Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Language, Can It Be Connected to Racism...Maybe
Its remarkable what words can really do to a situation. While reading the third chapter of Barker text, Barker discusses the importance of language and human's meaning to objects. The example that stood out to me is there is a difference between a rock and the word "rock". In order to describe that difference, we still need to use language and it still will be difficult to explain. The website as well as the images that I have attached to this post demonstrates how critical it is the choice of words to describe a moment. When Hurricane Katrina went past New Orleans and ended up flooding the city, there was much speculation on how the media was handling this story in terms of racisim. In the Barker text, it even talks about how there can be different connotations that occur depending on the culture. In this case, the person who is reporting on the topic might have come from a culture where different actions such as taking food may be viewed differently. In the photographs below, the one on the left said of the two people in back packs have the quote, "Two residents wade through chest-deep water after finding bread and soda from a local grocery store after Hurricane Katrina came through the area in New Orleans, Louisiana.(AFP/Getty Images/Chris Graythen)", while the picture on the right has the quote "A young man walks through chest deep flood water after looting a grocery store in New Orleans on Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005. Flood waters continue to rise in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina did extensive damage when it made landfall on Monday. (AP Photo/Dave Martin)". I am actually starting to this about how this may also reflect on the paper. For instance, it is not just the writer of the comment that is a fault but also the editor that let it pass and those around them. Also, the location that the paper is distributed may expect or accept the caption to say something along those lines. I guess it is true, a picture can say a thousand words...
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This really brings to light the importance of the paradigmatic chain, as Barker discusses it, i.e., the constellation of words that could be used to describe what these people are doing. As you imply, there's a vast semantic difference between "finding" and "looting," even though both words serve the same grammatical purpose in the syntagmatic chain that may become a caption for these photos.
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