The recent Gabby Petito case sparked outcries for her safe return. Sarah Everard, Mollie Tibbetts and Hannah Graham have all become household names due to their tragic disappearances. Yet every year, thousands of people of color go missing and receive little to no media coverage. Missing Black and Indigenous people do not receive the same attention and public support as White women with similar stories, which puts these communities at risk of being ignored and consequently denied vital resources for their search operations.
When young White women go missing, their stories often receive the most media attention and coverage. Many of these cases also become fodder for fans of true crime, who follow these cases closely. This phenomenon is called the “missing White woman syndrome,” a term coined by the American news anchor Gwen Ifill. Although this has occurred for many years, new mediums of communication, especially social media, have only exacerbated the issue. While people from all over the world post about these womens’ stories, missing Black and Indigenous people are often overlooked by those outside of their communities.
The way the media portrays missing persons cases is also skewed. Media around the disappearance of White women often focuses on their roles in their community, highlighting how they were a good mother, daughter, or friend. This causes people to sympathize with them and their families, and push for their safety. Conversely, the media often highlights the problems present in the lives of people of color. Criminal history, drug use, or dangerous living situations are all used to justify the tragedy, and instills distance between media consumers and the victims. This distance is dangerous because it normalizes these tragedies and generates apathy for other missing people of color. Jelani Day was a Black man who went missing in August 2021, around the same time when Gabby Petito’s case occurred. Although their tragedies were similar, he received significantly less attention from the public. His family has criticized the local police department, stating that they believe the investigation was incomprehensive and disrespectful.
In 2020, 543,018 people were reported missing in the United States. Black people make up only about 13% of the American population, yet almost one third of the people reported missing last year were Black. This reveals how Black communities are affected by this issue disproportionately. Despite this, the necessary resources are not being allocated to address the problem.
According to the Black and Missing Foundation, Black children who go missing are often assumed to be runaways by police investigating their disappearance. Cases classified as runaways do not receive amber alerts, which means that people in the area are not made aware that a child is missing. As a result, these children become even more difficult to find. Police departments are also less likely to devote time to looking for children classified as runaways because they believe that they will just run away again after they are found. This leaves missing Black families without the same support that their White counterparts receive in the same situation, rendering it even more difficult to find their missing children. The combination of a severe lack of media attention and fewer resources provided to communities of color has a detrimental effect on the likelihood of locating missing Black children.
In the same vein, many Black adults who go missing are often classified as being involved in a crime by the police departments that are tasked with finding them. Similar to runaways, the disappearances of presumed criminals are not publicized in the same way that normal missing persons cases are, leaving people unaware and therefore unable to help. Police are also less likely to devote resources towards searching for someone who they have classified as a criminal because they assume they will only continue to run. Black and Missing Foundation co-founder Natalie Wilson cites a 2009 case in which 11 women went missing in Cleveland. When their families tried to report the case to law enforcement, they were denied because it was assumed that the women had been on drugs and fled.
This response has become the status quo: Black people are presumed to be criminals or live in crime-prone areas, and the general public has become desensitized. When people assume that violence is a normal occurrence in the lives of people of color, they are less likely to be able to “relate” and go out of their way to help when a person of color has gone missing. Without proper media coverage, people aren’t able to relate to missing people of color, which only perpetuates the criminalization of communities of color. Additionally, emergency departments need more advanced training in identifying a variety of missing persons cases so that they don’t mistakenly attribute someone’s disappearance to leaving of their own volition.
Furthermore, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis throughout the United States and Canada does not receive sufficient coverage. The homicide rate for Indigenous women is about six times as high as it is for White women. Despite this, missing Indigenous women receive 27 times less newsprint coverage. On top of this, the coverage Indigenous women receive tends to be less personal and detailed. While White women’s cases are described comprehensively, with more information included about their personal lives, Indigenous women’s cases are usually described clinically, if spoken about at all. This only contributes to the danger that Indigenous women face of being misrepresented or ignored.
However, poor coverage is only partly responsible for these disparities. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women often do not receive the same resources or see the same time invested into their cases, leaving their families scrambling to locate them with limited institutional support. For instance, Bessie Walker’s family reported that the sheriff’s office did not keep them updated on their efforts to solve the case and left the family to search for her themselves. Families of Indigenous women who have gone missing report having little to no communication with their local police departments who were designated the case. They have been left in the dark consistently, with no way of knowing what is happening. Indigenous women’s cases are solved at alarmingly low rates in comparison to White women. According to the Native Women’s Association of Canada, almost half of the homicide cases involving Indigenous women are unsolved, compared to only 16% of cases overall. More coverage, attention, and care devoted to the Indigenous community is imperative to ensuring their safety.
All missing people deserve to have their disappearances covered and for the public to care about their safety. White women who go missing deserve to have people care about them, but so do the thousands of other missing people whose stories don’t get the same attention. The media is a powerful tool that can be used to make people aware about issues taking place outside of their communities, but it only works when the issues are actually being responsibly represented, and not being portrayed in an apathetic way. Every person who goes missing plays a role in their communities, and deserves to have their positive traits portrayed. A lack of coverage, while it may seem insignificant, becomes dangerous when people don’t receive the support that they need.
Image from Dulcey Lima licensed by Unsplash License.
