We’re in week two of our countdown of stories that shaped the images of black women in popular culture. We’ve chosen a dozen stories (the good, the bad and the ridiculous) that captured our attention in 2009. Here’s the story that made our hot list today:
#6: The Vanishings (aka “When A Black Woman Is Missing Does Anyone Care” originally published October 22, 2009)
Newsweek has a fascinating and disturbing story about 10 black women who’ve gone missing or have been murdered in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina over the past few years. Haven’t heard about it? Neither had I. That’s because until now the only news outlet that has covered the story has been Anderson Cooper 360 back in August (but it seems that no one else on CNN covered the story). And that was a one time thing. Far from the weeks (or was it months) devoted to people like Natalie Holloway (or any other list of young, white women who’ve gone missing). The story says Nancy Grace did book a show about the women in Rocky Mount but canceled when a more ‘timely’ story of a woman in Georgia (who was not black) came up.
What’s interesting is when there’s a possible serial killer involved and there’s no media attention there are also no additional resources applied to the situation. No one can offer a reward if they’re not aware of the situation. Because Cooper covered it Peter Pinto, an East Coast philanthropist stepped up to offer ten grand from his personal trust (then the city and county ponied up too to bring the reward total to $20,000).
But the real question is why these North Carolina murders (or the missing black women in Los Angeles) don’t seem to be newsworthy to many. Perhaps it is because many were poor, some had issues with drug addiction and perhaps prostitution. But these women ( murder victims, Taraha Nicholson, 28, Jarniece Hargrove, 31, Ernestine Battle, 50, Jackie Nikelia Thorpe, 35, Melody Wiggins, 29, Denise Williams, 21 and missing sister Yolanda Lancaster, 37, Joyce Renee Durham, 46, and Christine Boone, 43) are still someone’s daughter, sister and mother and their loved ones want answers just as much as the family of Laci Peterson.
The truth is we can’t fully rely on traditional media outlets to get the word. (This is not the first story about the lack of coverage of missing and murdered black women). We’ve got to do a better part of spreading the news ourselves. I would much rather get a news alert mass email than the viral equivalent of a chain letter—you know send this letter to 10 friends and God will bless you. Our lives matter so let’s act like it.
UPDATE: Sad to say I couldn’t find much in the way of an update of these missing sisters. Unfortunately, since this story broke about the inequality about coverage of missing black women not much has been done to change things.
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