Black People Loot, White People Find?

Boing Boing.net showed two photos of people waist deep in water, one was a black person the other two whites. In each, a person appears to be dragging a bag or box or two of food or beverages.

The images were shot by different photographers, and captioned by different photo wire services. The Associated Press caption accompanying the image with a black person says he’s just finished “looting” a grocery store. The AFP/Getty Images caption describes lighter skinned people “finding” bread and soda from a grocery store. No stores are open to sell these goods.

Perhaps there’s more factual substantiation behind each copywriter’s choice of words than we know. But to some, the difference in tone suggests racial bias, implicit or otherwise.”