Member-only story
Black Women
Carlee Russell & The Overwhelming Plight of Missing Black Women
The disproportionate coverage of Russell’s disappearance highlights the overall crisis of many missing African American women.
According to a 2021 report from The National Crime Center, over 520,000 people were reported missing in the U.S. Of that number, 89,020 were our Black women and girls. This data contends that although Black women account for about 7% of the U.S. population, we were 17% of missing person cases last year; — not accounting for unreported cases.
Many of such cases have gone cold and without national outcries to reopen or raise awareness. Such a travesty to recognize that when we hear about the missing person cases of the world, the media has left most of us to conjure images of Caylee Anthony, Laci Peterson, and Gabby Petito.
The overwhelming plight of missing African American women in America is a result of the relative lack of coverage and attention from the media and society. Former American journalist, Gwen Ifill describes this disinterest in missing persons of color in what she famously coined as the “missing white woman syndrome.”
“If there is a missing white woman, you’re going to cover that every day.”
