"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?!"This excerpt from the poem, "Black Woman Missing" by George L. Cook III, 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 their counterparts like Laci Peterson, Elizabeth Smart, or Haleigh Cummings; missing White women usually get more attention than men of all races.
Blackandmissing.blogspot.com is a blog dedicated to informing the public about missing Black children - male and female - that may or may not have been heard about in the media.
According to the blog, Desir, missing since January 10, from Immokalee, Fla., has the mental capacity of a two-year-old and is developmentally disabled.
If you put his name in Yahoo's search engine, it produces 478,000 results. His counterpart, Cummings, however, produces 4,440,000 results. 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?
Clearly, yes, said Derrica Wilson, president and CEO of Black & Missing Foundation, Inc., a Web site that provides exposure and educational training for the missing persons loved ones.
Wilson believes that when it comes to African-American boys, people are more likely to associate their disappearance as being a runaway. Wilson mentions that the Black men on her Web site never receive national attention and are never seen on television.
". [W]ithout an Amber Alert there is no media coverage locally or nationally," she said. "Now, when it comes to Black men, there are more missing Black men in the United States than missing Black women, according to the FBI missing person's report. .Black men do not receive media exposure is because society, media, and law enforcement like to relate their disappearance to drugs, crime, or violence."
Missing children activist and founder of the online blog, omega7.com, Alonzo Washington agrees that African-American men and boys get the least amount of media attention among missing people. The only Black males that would receive coverage would be someone of high stature, according to Washington.
"If you're grown, a man, and Black, then you can forget about it," Washington said. "Young Black boys may get a little teaser, but never an ongoing investigation like Caylee Anthony, Elizabeth Smart or Samantha Runnion."
"The mindset of the media is that if it bleeds it leads," said Detective Richard Adams of the Youth Investigation Division Missing Person Unit in the District of Columbia. "Media wants something sensational."
William Van Croft IV has been missing from the District since January 31. He has Asperger's Syndrome and went missing a year after the death of his father.
According to Jason Cherkis who writes an online blog for the Washington City Paper, the police department waited until February 11, to issue a press release.
In his blog, he cited a comment by Cherita Whiting that speculated an indifference in Van Croft's case. Whiting is an activist for education in the D.C. metropolitan area.
"[William's] mother filed a missing person report with DC Youth Investigations on Jan 31", Whiting said. "It sat on a desk somewhere and they just started investigating this case on 2/10. I have sent multiple messages to the At-Large Council members and every police officer that I can find who is associated with Ward 1 Precinct 107.
It would make sense that a missing person, especially a special needs teenager, could get the attention of the police and public officials to at least have the police issue a press release that the child is missing. This has not been done. When the press release occurs, the media responds and starts spreading the word that [he] is missing."
Washington also believes that when it comes to African-American children especially males, the police will say that they ran away. "Even when Jennifer's Hudson nephew was missing, her story took the backseat to the Caylee Anthony story," she added. "They covered it for a minute, and now it's like it didn't happen."
According to Detective Adams, every police department has their own way of handling a missing person's case. Tim Ryan is an assistant news director for KUSA, a local NBC station in Denver, CO. Ryan said that in almost every case, it's about if law enforcement decided how important the case is. He believes that the media needs some sort of belief or standard for the stories that they report on.
"Local news people like myself are not the ones who determines what makes local news," Ryan said. "There are certain reasons why stories get played or not. I can't tell you if race does play a role. There are cases that we covered of all races that hasn't received national media coverage. Things that make national news is whimsical. I think it is important to state that local media does not make those choices."
Martin G. Reynolds, editor of the Oakland Tribune in California, said that his organization does not necessarily have a reporter dedicated to missing children.
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