Let me first start off by saying that I really don't care who's doing the looting. I've seen the footage that's given to me, and I can draw two conclusions from all of this. 1.) There seems to be a lot more black people looting than anyone else (you can't argue with what I see. Now whether or not that is a true depiction can very well be argued. I am not there, and therefore I can only go by what I see. More on that later.) 2.) If I come to this conclusion, it is because I have been given a limited amount of information to lead me to this conclusion. From the footage that I have viewed on both Fox and CNN, I have concluded that there are mostly blacks looting. Now from this I have a few points. 1.) You can't blame me for arriving at the first conclusion because I am much like people who contemplated the universe hundreds of years ago. There is only so much they have to go on, they can not be faulted for their false views. 2.) That being said, in most cases it is our responsibility to research further whether the evidence that has been given to us is true. However, in light of the circumstances, this is immpossible. As I have a job and live in Atlanta, I am not able to further investigate the theory that it is mostly blacks looting, anymore than someone in Egypt could have invented a telescope to look at the stars more accurately. 3.) As a society, we have come to depend on the media to give us an accurate depiction of life in our world, whether it be in politics, sports, culture, society, etc.... Now, seeing as we have become dependant upon them as seen in things such as press only passes, "exclusive interviews", and other things that only the media has access to, it is hard to get another viewpoint if all the media ia aligned against something. Now, that is very unlikely to happen, and I think everyone could agree on that. There are so many idealogies, backgrounds, and thought processes among the people in the media, that the patrons can be confident that if there are two sides, you will always get the other, somehow, even if it only gets published in a one newspaper somewhere, or it gets 5 minutes of commentary on the news. To say that what I see is not true would be to say that every person out there with a camera who works for a newstation, and every producer who is cutting the film, and deciding what gets on air must be aligned in the same feeling that they want to show that black people are the ones that are doing most of the looting. As I have stated before this is nearly impossible. As far as the second side, for it to even exist, there must be proof. For you to say that there are more white people doing the actual looting, you would have to show me proof of those circumstances. So, I can therefore draw another conclusion that if I get my information through a variety of sources, that I will eventually be able to be confirmed in my conclusion that it is mostly black people looting (let me clarify that when I say looting, I am talking about people stealing tv's, shoes, and worst of all guns, not the people taking food and diapers to try and stay alive.). Of course, I have visual proof to establish the first side, which is that mostly black people are doing the looting. Now, this isn't to say that black people are bad, or that white people never do anything wrong. But in this controlled scenario, the former of those two points tends to be true. But one can further argue that it isn't their blackness that is making them loot. It is there willingness to be consumed by the culture of, as Chris Rock so eloquently puts, the N-word. This culture is not mutually exclusive to blacks and whites however. But, in light of the evidence, it would seem in this again controlled scenario, that it is mostly black people. Questions from all if this. 1.) Does this make me racist? Yes, but only if I take this information and apply it to any other black person not in this controlled scenario, or if I apply it to these same black people outside of this scenario. Otherwise, no it just makes me a person who has drawn a conclusion based on an amount of evidence that was given to me. I am no more racist than Aristotle is an idiot for thinking that the universe is earth-centric as opposed to what it really is, helio-centric. 2.) What about accounts of white people looting? Again, I need some sort of proof of this. The best proof is oftentimes visual proof. I can't believe anything that someone writes in a newspaper. That is not proof, but just a small bit of evidence into the contrary. However, I find it hard to believe that there is not a substantial amount of video evidence to show the other side to this, that it is either equally blacks and whites, or that it is mostly whites doing the looting.
As far as putting a filter on things, I think that is appropriate. To say that you can't lump people into two different categories is false. However you can't name the two categories looters and survivalists, because in addition to looting, the looters are also trying to survive. You would have to call them looters and non-looters. Why can't you put people into these categories? If I steal something that is not necessary for my survival, and I knew (key word there) that it wasn't, them I am a looter. If, however, I am stealing food, or medicine, or something else that I need to survive vitally, then I am not a looter. I find that very cut and dry. To say that no one can know whether they would be a looter or a non-looter in this situation is to say that the theory of choas applies to all aspects of life. You may not be able to say 100% what you would be, but at the same time, based upon the character and past acts of a person, you can predict with some confidence which one they will become. But then again, nothing is absolute in this world, so I will not try to prove otherwise. But to put the argument to what someone would or would not do in a similar situation, is to detract from what is going on. And that is that there area bunch of a$$holes down there looting other peoples property. But it doesn't matter what evidence has been given to me about the racial background of the looters, or whether or not I have knowledge of how I would act. As it stands, I have never acted like this and it doesn't matter whether they are brown, black, white, orange, blue, green, or yellow. They all suck, and I hope they rot in hell. What they are doing is wrong. Period, end of story.
