the word Ngger so often in games, that it would be surprising if a day goes by without it.

But then again, you get a lot of rap for being American too

There are more guys hating Americans than those hating blacks.. and of course, 99% of anti-black remarks are unfortunately from Americans.

Don't take this as an accusation, any non-white in Australia could tell you about the racism here, even if the whites rarely acknowlege it exists.

Yeah, another reason to avoid Australia, other than their lousy right wing politicians and wussy beers.

[Kailassa]

13. Hey, no fair

I get beautiful beer here in Australia. Of course, being imported from Holland makes it a tad expensive.

As for an American avoiding Australia because of right wing politicians, well, that's a bit of a dumb thing to say under the circumstances. You'd question my logic if I was to suggest your present government made America not worth visiting. There are still lots of great people and places in both countries.

So a hint for next time. If someone reveals a distressing truth about their own country, don't respond by knocking their whole country. That's a sure way to put their backs up and drive them away.

[SeekerofTruth]

15. I agree, media is racist.

Look at all the tales of death, rapes, and murder they claimed were happening in the poor black neighborhoods and the superdome. They ended up not being true. So, when rumors start that blacks are looting and raping, why does the media believe it and report it (without verification)?