Underrepresentation in missing persons cases

Posted Jan. 18, 2023

By Kim Phan

Opinions Editor

In the media, we can see constant coverage of missing persons cases. Daily and hourly updates are provided especially with the rise of social media, and ever common use of the internet. But there is one key component that still hasn’t changed, there is less priority or awareness of the people of color who go missing. We can see this, especially in the indigenous women who go missing. Who speaks up for them? Where is the coverage in the media for those women? Because when I ask you, have you recently seen much coverage in those types of particular cases? 

Much of the exposure and awareness in coverage of missing persons of interest has rapidly changed over the years. As documentaries are being mass-produced on serial killers or the cases of those who go missing, our awareness of who exactly around us could be dangerous becomes more widespread. 

This becomes quite useful to discuss with the recent case of a missing woman in Kansas City found, after finally knocking on her captor’s neighbor’s door. She wasn’t discovered, and there was no coverage that she was even missing. She had to fight for her own way out. Nobody even paid attention to the fact that a real-life kidnapper was living in plain sight in their neighborhood. The reports were initially dismissed by the police. There were repeated concerns made by Black residents that a serial killer was targeting Black women in the neighborhood, yet the police confirmed it as “unfounded rumors”. These concerns weren’t even publicized until a Black nonprofit, news outlet, The Kansas City Defender, reported on it. There was no media coverage in major or even state news outlets which would’ve proved vital to this case. We all know that if reports surfaced that a serial killer was targeting white women in the neighborhood, the situation would be completely different. Even then, it was too late, the woman that was held captive and overlooked will suffer from the traumatic experience for the rest of her life. So, we can only wonder what has gone unnoticed in many police departments across the nation as regards to the reports of Black women who have been reported missing. 

Even in media coverage that has covered indigenous women who have gone missing or been murdered, the reporting is set in a much different tone. The disparity in reporting should not even exist because don't all families struggle when a loved one goes missing? The articles about the indigenous women’s cases were written to be more formal and less intimate as if they weren’t real-life people with aspirations and a whole life ahead of them. While reports of white women were painted in a way as if the author knew all the intimate details of their subject’s life, displaying them as someone with all these achievements and what was lost. Even as social media has evolved and has begun playing a bigger role in helping to solve missing persons cases, cases of POC women who get reported are deemed as “special”, instead of the constant rate that White women are reported by the same sources. 

It’s more worrisome in the fact that with the prioritization of the public’s exposure to white women, it would only be inevitable that there would be more accessible resources aimed toward white women or children. Which will lead them to be found quicker due to the publication. To learn more cases with diverse backgrounds and details, it is our responsibility as citizens—and even mine—to be more aware of the media we consume and our biases toward where we choose to absorb information. Because the media is powerful, powerful enough to maintain pressure on law enforcement and the government to finally do something beneficial for a case. 

It speaks volumes about what the media decides to selectively broadcast and what the public will eat up in response. According to numerous studies, the rate of black people reported missing was far higher than their percentage of the total country population. However, their percentage of media report exposure was significantly lower than that of their white counterparts. This makes no sense since, in a perfect world, the reporting for any missing persons of interest should be reported about the same amount. 

This is evident in the case of Gabby Petito, whose circumstances were extensively covered by various news outlets. To put the situation in even more of a personal context, even my parents at home were aware of the developments in her case and followed them. They had rarely followed missing people cases before, which made me wonder why this particular case did the trick. But where was the fury and voice for the missing women from non-white backgrounds? Of course, this is not to minimize the severity of Petito’s experience because she deserved justice just as much as anyone else. 

But don't all the other instances that haven't been heard deserve the same level of wrath and justice that the public has demonstrated a readiness to offer? Name at least 10 people of color who have been widely sensationalized in the media after going missing after hearing this argument. After absorbing all of the arguments and information presented, readers should think about everything they have learned in the news.