The Media Needs to Stop Portraying Black Folks as Weaklings

The media (and some folks who are not part of that world) has continuously painted the survivors of Katrina as eternally-doomed with very little hope for the future. Since Katrina was a hurricane that did more damage than storms in the recent past of that region, I am willing to cut some folk a break. But on the other hand you have natural events like the Tsunami that occurred in the Indian ocean back in 2004 and it has long become an afterthought in our media (even with a victim count of "...186,983 dead and 42,883 missing, for a total of 229,866 (link)." Where were all the claims that this tsunami only revealed to the world the poverty that had been there for years (like the claims that were made repeatedly during the post Katrina days) and how it was a case of shame being revealed? The sad truth is unlike New Orleans, we expect our money will be put into good and that these people will rebound-end of story. Look at Africa and after YEARS of donating billions of dollars into that continent, mainstream media still mainly emphasizes ailing children, men strapped with AK-47s and frail women huddled together in fly-infested huts-all with the yearly backdrop of concerts that play on our emotions to give more to this seemingly losing battle for survival.

Now, am I suggesting here that the survivors of hurricane Katrina 'toughen it up and get some perspective?' Certainly not. For folks who have lost everything, it will take some time to rebuild their lives. But my issue here is how quickly folks were willing to make this event a continuation of both slavery and Jim Crow and how it will take MORE THAN a miracle for these folks to just break even in life.