Media Won't Discuss 'Race' in Katrina's Aftermath

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The media, especially TV media, are clearly uncomfortable discussing issues of race or racism in its coverage of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina, according to Elayne Rapping, a media critic and pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo.

"We are being saturated with images of poor black people in one kind of trouble or another, but the media is not commenting on what is very clear: the obvious racial disparity among the victims," says Rapping, a professor of American Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

According to Rapping, the media, generally speaking, like to show images of blacks doing well, but are reluctant to show the horrors of being black and poor.

"The media likes 'feel-good-about-race' stuff, but they avoid the glaring presence of race and class inequalities," she says.

Rapping says the sufferings of black and poor survivors of Katrina, being televised around the clock, may begin to inspire new public dialogue about racial inequality in this country -- much the same way media coverage of the O.J. Simpson trial focused discussion on issues of race and justice.

Elayne Rapping, Ph.D.
Professor of American Studies
University at Buffalo
rapping@acsu.buffalo.edu
716-645-2546 (office)