The slow response to those directly affected by Hurricane Katrina has shocked the nation. The richest, most politically sophisticated, the most technologically advanced couldn't seem to get trucks, boats and planes to thousands of displaced residents of New Orleans, Bixoli/Gulfport and all points in between to essentially pick hundreds of thousands of people out of rising water. More frustrating to the millions nationwide watching helplessly-between trying to locate loved ones and trying to send aid (which I encourage everyone to do), is the constant bombardment of images distorted, contorted-then reported to the world in the most inaccurate, and in some extreme cases-irresponsible ways. Some of the reporting-not just of the Hurricane Katrina events, but even the events demanding police accountability in Los Angeles, have been simply slanderous to African Americans. Propaganda couldn't be more outrageous than what has been so-called "reported" on television, radio and the internet. It's essentially media engaged warfare against Blacks. Watching Black people being referred to as looters and refugees and mobs in times of extreme survival conditions is more than misrepresentation. New Orleans Mayor, Ray Nagin called it "politics." It's more than that. It's plain racial propaganda.
It's heartbreaking to watch people trying to survive, and hear how looting is out of control. Let's understand the predicament: First of all, the demand to evacuate didn't take into the consideration that the poor and infirmed would be left behind. The most common statement given when reporters asked, "why didn't they evacuate?" Was that they had no place to go. Those that left faced gouging gas stations and $200 a night hotel rooms--exploitation at its lowest. Those left behind stayed on their roofs and in their attics the first two days, while thousands of others were in the Superdome, turned evacuation center with no electricity, no food, no water. On the third day, rescuers came for some but not all--and still no lights, no food, no water. People are going to do what they have to do to survive, particularly when the government is MIA. Some people went to look for food, dry clothes, medicine, diapers in evacuated stores. They were called "looters."
One Associated Press on-line story ran captions of instances of people looking for food and supplies. The White people were "students" looking to "find" food. The Black man was captioned as stealing. It was the same condition, same circumstance. On the fourth day, people became desperate over the government's inaction. The media showed White people as despondent in "displaced communities." Black people were shown angry, and were considered unruly mobs. The juxtaposing of Black and White images was alarming. There was compassion for the folk in Biloxi, Mississippi; insensitivity toward the plight of those in New Orleans. With African Americans just under 68 percent of the city's population, New Orleans has the largest Black population in the Deep South and is the city with tenth largest Black population in the nation. Biloxi is 71 percent White. Don't misunderstand-both cities got equal treatment, equally poor treatment. Somehow the propaganda missed Biloxi, even Black folk in Biloxi. Then there was the whole "refugee" thing. Webster's dictionary defines refugee as "one who flees for safety, especially to a foreign country." The term wasn't used until buses from the Superdome started heading for the Astrodome in Houston, Texas. Texas, last time I checked, was still part of America. Yet, every time there was an opportunity to represent (or misrepresent) African Americans in a context other than "Americans in crisis," it was done. The folk from New Orleans suddenly went from "evacuees" to "refugees" while Whites remained displaced citizens of their storm torn communities who were fleeing to safety. Soon, every station was reporting on the refugees in Houston. But still no federal help, until the mayor of New Orleans got on the radio and went off. Suddenly, trucks with water and food started rolling, evacuation planes found their way into the area, and then, and only then, did President Bush go down to the region. And though New Orleans is one of America's largest and tradition rich cities, where did Bush stop first? You got it, Biloxi. At 50,600 persons, Biloxi is almost ten times smaller than New Orleans (at just under 400,000 people), but the President did his media stop in Biloxi. That's like goin' to New Jersey after 911. It wasn't where the worst disaster was occurring. But the media "spent" that too. This is just part of the propaganda going on.
In Los Angeles, a supposedly reputable radio station, KFI, engaged in one of the most irresponsible acts I've ever witnessed by announcing an unsubstantiated report that a Muslim minister that had recently been beat by LAPD was calling together the Crips and the Blood gangs to wage "Jihad" against the LAPD. They then said they didn't know if it was true, "but it came across their desk so they had to report it." No other station reported because they could not verify it. Yet KFI irresponsibly reported it, for no other reason that to racially inflame an already "anti-Muslim," anti-Black sentiment amongst the police and in the highly racially charged Orange County that listens to that station. It was racial propaganda at its most inflammatory...and slanderous. Expect to hear about this again in a legal setting, but the point is...there is a great insensitivity to reporting issues in and about various segments of the Black community. There are no media watchdogs to check it, and no way to sensitize folk to it when there are greater crisis in the mix.
So, we have just sit there and listen to this codified, racialized banter that is as insulting as it is fallacious. Propaganda is the first step toward isolation-when society can say something false and inflammatory, and no one (outside the afflicted) says a thing. Black people leaving New Orleans aren't refugees, and there has been no such jihad threat against the LAPD. Just people seeking to create a divide with media misrepresentation and the use of racial propaganda.
ANTHONY ASADULLAH SAMAD CAN BE REACHED FOR COMMENTS AT WWW.ANTHONYSAMAD.COM
Article copyright Los Angeles Sentinel.
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