So a lot of times, I hear about events and I wonder whether or not I should post about them. Not because I’m afraid of the repercussions or because I lack the talent to put together an amazingly well-written post, but because I worry about the relevance. See, I realize that this is a hip-hop blog / podcast joint here, and I’m trying to keep it relevant. Still though, there’s some things that your boy just gotta weigh in on.

For example, there’s the whole Utah rave thing, which I may still cover, but not today. Today, we’re going to talk about Katrina and the whole Finder vs. Looter debate. Let’s go.

Okay, so in case you all have been in your mom’s basement playing Mario Golf for the last two weeks, you’ll know that some sort of big-ass hurricane happened down souf. This caused a massive-ass flood in New Orleans.


Ooh, Flood street. That is sooo clever.

Now, why am I, the internet’s greatest hip-hop podcasting mogul, writing about this? Well, if anyone has noticed, I’ve been listening to a bit of Dirty Souf music recently, and I’m sure that you’ll agree that it’s sort of hard to make music when you’re up to your neck in muddy water. Additionally, you know your boy got some family down there. So this affects me, and if it affects me, you best be damn sure it’s gonna affect you. So let’s move on.

I’d also like to mention as an aside that if we hadn’t cut Nawlin’s disaster prevention budget by 44% so we could go play Vietnam, we might have had some flood control - not to mention extra military to help the people dying down there due to the floods. I’m just saying.

So yeah. Ish is fucked up, but you arready knew that.

Here’s what I want to talk about, though. See, I get around on the internets, and I recently came across some discussions about the media’s portrayal of the victims. A nice concise one can be found over at wonkette.

Long story short, it appears that while captions of white people portray them as “finding” or “discovering” food, the captions of brothers and sisters has them pinned as “looters”.

If you want those original links though, here you go. Black man taking bottles = looter. White folks taking bread = residents finding food. Black kid getting some food = looter.

So yeah, there’s talk about these captions being racist. Now, I will be the first to admit that because the pictures (and thus captions) came from different sources this might be getting blown out of proportion, but Yahoo, if you’re gonna put this shit into a slideshow, you need to make sure that shit is objective, or at least consistent. And again, this is just symptomatic of what kinda bullshittery passes for journalism in the US anyway, so it’s just business as usual.

THE IMPORTANT PART - My Brilliant Analysis of Yahoo’s “Reverse Racism”.

On the real though, here’s the real thing that’s perplexing me. See, black people, we’re used to being called criminals, so it’s all gravy. What I’m confused about is why there aren’t any white people crying about these pictures. See, while black people show up in these pictures and are labeled “looters”, they are at least doing sensible things. White people, on the other hand, are made out to be complete fucking fools. Don’t follow? Let’s take a look at Exhibit A.


Here we have Exhibit A - a brother with some sense. Now granted, you can’t tell that he has any sense by looking at his hair, but look at what homeboy is carrying. He got him some Heineken. Now ask yourself - does this make any sense?

Answer: Yes. If my shit was flooded out like that, you best believe I’d be looking to throw back some brews. Homeboy even got one in his back pocket for the road, and prolly some extras in the bin for tomorrow’s breakfast. You can call him a looter, but I call him smart.

Let’s move on.


Exhibit B - white folks “find” some food. Now, I realize that I already showed you this picture, but I want you to take a closer look at it. You see that package that the woman at the bottom is holding? Let’s zoom in, shall we?

Does this make sense?

Answer: Fucking no. Now will someone please explain to me what that broad thinks she is going to do with that bag of wonderbread? Why the fuck would she take it? Is she going to eat that wet, muddy mess? Is AP trying to tell me that that’s what white people do down there, is eat dirty, wet bread from the dollar bin? I don’t think this is a good look for our Caucasian brothers and sisters.

Shall we continue?


Exhibit C. Does this make any sense?

Answer: Yes. Here we go with some very smart brothers and sisters. I think that this is a good time to point out the fact that it’s a lot of black people in New Orleans. More to the point, though, look at the picture.

You can see that these people are obviously trying to get they eat on and they drink on, and more importantly, that they are getting they eat on with some food that is more than likely edible. We got a brother on the right there who got himself a Pepsi, and there’s the sister in the middle there that has some bags of food. And honestly, AP, that sign says NOW OPEN, which to me, means “come the fuck on in”. And people are hungry? What the fuck do you expect them to do?

Now, if they were taking plasma TVs, which some people are, fine, call them looters. But people gotta eat, so quit hating, for real.

Pressing onward…


Exhibit D.
I ask you, does this make any sense?

Answer: Fucking no.

I’m sorry, homie, but what the fuck are you doing on that bicycle? It is very obvious to me that this taken and posted up by someone that does not like white people. I mean, how much more fuck-tarded can you get than riding your busted-ass 10-speed around when the water is up to your handlebars? This is not a postive image of a white man at all.

Let’s move on to our last exhibit.

Exhibit E. Does this make any sense?

Answer: Yes. Again, here we go with some more intelligent brothers. They need transportation, just like homeboy in Exhibit D, but instead of trying to get theyselves killed wandering around on a bicycle, they got - oh shit - a boat. This was a smart move.

Also please note the boat-using white boys in the distance to the left, who are very obviously copying the black dudes here. Fucking biters. This is also not a good look for Caucasians.

In conclusion then, I’m thinking that maybe we should start sending letters to make Yahoo more accountable to white people here, because this shit is just fucked up. Maybe you all could like write to your mayors or something.

As an aside, I’m kind of suprised that they forgot to call this brother here a looter, so I made a caption for them. Enjoy.

I mean, on the real though, you can’t get much more fucked up than looting babies. I for one would like to thank Yahoo, AP, and AFP for alerting us to this fucking epidemic.

On the real though, I do want to say that as much as it looks like I’m just having fun here, this flood shit is fucking serious. People are dying out there every day, and I realize that, so don’t get it twisted. To paraphrase Adisa, keep your head up if this is affecting you, and do what you gotta do to get through this.

And as a further addition: In case some of you dummies out there missed it, this caption controversy is just symptomatic of what goes on in the media nowadays. People are dying for no reason other than that they are black and/or poor and the government doesn’t see the need to help them out. That’s why I’m making fun of this. So let’s stop whining about picture captions. Let’s stop crying about the symptoms, and address the fucking illness.

I’ll talk to y’all again real soon now. One.