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"Many people need a morning "fix." For some, it's coffee. For others, it's "SportsCenter." For me, it's Feministing.com." Katie Stone, The Denver Post
"Feminism is fun again! Every bit as edifying as your women's studies books from college, but with a biting sense of humor that keeps things punchy, not preachy." Marie Claire, December 2006
"This blog is dedicated to all the missing black women in America. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once said "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." If the media doesn't step up—who will? Let these ladies know that we did not forget about them."
Deidra made time between her two jobs and blog to answer my questions. Here's Deidra...
Do you remember the moment you decided that enough was enough, and that you were going to start “Black and Missing but not Forgotten”?
Yes I do. I was reading on a blog about a missing woman—Stepha Henry. After realizing that she had been missing for a whole month, I decided to do my own research on her. To my surprise, I did not find much about her except a couple of blog articles and an “America’s Most Wanted” profile that wasn’t as up-to-date as it should have been. This was upsetting, but what really set me off was this quote from Miami Herald’s Crime Scene blog:
“I’m livid. I agreed to conduct a last-minute interview with MSNBC about the case of missing Stepha Henry, the 22-year-old college grad who went missing May 29 from Miami-Dade. I rushed to MSNBC’s studio but a few minutes before the interview, I was told that it was off—Paris Hilton coverage was more important.”
Now I have nothing against Paris Hilton, but getting news coverage out to help find a woman who is missing and is in danger of losing her life should be a far higher priority than watching a heiress go to jail for a D.U.I. Right then and there, I knew I had to do something about this. A couple of weeks later, I was spending hours organizing and posting up slide shows and links to missing females on my blog.
How many missing black women have you brought to the public’s attention so far?
To date, I have featured over 150 missing females on my blog.
Why do you think the media “doesn’t step up” to expose missing black women? And what do you see as the bigger picture—if any at all—that is behind missing women in the U.S.?
I think this is a question we need to ask the media. The way the media is going right now, it seems like they think that Paris Hilton, Michael Vick, and Ving Rhymes’s dog is more important than Stepha Henry and other missing black females. It is as if they are saying that if you don’t fit into the right demographic then your life does not matter.
For example, look at the missing pregnant Ohio woman, Jessie Davis [now deceased, white]. She got much more coverage than Latoyia Figueroa [now deceased] who was black. Stepha Henry, who went missing before Jessie Davis, is still missing. Yet Natalee Holloway, a young white female, got more exposure than her, and the media continues to cover Natalee’s case from time to time—more than two years after her disappearance.
Frustrating isn’t it? I think the media has some serious questions to answer.
I believe that a lot of missing women go missing because they were either in the wrong place at the wrong time or were dealing with the wrong people. More needs to be done about educating women about their safety.
Can you talk about the latest missing black women you posted on your site?
These are two of the latest black women posted to the site:
Zetra Bohannon
DOB: Nov 2, 1989
Missing: Aug 2, 2007
Height: 5'8" (173 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 17
Sex: Female
Weight: 180 lbs (82 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Bartlett, IL United States
Zetra may be with a male companion. They may have traveled to Chicago, Illinois. Zetra's ears are pierced.
Delores Heath
DOB: Oct 12, 1992
Missing: Aug 4, 2007
Height: 5'3" (160 cm)
Eyes: Brown
Race: Black
Age Now: 14
Sex: Female
Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)
Hair: Black
Missing From: Hampton, VA United States
Delores was last seen on August 4, 2007 around 1300 hours. She was wearing a green and grey shirt, blue jeans, blue knitted shoes and green flowered earrings. She may still be in the local area.
Because of the obvious lack of media attention, this was all I could find on both of these girls. These profiles were taken from the National Center of Missing and Exploited’s website.
Has your blog helped to find any of the missing black women you posted on your site? What can visitors of your site do to help, or if they know any information that can help with a case?
The last time I checked, about 20 missing females were recovered. At the moment, I have no way of knowing whether these females were recovered dead or alive. This might either be due to the lack of media coverage or to privacy issues.
I am currently trying to add RSS feeds from local newspapers in each state from Yahoo! News into my blog. It’s a long process to save them all to my computer but once I am finished with it I will be able to keep it updated with the latest news whether I’m online or offline. I am also trying to post the links to each state’s main police department or missing person’s website.
If any visitors want to help, I definitely need help in the research process. Currently, I am the only one looking for news on these women. I just need a few people to do something as simple as reading their local paper every day and looking for missing black women. If I can get a couple people from each state, that would be great. My email is mzdeidra@hotmail.com for anyone who is interested in helping.
If anyone knows any information about the women on my blog, I urge them to contact the authorities ASAP. For every missing person on my site there is a link and/or phone number which you can call if you know anything about their case. It is very important that you speak up in times like these. The first few days a person goes missing are critical, so it is vital that the authorities get whatever information they can to help find them.
How has running “Black and Missing and not Forgotten” affected you personally?
It has affected me a great deal—almost to the point where it is all I do in my free time. I had no idea that it was going to be so time-consuming to find news on missing black females. For every 10 profiles on missing white people I find, there is probably one black person—if any. It is so frustrating seeing the same results over and over again. But I am the type of person that never gives up. Instead of complaining about the lack of information, I am trying to figure out how to get it. Sometimes I will be on the computer for eight hours at a time but in the end the results that I get from staying determined is rewarding.
What kind of feedback have you received from your blog?
There were a couple of people that thought I was crazy for doing it because they knew that it was a lot of work for one person, but most thought that what I was doing was needed. To my knowledge, there is not a website devoted entirely to missing black females and several people told me that it is a great idea to just focus on them so that they get the exposure they need.
A couple of people told me that I should go to radio stations or magazines about it to get the word out. That one is definitely high up on my to-do list. Another person said that I will be on Oprah one day about this and I just laughed and said, “That would be great if I can get that type of exposure for these ladies!” I thought they were exaggerating at first but you never know what will happen. It would truly be a blessing if my blog can get that type of recognition! Overall though, the feedback has been positive.
Is there anything you would like to add?
I just want people to know that it only takes one person with a lot of determination to make something happen. I’ve heard this over and over again in my life and I truly believe it. Pretty soon, that one person you helped will turn into several people that you helped and maybe hundreds and thousands.
I remember the coverage of Stepha here (I live in S. Florida) and I was wondering if it got any national exposure. The coverage of missing black women vs. missing white women is sad and embarrassing to me, as a white woman.
It's so sad and appaling that the racist, White dominated corporate media treats Black victims so differently than White victims.
There was a case here in New York last year - there were two women who were kidnapped, brutally raped and murdered.
One was a very lightskinned Venezuelan Latina who could easily pass for White.
The other was a Black woman.
They were both honor students at the City University of New York.
When the lightskinned Latina got kidnapped, the police were investigating within hours - they found her body 9 hours after the kidnapping and caught her rapist/murderer the next day.
Incidentally, he'd kidnapped or attempted to kidnap about 6 women before the kidnapping/rape/murder he got caught for.
All of those victims were Black women.
He'd never been arrested for any of those crimes, and he only had to answer for them after he'd victimized a light complexioned White-appearing victim.
As for the Black woman - she was kidnapped by two perverts who tortured and raped her for 2 whole days before they murdered her.
Her mom reported her missing within 2 hours - and was told by the desk Sergeant at the precinct that "she probably ran off with her boyfriend" and that the police couldn't take a police report for 48 hours.
By the time the detectives took the report, the woman had already been murdered.
But the cops never found the body - even though the abandoned building where she was raped, tortured, murdered and left dead was just 2 blocks from her home, and only a few blocks from the precinct!
In the end, a friend of the two rapists (who had been invited to join in on the depravity but refused) had an attack of conscience, called the cops, told them where to find the body, and where to find the rapists/murderers.
See the disparity?
White (or White-appearing) victim, the cops investigated right away!
Black victim, the cops refused to investigate and, but for the conscience of a career criminal, the case would never have been solved, her body would have gone unburied and two sociopaths would still be on the streets.
"If any visitors want to help, I definitely need help in the research process. Currently, I am the only one looking for news on these women. I just need a few people to do something as simple as reading their local paper every day and looking for missing black women. If I can get a couple people from each state, that would be great."
Would scanning news.google.com help too? I'm not sure if the scope of your blog goes beyond the U.S. but I just found this article about Jade Williams:
"If anyone knows any information about the women on my blog, I urge them to contact the authorities ASAP."
I need to get much better at remembering names and faces. Right now, if I met Bohannon or Heath (or Williams), I doubt I'd remember that I saw her on the blog (or in that article). :(
Mina, thanks for that article. I tried doing news.google.com several times before [as a matter of fact I do it every couple days] but was not coming up with much. Maybe you have to be somewhat of a google expert to find things lol. I will post that article as well!
Gregory, interesting and sad story! What are their names? I want to read more about that and add it to my blog. Stories like these need to be heard!
Deirdre, thank you so much for the awesome work you do.
I always get really pissed when the media coverage is dominated by one, pretty, usually upper class, missiing white woman. No woman should ever go missing, but if you judged by the media coverage, you would think that it only happened to attractive white women. Where are all the poor, unattractive white women? Where are the Latinas, Asians, Native American, and Black women?
The lightskinned Venezuelan woman was Imette St. Guillen, 24, a John Jay College grad student, and the Black woman was Romona Moore, 21, a Hunter College undergrad.
I participate at www.websleuths.com; in the cold case section we discuss old unsolved missing persons and homicides. There are other forums there for hot missing persons cases and other crime in the news. This issue is definitely one that we have discussed before. While I understand that not every case can make the national news (it would take the entire newscast plus some), I would like to see more even-handed coverage. Nancy Grace seems to cover the most, but as much as she fights for victims, is definitely biased in her coverage.
I also do not understand having a hard-and-fast 48-hour rule before the police will take a report. It seems like they should be able to judge (like any other time they are taking a statement) the reporter's credibility. If the family states that they are missing needed medication or have never ever done this before, then the least they could do is start the paperwork. As with child abductions, the first couple of hours usually decides the fate of that person. By the time 48 hours has passed, that person is almost always a homocide victim.
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
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Comments
I'd heard about this kind of media bias in Eric Alterman's What Liberal Media?, and am glad to see that someone in the States is addressing it.
Posted by: ShifterCat![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 01:02 AM
I remember the coverage of Stepha here (I live in S. Florida) and I was wondering if it got any national exposure. The coverage of missing black women vs. missing white women is sad and embarrassing to me, as a white woman.
Posted by: Hilary![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 08:58 AM
A big thumbs up to Deidra for doing this blog!
It's so sad and appaling that the racist, White dominated corporate media treats Black victims so differently than White victims.
There was a case here in New York last year - there were two women who were kidnapped, brutally raped and murdered.
One was a very lightskinned Venezuelan Latina who could easily pass for White.
The other was a Black woman.
They were both honor students at the City University of New York.
When the lightskinned Latina got kidnapped, the police were investigating within hours - they found her body 9 hours after the kidnapping and caught her rapist/murderer the next day.
Incidentally, he'd kidnapped or attempted to kidnap about 6 women before the kidnapping/rape/murder he got caught for.
All of those victims were Black women.
He'd never been arrested for any of those crimes, and he only had to answer for them after he'd victimized a light complexioned White-appearing victim.
As for the Black woman - she was kidnapped by two perverts who tortured and raped her for 2 whole days before they murdered her.
Her mom reported her missing within 2 hours - and was told by the desk Sergeant at the precinct that "she probably ran off with her boyfriend" and that the police couldn't take a police report for 48 hours.
By the time the detectives took the report, the woman had already been murdered.
But the cops never found the body - even though the abandoned building where she was raped, tortured, murdered and left dead was just 2 blocks from her home, and only a few blocks from the precinct!
In the end, a friend of the two rapists (who had been invited to join in on the depravity but refused) had an attack of conscience, called the cops, told them where to find the body, and where to find the rapists/murderers.
See the disparity?
White (or White-appearing) victim, the cops investigated right away!
Black victim, the cops refused to investigate and, but for the conscience of a career criminal, the case would never have been solved, her body would have gone unburied and two sociopaths would still be on the streets.
Posted by: GREGORY![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 10:15 AM
"If any visitors want to help, I definitely need help in the research process. Currently, I am the only one looking for news on these women. I just need a few people to do something as simple as reading their local paper every day and looking for missing black women. If I can get a couple people from each state, that would be great."
Would scanning news.google.com help too? I'm not sure if the scope of your blog goes beyond the U.S. but I just found this article about Jade Williams:
http://www.wimbledonguardian.co.uk/news/topstories/display.var.1611487.0.mums_plea_to_missing_daughter.php
"If anyone knows any information about the women on my blog, I urge them to contact the authorities ASAP."
I need to get much better at remembering names and faces. Right now, if I met Bohannon or Heath (or Williams), I doubt I'd remember that I saw her on the blog (or in that article). :(
Posted by: Mina![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 11:36 AM
Thanks to all you guys for your support!
Mina, thanks for that article. I tried doing news.google.com several times before [as a matter of fact I do it every couple days] but was not coming up with much. Maybe you have to be somewhat of a google expert to find things lol. I will post that article as well!
Gregory, interesting and sad story! What are their names? I want to read more about that and add it to my blog. Stories like these need to be heard!
Posted by: Deidra![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 12:13 PM
I'm so glad that there are people like you, Deirdre who give our sisters the attention they need. May they all come home safely.
Posted by: Malaika924![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 11, 2007 04:32 PM
Deirdre, thank you so much for the awesome work you do.
I always get really pissed when the media coverage is dominated by one, pretty, usually upper class, missiing white woman. No woman should ever go missing, but if you judged by the media coverage, you would think that it only happened to attractive white women. Where are all the poor, unattractive white women? Where are the Latinas, Asians, Native American, and Black women?
Posted by: Moxie Hart![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 12, 2007 12:02 PM
Deidra,
The lightskinned Venezuelan woman was Imette St. Guillen, 24, a John Jay College grad student, and the Black woman was Romona Moore, 21, a Hunter College undergrad.
Posted by: GREGORY![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 12, 2007 10:24 PM
I participate at www.websleuths.com; in the cold case section we discuss old unsolved missing persons and homicides. There are other forums there for hot missing persons cases and other crime in the news. This issue is definitely one that we have discussed before. While I understand that not every case can make the national news (it would take the entire newscast plus some), I would like to see more even-handed coverage. Nancy Grace seems to cover the most, but as much as she fights for victims, is definitely biased in her coverage.
I also do not understand having a hard-and-fast 48-hour rule before the police will take a report. It seems like they should be able to judge (like any other time they are taking a statement) the reporter's credibility. If the family states that they are missing needed medication or have never ever done this before, then the least they could do is start the paperwork. As with child abductions, the first couple of hours usually decides the fate of that person. By the time 48 hours has passed, that person is almost always a homocide victim.
Posted by: BlueCat![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 13, 2007 12:42 AM
Deirda - thanks for doing such great work!
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
Posted by: SMDNY![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 14, 2007 12:02 PM
Deirda - thanks for doing such great work!
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
Posted by: SMDNY![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 14, 2007 12:10 PM
Deirda - thanks for doing such great work!
Gregory - Imette was a John Jay student - that was one reason why the police responded so quickly. There is a strong relationship between John Jay and the NYPD. Additionally, the bar Imette disappeared from was not on good terms with the NYPD - Imette's case was used as a reason to go after the bar owners. I'm not saying there isn't a descrepancy - there definitely is - but in this instance there were other factors at play.
Stepha was also a John Jay student, so there has been some press about her in NYC, and John Jay has kept up a continuous link about her on their main page.
Posted by: SMDNY![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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August 14, 2007 12:54 PM
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
Posted by: Charlene![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 7, 2007 11:40 PM
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
Posted by: Charlene![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 7, 2007 11:42 PM
The concern I have with this interview is the unspoken but very, very wrong assumption that media attention is a good thing and will somehow bring missing adults home. This is, to be plain, unadulterated bullshit.
Media attention is very useful in AMBER alert circumstances because people care about children, but for adults? Useless and harmful in all cases. Media attention does NOTHING to help find missing persons and very often causes real harm to families and even to the victim.
If your adult loved one goes missing, get the police involved in any way you can but AVOID the media at all costs. NEVER talk to a reporter, NEVER use them to "get the word out" - they will only be using you to make money, and will happily slander you, paint you as a murderer, and treat you and your family like shit as long as they can get money out of it. Media attention can even cost your loved one their life if the coverage becomes so overwhelming that a kidnapper decides keeping her alive isn't worth it. If your loved one is already dead, it can make the killer go to even greater lengths to hide the remains, meaning you never have a body to bury or evidence to secure a conviction. It can create dissension between remaining family members, destroying the family. And all for money: to the media, NOTHING else matters, not the missing person, not the police, not the family. Their revenue is the ONLY thing that matters, and if you get in the way they will happily run you over and ruin you.
If African-Americans are finding that their loved ones' disappearances are being ignored by the police (and from what is said in this article this is a serious problem), that is absolutely a wrong that must be righted. If they find that they're being ignored by the media, they should get on their knees and thank God!
I know of what I speak. NEVER involve the media willingly, NEVER trust them, and NEVER, but NEVER, use them to "get the word out". It's the worst thing you can do, and it will NEVER help. NEVER.
Posted by: Charlene![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://feministing.com/nav-commenters.gif)
|
September 7, 2007 11:43 PM