Stereotypes come from all over the place. However, we can thank news reporting for a good share of these points of view. They can find a way to spin a story or perspective to tarnish individual’s reputations; and the African American community of New Orleans was the group affected most. Whether it was stories that were reported, stories that were spun a different way, or even stories that never brought public, news media shed a bad light on many people.
Though there were various things that were twisted somewhere along the line, arguably the most heinous of them was the situation with looters. It is true that some of the people were taking stuff to turn a profit, but the fact of the matter is that the vast majority of them were doing so to provide healthcare or food for those who needed it. However, that’s definitely not what the media decided to air. Instead we saw middle-aged black males carrying out large TV’s or bikes, etc—things you’d think to be pretty useless in comparison to what they could have taken. In addition to the looting was the confrontations that were publicized. Going back to Spike Lee’s film, he entered a piece of the news showing isolated instances of police/civilian altercations, again ignoring the people helping the wounded, and good deeds being done.
Two of the main issues we’ve talked about in this course are choice and visibility. Both of these are definitely controlled by the media at one time or another. It’s tragic because these two elements are key factors to controlling social justice.
Media correlates with choice because it’s everywhere. Billboards, radio, television, and any other way they can do it, they can manipulate the way we think about things. In this situation, the way it happened, the African American community was shown in a very dark light, which perpetuates the cycle of injustice.
Visibility becomes part of the picture because with all of its ability to make things public knowledge, there was still the lack of coverage over those who need their voices heard. The neighborhoods that need(ed) to most help were off to the side struggling to bring everything together.
The sad truth is that we can continuously say that something needs to change, but in the end saying that something needs to change is not good enough by itself. We can only hope that thru movements and other actions, social injustices will diminish and everyone can resolve differences; which to me will ultimately help the process.
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