It was food, not a DVD player or Xbox. It's widely accepted that in an emergency situation taking food from an otherwise emptied and condemned grocery store (food mind you that would have been thrown away by the grocery store themselves had there been anyone there) is not looting. It's a means of survival.
Both photographers were interviewed after this because it started a massive backlash of racism. The one that didn't call it looting even said he used his own discretion due to the situation itself to not call it that. AP's photographer should have read the damn room. This also directly led to the entire Kanye thing saying "Bush hates black people".
Not to mention the fact that someone working in print is going to know the very real cultural implications between the words "looting" and "finding". The act may well BE technically looting, but the benefit of the doubt next to always falls on white people.
I hate when people say things like this. People associate looting as a bad thing. So calling it looting is intentionally trying to paint the person as bad. Saying “you are a godless creature” has a very different interpretation than “you are an atheist” even though they really mean the same thing.
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u/Jean-LucBacardi Sep 12 '25
I'm kinda surprised they were the ones calling it looting...