So I've been out of town pretty much all this month, but I'm back home for a few days and wanted to start a blogging series on Untold Stories. So often I talk about telling your own story either on this blog or my YouTube channel; however, some of us never have that chance. I want to remember those little girls and women who never had the opportunity to share their story, or whose life's story is conveniently overlooked by mainstream media.
That's right.
I'm talking about those missing black girls, those murdered black girls...
Those forgotten black girls.
There is a major bias in our media coverage. The so-called newsworthy problems of the rich and famous are always televised.
- Who broke up with who.
- Whose house is the most luxurious/expensive.
- Who has the best/worst body.
Need I say more?
Beyond the rich and famous, media coverage is also biased based on race/ethnicity. Take missing women for example. Who is often portrayed as the "Damsel in Distress?" Lets give y'all some stats for a certain region in our country. Arizona seems to be the hotspot:
A case manager for the Nat'l Center for Missing Adults in Phoenix, AZ reports:
MISSING FEMALE CASES (Daily Press Release)
47,828 Total Missing Adults
______________________
29,533 White or Latino
13,859 Black
1,199 Asian
685 American Indian
The same case manager asserts that even though Black/Latino/Asian/Native American women go missing, young white females are disproportionately viewed as victims in the national media than any other group.
I guess I'm not saying anything new here. However, I want to know "WHY?" Why are missing minority women more commonly found on Have You Seen Me? mail-in cards or milk cartons and missing white females more likely to be found on the national news?
Could it be...
- Lack of minority representation in the newsroom?
- Lack of public demand for stories on missing minority women?
- The media is racist toward non-whites?
I think its a combination of these things. Y'all can tell me what you think. Whatever the reason, deaths of little girls like 7 year old Aiyana Jones (who was shot and killed in her sleep by Detroit police) never get JonBenet Ramsey type coverage.
Because of the media silence, people are ill-informed just to how common and devastating these "accidental" deaths are within our community. Whether we want to see it or not, our people are being killed off at alarming rates (AIDS, Homicide, War, Heart Disease/Diabetes etc). If the Nat'l media will not tell these stories, we "The Ordinary People" must become the media.
To read up on Aiyana Jones' death, click on the links below:
Detroit police vow honesty in child death probe
Aiyana Jones, 7-Year-Old Shot And Killed By Detroit Police, Was Sleeping According To Family
As always ladies keep telling your stories, cause God knows no one else will.
Peace...
