Anyone who closely followed the situation on the news channels saw 'looting' of stores for food, water and necessities, by police as well as by the citizens and tourists. Pictures showed police (while they were still trying to do their job) booting louts out of stores where they were liberating items that had nothing to do with survival, but leaving people seeking necessities alone.

All this blather about a word. Taking that which doesn't belong to you is a common middle class American definition of looting; of course that word will be used and I see no reason to 'load' it with racial meaning.

It must also be said that it is impossible for the average middle class white person from outside a setting such as New Orleans, including the newspeople with CNN and MSNBC, (at least a few of whom are not white but belong to the middle class), news reporters, etc. to avoid comments that appear racial since they (I should add we?) are covering people and situations outside of their experience. Most of them are trying to do the job they are paid to do.

In their minds, many people still equate poverty only with blacks. It has not yet sunk in that Hispanics are now the second largest group in the U. S. and many of them are poor. If this had been a catastrophe in a city such as San Antonio, would this thread have been different?