Saturday, December 17, 2005

It wasn't because they were black

Thanks to Eddie for this tip.

It turns out that white people were over-represented among those who died in New Orleans during and just after Hurricane Katrina. So far, as of Dec 16, 50% of those who died have been identified as black and 46% as white. This is despite the fact that the population of New Orleans at the time Katrina hit was 67% black and 28% white.

I honestly don't think this is all that relevant, but given the Irish media's insistence that the dead were disproportionately black, I think this does indicate that maybe those in the media should wait for a bit of evidence before pronouncing a society guilty of allowing people to die because of the color of their skin.

This is far more scandalous than anything reported after the death of Liam Lawlor, but I doubt we'll see much by way of mea culpas on the part of journalists, commentators and editors.