Black Media Should Take Up Gauntlet on Missing Black Girls

A recent article by Shaun King, writer for the NY Daily News and a post on Instagram by entertainment mogul Russell Simmons unleashed a flood of concern over missing young black girls in the Washington DC area. King’s article pointed to the disproportionate number of missing children who are black while overall coverage of their status or attempts to locate them are lackluster to say the least. Meanwhile, Simmons and a number of other celebrities posted on social media that fourteen girls went missing in a 24 hour period. It turns out that the news about the fourteen girls going missing in a twenty-four hour period was inaccurate. King’s article however, was completely factual. According to the Black And Missing Foundation, 36.7% of missing people under 17 are black. Blacks make up approximately twelve percent of the population of the United States, so this is a huge issue.

Check Sources of Stories That Pop Up on Your Social Media Feeds

Swayed by emotion and perhaps trust in Simmons as a reliable source, I was one of the people taken in by the story about fourteen young women going missing in a twenty-four period. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that it was accurate but I believed that where there is smoke, there is some kind of fire. I used social media to urge some of our best journalists to look into it. That was a teachable moment- a reminder to always seek confirmation with the best sources possible. In this case, it would have paid to check on the DC police department’s site or social media feeds.

Congressional Black Caucus Steps in on Behalf of Missing Black Girls in DC

One result of the outcry was a call by black Congress members on the Justice Department to increase efforts to assist police in investigating missing children cases in DC. A letter was sent by Congressional Black Caucus chairman Cedric Richmond and DC Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and FBI Director James Comey to “devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.”

Mainstream Media Still Got Missing Girls Story Wrong

I was heartened to see that action was being taken on behalf of black girls. I feel even better knowing that a number of black men were responsible for ringing the alarm in the first place despite some of the miscommunication about it. I was not happy to see that most of the coverage, although right to point out the error of the social media post, took the opportunity to downplay the gravity of the overall issue. NBC Washington went as far as to spin it into a story about black girls running away. Accompanying video was of one missing teen who turned out to be a serial runaway who had issues with her mother- a mother who, it was implied did not know how to handle her daughter. No mention was made of the fact that runaways are often coerced or tricked into doing so by traffickers who pose as friends or boyfriends in order to lure the girls into prostitution. Even one missing girl is a big deal. That has always been the attitude of mainstream media toward stories like this.

The Importance of Black Media

Another huge takeaway from this is the importance of a vigorous and vigilant black media. The continued de facto racial segregation of all things social is disturbing. The ideal would be to have all stories covered and treated with the same level of respect and importance but we are not there yet. Black media now has enough outlets and there is enough technology that it has the ability to lead the charge with stories like this. Our missing girls should be something that is always on their radar.

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