Katrina

In my opinion, there appear to be several intended audiences for this photograph.  One of these audiences is the government.  The government, especially the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was harshly criticized for acting slowly, for it took FEMA several days to bring food and water to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, and to transport them to a safe area.  The assistance the government needed to provide was poor and unorganized, on top of the agonizingly long time it took for it to arrive.  The photograph shows one man dressed in military apparel attempting to aid the victims of the hurricane, while the victims appear distressed, most likely because there is not enough aid and that much has happened in the time before the aid arrived.  One of the greatest accusations during Hurricane Katrina and the events afterwards was the government did not provide as much aid to African-Americans as it did to the white people affected by the storm.  Some even went so far as to say that the government’s delayed response was partially due to the race and class by those it was to help.  The photograph shows several African-Americans that appear to be in much trouble, with no endangered Caucasians in sight.  The man dressed in camoflouge brings a question to my mind:  why would there need to be military in the response teams?