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    The document summarizes and analyzes two articles about racial discrimination and social norms. It discusses how media coverage framed black people as "looters" rather than "finders" after Hurricane Katrina. The authors argue this illustrates unconscious racial frames that associate black people with criminality. It also discusses theories that race is a social construct rather than biological, and that racism has become normalized through jokes and stereotypes. While media often frames black people as criminals, the counter argument is that many whites saw black victims of the hurricane's destruction.

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    Reading Response 1

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    The document summarizes and analyzes two articles about racial discrimination and social norms. It discusses how media coverage framed black people as "looters" rather than "finders" after Hurricane Katrina. The authors argue this illustrates unconscious racial frames that associate black people with criminality. It also discusses theories that race is a social construct rather than biological, and that racism has become normalized through jokes and stereotypes. While media often frames black people as criminals, the counter argument is that many whites saw black victims of the hurricane's destruction.

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    The document summarizes and analyzes two articles about racial discrimination and social norms. It discusses how media coverage framed black people as "looters" rather than "finders" after Hurricane Katrina. The authors argue this illustrates unconscious racial frames that associate black people with criminality. It also discusses theories that race is a social construct rather than biological, and that racism has become normalized through jokes and stereotypes. While media often frames black people as criminals, the counter argument is that many whites saw black victims of the hurricane's destruction.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    157 views3 pages

    Reading Response 1

    Uploaded by

    api-460610903
    The document summarizes and analyzes two articles about racial discrimination and social norms. It discusses how media coverage framed black people as "looters" rather than "finders" after Hurricane Katrina. The authors argue this illustrates unconscious racial frames that associate black people with criminality. It also discusses theories that race is a social construct rather than biological, and that racism has become normalized through jokes and stereotypes. While media often frames black people as criminals, the counter argument is that many whites saw black victims of the hurricane's destruction.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    of 3

    Mai 1

    Anh Thu Mai

    Professor Brody

    ENGL 301

    11 February 2019

    Discrimination or Social Norms?

    The article of “Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?” by Cheryl I. Harris and Devon W. Carbado

    explains the media coverage of the aftermath of the devastating hurricane Katrina crashes into

    New Orleans. With the same images provided in the article of people holding food, the use of

    terminologies to describe the photos are completely contradicting each other based on the person

    present in the photo. The term “loot” is used for the second image showed in the article, and the

    word “find” is used for two white people in the first image. The authors introduce the idea of the

    Color-Blind Frame in that it explains, “most share the idea that we interpret events through

    frames – interpretational structures that, consciously and unconsciously, shape what we see and

    how we see it” (Harris and Carbado, 622). For example, the photographer, Chris Graythen’s

    selection choice when choosing the photo that fits in his frame of reference that white people do

    not steal goods from stores, and the people of color is more likely to steal foods while the store is

    not being attended. When the facts do not qualify perfectly when the frame of reference that one

    has for an event, they are simply being ignored, or extra information is being used to satisfy the

    expectations one has (Harris and Carbado, 628). The frames that many people see associate black

    people to criminality but disassociate when they are being victimized.

    The idea of the frame of reference by Harris and Carbado also illustrates the “Theories

    and Constructs of Race” by Holtzman and Sharpe. In both articles, the authors agree that the

    perspective that people have toward racism is due to the lack of law and order. Holtzman and
    Mai 2

    Sharpe argue that race is constructed socially, culturally, politically, and economically, and not

    ethnicity or the country of their origins (Holtzman and Sharpe, 603). The concept of whiteness

    that the society is infused with means privileges, separating the vulnerabilities and minorities,

    and sometimes enforces with power and violence. The connection of black to criminality and

    dangerous leads the governmental reluctance in responding to the disaster of hurricane Katrina

    because the population of New Orleans is mainly African Americans.

    In addition to Holtzman and Sharpe’s theories on race, the authors believe that the

    modern society is a post-racial society where youths are becoming friends, rather than

    discriminating each other based on the color of one’s skin. Even outside of the frame of

    reference constructed under the government institutions, such as, education, employment,

    healthcare system, housing, bank, and criminal justice, discrimination based on race and

    ethnicity has become a social norm of what it means to be American, Holtzman and Sharpe

    argue. Racism has become an idea of the social norms that is now a part of jokes, slurs, and other

    racial stereotypes that has been accepted by the society. The unconscious belief on one being

    better than the other is not strange because the society values one character over the other.

    A counter argument that Harris and Carbado offer in contrast to mainstream media

    depictions of race is that “most whites were able to see black people as victims” (Harris and

    Carbado, 626). Unlike the media idea that blacks are not victims, but criminals based on the

    usage of words like “loot,” many white people accept that blacks are victims of the destructive

    hurricane Katrina. According to Harris and Carbado, black people are not only victims of the

    natural disaster, but more importantly, they are victims of the bureaucracy that occur in the city

    of the New Orleans that has great influence in the mainstream media.
    Mai 3

    Works Cited

    Harris, Cheryl I. and Carbado, Devon W. “Loot or Find: Fact or Frame.” Created Equal.

    Holtzman, Linda, and Leon Sharpe. “Theories and Constructs of Race.” Enron: What Caused the

    Ethical Collapse, This Is Calabash,

    webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3A8lySAn4dWK8J%3Aprofspace.co

    m%2Fdownload%2Fae415560c4b621a4a98bcb0a2b726804%2B&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk

    &gl=u

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