The definition of loot from Miriam Webster in this context: something appropriated illegally often by force or violence
As a verb: to plunder or sack in war; to rob especially on a large scale and usually by violence or corruption
Synonyms are: despoil, maraud, pillage, plunder, ransack, sack.
They say the first use was in 1788, but that it goes back to Hindi & Urdu word lÅ«á¹; akin to Sanskrit luṇá¹ati he plunders
LA Times executive editor says the word ‘looting’ has racist connotation
On Tuesday’s PBS NewsHour, there was a panel discussion about black representation in the newsroom and how recent controversies like at The New York Times would not have happened if black journalists were “at the table.”
Pearlstein then shed light on a debate that occurred at his own paper.
“One of the active debates we had over the past week was about the use of the word “looting†to describe the destruction of property,” Pearlstein said. “The feeling among the black journalists at The Los Angeles Times who frankly educated the rest of us to the fact that looting had a pejorative racist connotation and that comparing it to the kind of behavior of the police and the kind of behavior that we witnessed really was a false equivalency and yet it was one that we were making as journalists if you picked up a copy of our paper.”
National Association of Black Journalists president Dorothy Tucker called the conversation “interesting,” adding that the word “riot” falls in a “similar” category as the word “looting.
Would they be OK with using the word “pillaging”? How about plundering? But, you know, everything is now raaaaacist if it shows blacks in a negative light. If we were talking about whites looting and rioting, would that be OK? What about Hispanics? Asians? There were definitely a bunch of whites involved in the George Floyd riots and looting.
What would they have us call the systemic theft of of property from stores that occurred during so many of the protests turned violent? Riot: “a violent disturbance of the peace by a crowd”.
