My stomach turns as I watch the Cleveland officials remove remains from the house of serial killer Anthony Sowell. As I watched officials and the coroner dig, bag up remains, report about the paper wrapped skull and knock down Mr. Sowell's home, something inside me is brewing. Something that I've felt voiceless about for many years. As I watch and listen to officials announce:
"We have identified the first set of remains. They belong to Tonia Carmichael."
"2nd and 3rd victims are identified: Telacia Fortson and Tishana Culver."
"We now know the identity of victim # 4... Nancy Cobb."
As I listen and watch this horrific story unfold that sleeping beast inside me is wondering where was all this media attention when these women first became missing? Was it a simple overlook? An administrative error? Or was it that the police just didn't care? I would hope it was the first two but I can't imagine a group of women in an area or vicinity coming up missing and it's overlooked multiple times or experience multiple administrative errors. It doesn't add up to me. But what does add up to me is the clear disparity of media attention when it comes to missing white women vs. missing black women.
Yes, I said it. And as much as I would love for it not to be a race issue, that's the only answer I can come up with. If you think I'm wrong, please name ONE black missing woman or child? A black woman that received national media attention, that is.
*waiting*
You can't. Nor can I. But I do know who I can name right off the top of my head: Laci Peterson, Natalie Halloway, Chandra Levy, Elizabeth Smart, Stacey Peterson, Jon Bonet Ramsey, the runaway bride and I can keep going. What do they all have in common? Skin color and national media attention. In no way am I saying that these missing women and children were not important. They were loved ones. They were sisters, wives, daughters, mothers, children, aunts. But so were these 11 women in Cleveland, Ohio.
Some people argue that the families and communities don't do enough on their own. That we saw hundreds searching for the women I named above. Yes we saw that but that's because of the media attention the cases received. They show this beautiful, petite, middle class, squeeky clean background, sometimes pregnant, women with a dashing husband, a great marriage, beautiful children.. all the ingredients that fuel its watchers that THIS angelic being is missing and needs to be found. Anyone that doesn't fit this 'mold' is written off by society.
This is where I have a problem. There's an assumption that when black women are missing they don't have a squeeky clean background or they do not live this upstanding lifestyle. I'm reading blogs and comments to news reports where people have assumed that these 11 victims are probably addicts, prostitutes or runaways BEFORE there are any reports that they were. So far the reports on a few of the identified victims do in fact show that they were addicts. There are black women missing that have all the same qaulifications and backgrounds of Laci and Chandra but even if they do not WHO THE HELL IS ANYONE TO PUT A VALUE ON ANOTHER HUMANS LIFE? Plus
Thanks to a foundation called Black and Missing but Not Forgotten, that sleeping beast inside me now has an outlet. Founded to curb the disparity in media attention, well the lack thereof, and to help loved ones of missing persons of color get the word out, Black and Missing but Not Forgotten is doing what others will not do. Some of you will ask why focus on just a specific group? Some will say it's wrong. Some will say that all missing persons are important. You are right. Why is the media focusing on just a specific group? Yes it is wrong to focus on a specific group. Yes ALL missing persons are important.
Oh and by the way...I'm still waiting for the name.
Regardless if every one of the remains of Anthony Sowell's crime turn out that they are all drug addicts, we are sorry you were forgotten by the media.
To the sister I met a few years ago, Leslie Adams of Lilburn, GA, we are sorry you were forgotten by the media.
To Ronkeya Holmes and her 3 year old daughter Masarah Ross from Savannah, GA, we are sorry you were forgotten by the media.
To Mitrice Richardson in Malibu..
To 12-year old Dalvin Maxie of Arlington who's been missing since he left a carnival...
To Pamela Butler out of DC...
To the ten women found slain in the Rocky Mountain, NC area (you didn't know that did you?)..
To Chicago honor student Yasmin Acree...
To missing BUSINESS SCHOOL student Jacques Similhomme...
To 13-year old Zatiya Ortiz out of New York...
To 20-month old Mariah out of Mesa...
And to 27-year old Grambling University student Michelle McMullen, we are sorry you were forgotten by the media...
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Sad but true. I burns me up also.
ReplyDeleteThis burns me up, too. I have been screaming for years about this and no one in our media seems to hear. I'm a gay white boy from Georgia, and I can also tell you a whole lot of gay murders take place in small towns across America every day that never make any newspaper or TV broadcast, too. We blacks, gays, and Hispanics seem to be expendable in the eyes of our media and in the eyes of many police. It is an outrage.
ReplyDeleteThank you for posting this. These people need to be remembered.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous - Yes, you are absolutely right. I can only think of one case of a gay person being killed and that was that young boy out in the Midwest somewhere. Someone found him hanging to a fence like a damn scarecrow. It made national attention because of how brutal his beating and later on murder was and how there was a national sense of 'who cares.. he's just some gay boy'. Then to add insult to injury which pissed me off more about this case were the protestors at HIS DAMN FUNERAL! uugghh what was that boys name. I gotta look it up but I can see his face clear as day. The fact that the media made it a gay issue vs. a missing person issue was another thing that burned me up.
ReplyDeleteEnough is enough already. Hopefully the work I'm doing now will open the medias eyes also about gay missing persons and also spark someone to start a movement. Because regardless of your sexuality, I want you to get the same damn attention that Laci Peterson got! PERIOD.
2nd Anonymous - you are welcome. There will be more to come. I'm working with an organization called Black and Missing but Not Forgotten.
www.facebook.com/blackandmissing. If you guys are on facebook please join.
Matthew Shepard! That was his name. It just came to me..
ReplyDelete