Media Coverage of Black Victims of Natural Disasters: Hugo, Katrina, and Earthquake in Haiti

In the days immediately following the earthquake that devastated Haiti, media companies devoted almost all of their air time to the tragic aftermath. But, even with almost 24-hour coverage, almost nothing was reported about why Haiti (its people and its buildings) was so vulnerable when the earthquake struck. From this coverage, we learned only about the inadequate building code and the abject poverty in which most Haitians lived before the earthquake. News corporations omitted important historical and political context. This omission helped to portray Haitian victims as pitiable, needy, unprepared, and the Haitian government and infrastructure as inexplicably inept and inferior. In contrast, benefactors from around the world – donors, doctors and rescue workers from the US, Britain, France and elsewhere – generously assisted Haitians in their time of need. US companies – Honeywell, Dow, Google, Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, GM and others – donated to relief efforts in the devastated island nation.

Ten days have passed since the earthquake struck and news outlets are still covering the story. But next to nothing is said about the role played by the US, Britain, and France in causing centuries of economic devastation in Haiti that made it so vulnerable to the natural disasters that plagued it in 2008 and 2010.

Haiti was the first country founded by formerly enslaved Africans. After the enslaved Africans of Haiti worked for decades, providing the free labor that contributed significantly to European economic stability, Haiti was forced to pay dearly for its armed uprising eradicating slavery. Haiti took out high interest loans in order to pay tens of millions of dollars (francs actually) in “reparations” to the French. These “reparations” were paid to compensate former enslavers for their “lost property”. The property the French lost was the enslaved Africans themselves, the Haitian people. Why did Haiti pay what today would amount to billions in reparations for having liberated itself from slavery? Haiti paid in order to free itself from a crippling embargo that had been imposed by France, Britain and the United States. At no time in the extensive media coverage in recent days did I hear a discussion about the decades of slavery and the extortion of wealth from Haitians called reparations as an explanation for the poverty in Haiti to which the media repeatedly referred.

Haiti’s spiraling poverty has been attributable in part to its indebtedness to American banks. In 1915, the US invaded Haiti after US banks complained about this debt to President Woodrow Wilson. The American occupation was brutal. The effects of this occupation, which lasted until 1934, persist today.

Instead of providing historical perspective, the media spent a great deal of time reporting “reports of violence” and looting in the earthquake’s aftermath. This took me back to news coverage about Hurricane Katrina. Remember the two different photographs published by Yahoo! News showing hurricane victims walking with food through chest-deep waters? According to the captions provided by the two different photographers, a white couple had found the food in the hurricane’s aftermath. A black man looted the food he had.

Years after Katrina, we now know that the stories of murder, rape and violence in its aftermath were grossly exaggerated. I watched the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti closely. I saw some people running. Things looked disorganized. I saw people tugging and pushing to get to food and other items. It seemed no worse than the pushing, tugging and shoving I’ve seen during some department store sales here in the US.

I did see a group of young Haitian men with machetes. Some reporters said that these men were violent gang members. This reminded me of Hurricane Hugo which hit St. Croix in the US Virgin Islands in 1989. Like the Haitian earthquake victims, and the New Orleans Katrina victims, most of Hugo’s victims were black and therefore particularly scary to many white observers. I have a dear friend in St. Croix who talked to me about Hugo’s aftermath. My friend is a veterinarian, an entrepreneur, a musician, and the owner of several beachfront homes. Days after the hurricane hit St. Croix, he attempted to clear his property of debris with a machete. When his white next door neighbors saw him, they didn’t recognize him. They were paralyzed with fear, seeing only his machete and his brown skin.