So when I posted on Haiti earlier today, I was doing my best not to make it sound like i was implying that I’d like to see more American bodies on the front page of newspapers.
But as I wrote, something peculiar struck me. There have been some people who are comparing last week’s carnage in Haiti to the hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. I would have to disagree on most fronts. I mean, this country was overwhelmingly independent during the recovery stage of the hurricane. I think I even read reports somewhere that George Bush had declined financial aid from another country at the time. I also feel as though America had a very thorough understanding and control over the stability of New Orleans. The city had been segregated, neglected, and left to fend for itself for years, until it finally met an overwhelming foe. Though nobody could have predicted Katrina being as devastating as it was, meteorologists and government officials could also literally see the hurricane it coming. Haiti was hit in the blink of an eye, and no man or structure was safe.
But either way, the point I’m trying to make is that after hurricane Katrina, there were also pictures of bodies in the street. Dark ones. In Haiti? Dark bodies. When the tsunami hit India in 2004? Dark bodies on the news.
Hurricane Katrina
Tsunami in India
It could very well be that because another majority race here in the U.S. hasn’t been hit in mass by any sort of tragedy since 9/11, there would be no source of such a photograph. But there weren’t any publicized from 9/11. Or from the Ft. Hood shooting last year. Or from the CIA suicide-bomb attack. Or from the Va Tech shooting. Or from any natural disaster that has occurred in the United States since 2001.
I don’t want to see the bodies of dead dark-skinned people any more than I want to see the bodies of dead light-skinned people, but it just makes me curious as to what makes showing a human corpse on television acceptable in some cases and unacceptable in others. I’m not calling a double-standard yet… but I’d like to see some evidence of balanced news coverage.
And thank you, Radiohead, but this excellent video doesn’t count.
Ephemorandum 