Missing Black Men Get Even Less Media Than Black Women
by Diasia Ellerbee
NNPA Special Correspondent
Originally posted 4/15/2009
“Why don't you talk about me? Don't you care where I might be? Am I the wrong color to have my story on TV?''
“Why don't I get air time? Is it the fact that I don't have naturally straight hair? Is it that America isn't interested? Is it that America just doesn't care?”
“So ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, FOX News Why don't you talk about me?! Don't you care where I might be?! Am I the wrong color to have my story on TV?!”
Each one above is from the poem “Black Woman Missing” by George L. Cook III. The poem represents the lack of national media focus on missing Black women - but, Black males get even less.
According to Connie Marstiller of the National Crime Information Center, there were 614,925 people missing in 2008 under the age of 18. About 16 percent, were Black men.
During that same year there were 163,239 people missing over the age of 18, according to Marstiller. Approximately 14 percent, represent missing Black males over the age 18.
African-American men and boys such as William Van Croft IV,17, Wallace Richards, 23, Dennis Palmer, 44, and Adji Desir, 6, are currently missing and have not yet received the national media attention as other missing people such as Laci Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, or Haleigh Cummings; White women usually get more attention than men of all races when they are missing.
Blackandmissing.blogspot.com is an online blog site that is dedicated to informing the public about missing Black children both male and female that may or may not have been heard about in the media.
According to blackandmissing.blogspot.com Adji Desir is an African-American boy who has been missing since January 10 from Immokalee, Fla. Desir has the mental capacity of a 2-year-old and is developmentally disabled.
If you put both these names in Yahoo’s search engine, Adji Desir name will produce 478,000 results. Haleigh Cummings name will produce 4,440,000 results, which is 10 percent more.
Both children went missing around the same time and in the same state. Although conditions of their disappearances are different, does race or gender play a factor in the national media attention that they receive?
(snipped)
http://www.seattlemedium.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=95798&sID=3&ItemSource=L