Katrina and race

And the orders are shoot to kill:

Poverty also disproportionately affects blacks in New Orleans, according to an analysis of census data by the Urban Institute. More than one-third of blacks living in New Orleans are poor, and of the poor families in the city, more than 9 out of 10 are black.

"The people who were left behind in the evacuation were the very people left behind in education, jobs and housing," said Roderick J. Harrison, a demographer at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a think tank on black issues.

The looting is out of desperation not only in the current situation - days without food or water surrounded by dead and demoralized fellow storm victims - but also anguish based on years of neglect, he said.

"We need to acknowledge that this behavior reflects the deep alienation and sometimes hostility of large portions of this population," said Harrison, who also teaches sociology at Howard University.

Images of blacks looting, without context, can further polarize race relations, he said. Commentators have focused on the criminality of looting, condemning people without explaining the full conditions, he said.