Caption-writers show their colors: The "Loot/Find" debate

This is interesting, really interesting: a letter to Romenesko off of this Boing Boing post notes that two identical pictures from hurricane-ravaged Louisiana featured white people “finding” groceries and a black person “looting” them. Ouch.

We don’t really know if there is more information that we don’t have but offhand it does seem a little telling. Still there is no doubt that there is a blurry area between what could be construed as “looting” and “finding” – on one hand there’s the Jean Valjean-esque taking of food because of absolute need, and on the other there is shooting at people for the sake of scoring TVs, VCRs, jeans and whatever else is being absconded with in the watery streets of New Orleans.

Amid all the stories of death and destruction it’s hit a defiite nerve: witness chatter on Technorati