Debate in US after Petito Hype, “Missing Black Women Not Taken Seriously”

And not only in the media, but also in the police, according to critics, there is no rush when it comes to a black woman. “These things are just taken less seriously,” says the organization’s Derrica Wilson Black and missing, where they focus on cases of missing persons in black families for 13 years. “How many times do we see family being told for the first time that their loved one had to run away.”

For example, there will be no Amber Alert, and a missing person’s precious first 24 or 48 hours will be gone, Wilson says. “Can you imagine a white family being told this when they come to the police in a panic?” When a black man or woman goes missing, criminals are automatically thought first, she says. “As if the lives of these people matter less. They are dehumanized.”

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In the United States, the debate over missing white woman syndrome has often raged in the media and the police. But Derrica Wilson’s organization notes a difference this time: several media have already turned to Black and Missing for advice. “I will be attending a roundtable next week in one of the biggest newspapers in the country. It’s really new.”

And according to Wilson, this media attention is the most important link in resolving a case. “The public then knows a missing person, they know the name and help them search.” But that’s not even the point, she says. “The media attention puts pressure on the police and the FBI to put money and men into a case. It can really ensure that a missing person is taken seriously.”

Keeshae Jacobs’ bedroom looks like it might fit home tonight. With soft toys on the bed and happy pictures of the past on the wall. Her mother Toni believes that she is still alive and that she will come home one day. “I know it in my heart. And she needs to know that I keep fighting to find her.”

Because it was a kidnapping, Jacobs said. One that, in her opinion, could take place precisely because the media and the police have a blind spot when it comes to black women. “If you were to steal someone, you would do it in a place where no one pays attention,” she said, “so if you want to kidnap a woman, you pick one that the media and the police don’t pay attention to. . you just go ahead. “