I do not believe for a minute that this is anything but a MEDIA response. I fervently believe that LE puts the same amount of effort into finding the child no matter what race is involved. In this case, the criminal history of the mother and the family issues tend to make the media wary of the story. Unfortunately, the child deserves the sympathy and attention, but media shuns the story because of the FAMILY, certainly not fair....but also not fair to imply that LE does not try to find the child.
jmo
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762156.html
With all due respect, I think its impossible to say that racism isn't prevalent in our society today. I do think that these days all the "isms" are more covert than overt. Less media attention is an example of covert racism.
The above link indicates that 63.7% of America's are white. That would mean that in order to be a representative sample of our population 2 out of every 5 children abductions featured on JVM, NG and similar shows should involve victims that are people of color. I've never counted, but I don't think that is the case.
And that's not even taking into account that because of other forms of covert racism crime rates are higher in non-white populations. I would think that higher criminal rates in general involving minorities should equal higher rates of child abductions.
Then think about how this looks to Shirley. She knows covert forms of racism negatively affect african americans, she's seen it her entire life. Right now Phoenix LE is being called out for not doing everything it needs to do when investigating sex crimes against children. Arizona's CPS is being called out for letting children fall between the cracks. If all children are paying the price for these shortcomings, children of color are paying an even higher price.
I would think that the public is more likely to view parents who are not white as being responsible for their child's disappearance.
I would also think some of the prejudices involving crime affect people with a lower SES status regardless of their race.
Is it really possible that our justice system is the only system in our society that does not perpetuate institutional racism? Even if that were the case, unfortunately IMO when it comes to crime the more media attention a case receives, the more likely LE and CPS are to do everything they can to solve these crimes. Its why we do things like "bump" children up to the top of the forums and write to the media asking for them to do stories on the children.
I don't know. I'm a white upper middle class woman. I've never experienced what it like to be a person of color or from a lower SES. I do know what it is like to tell a man what it is like to experience sexism. Even if I don't see them rolling there eyes, I can see that they are saying to themselves, "OMG not THIS again...." even when I back my claims up with statistics like this:
That's because U.S. women still earned only 77 cents on the male dollar in 2008, according to the latest census statistics. (That number drops to 68% for African-American women and 58% for Latinas.)
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1983185,00.html#ixzz1bYbZT5H6
Of course not all men are clueless when it comes to sexism, but judging by the above numbers enough do to have serious effects on American women.
