My Missing Women Diary

11 Comments

1. 

   Steven D on June 9, 2005 at 10:01 am

   and in the interest of full disclosure, my wife is non-white.  Fortunately she isn’t missing, however.

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     ghostdancers way on June 9, 2005 at 10:10 am

     continuing it the interest of full disclosure, my wife is mexican/italian/canadian english/yaqui apache. And Great Spirit help anyone who tries to harm her or her family. She is a wonder to behold.  I write a lot to local newspapers here in Kansas, letters to the editor, asking why there is not more interest in the many missing children of non whites in the news, radio, tv, newpapers.  I have yet to see myself published nor have I received any replies to my queries.

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     shirlstars on June 9, 2005 at 10:11 am

     Steven, thank you for keeping our attention on this.  Sadly, I guess it is no surprise that the RWCM doesn’t find these stories valuable enough to report on with the same fervor they report on Blonde, blue-eyed beauties that are missing.  All of it is alarming and troubling regardless of the skin tones or perceived beauty aspects of it.

     Keep up the good work.

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     fabooj on June 9, 2005 at 11:27 am

     Whenever the RWCM makes a big deal about a missing white female, I send them a list a lot like yours.  I include the stats because I know people rarely will click the links.  

     Funny how our media will give coverage to our minority children when they’ve committed a crime, yet can barely work up enough to go beyound a blurb in the paper.  Now, I make this charge freely, but I will give the LA Times props here, because regardless of sex, race or economic status, they will run large on-going stories about missing people, especially if they’re from CA.  

2. 

   mlk19569 on June 9, 2005 at 10:13 am

   While I feel awful for the parents, what I don’t get is what the media expects us to do about something that happened several thousand miles away?  Not like we can all go to Aruba to help in the search.  It’s the height of media stupidity.

   And yes, the lack of missing pretty non-white females on the news is pathetic.  And I include pretty because I bet if she weren’t photogenic, the media wouldn’t give 2 shakes about her either.

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     Torta on June 9, 2005 at 11:54 am

     “While I feel awful for the parents, what I don’t get is what the media expects us to do about something that happened several thousand miles away?  Not like we can all go to Aruba to help in the search.  It’s the height of media stupidity.”

     I’m no fan of Matt Drudge, but he has said that “Ain’t-it-awful” stories are among the most popular on his site in terms of viewer clicks.  Similarly, the media would not be headlining these stories if many Americans didn’t get all worked up in response like Pavlov’s dogs, every damn time.  The media think they know what “sells” and what doesn’t, in terms of news stories; and so that is what drives their decisions on what to promote and what to emphasize.

     I work with people who got totally hooked on the Laci/Scott Peterson case and on the Runaway Bride case.  They formed strong opinions and a highly vested interest in the story, as though it was local and happening right here.

3. 

   lorraine on June 9, 2005 at 10:30 am

   Steven,
   Thank you for doing this. I think of this topic often. How missing white girls are a tragedy, but women, men, and children of color dying is another day at the office.
   A few years ago, I wrote an op-ed after in the same week, white girls and a black man were killed in my town. Guess which story garnered all the gnashing of teeth and press? I asked if the life of the African-American man counted in my community, and how disheartened I was by our supposedly “enlightened” town behaving in such a way.

   A friend of mine has just published an amazing novel that deals with this very topic. It’s called The Wilderness and it’s by Karen Novak, published by BloomsburyUSA.

4. 

   wobblie on June 9, 2005 at 10:58 am
5. 

   soj on June 9, 2005 at 12:42 pm

   The commercial media “sells” news as an entertainment commodity… whatever it might’ve done in the past, this is what it does now.  And so only the most entertaining news is “sold” aka printed/broadcast.

   That’s why people turn to blogs and sites like these.. simply to learn about current events on issues of substance.

   I appreciate the list of these missing women.. all I can say is in my old department we had a long list of all the children missing in our jurisdiction every single month.. I think on average it was about 87.  And that’s for one town in America.

   I don’t get American TV so I don’t know the first thing about this Aruba person.. but there’s an epidemic going on in America of missing/abducted people (adults and children) and just because it isn’t broadcast on the nightly news doesn’t mean isn’t happening.

   Pax

6. 

   tiponeill on June 9, 2005 at 3:13 pm

   But I think it is a larger issue of who we consider worthy of news coverage – period.
   

   Another Gay Murder
   Yuma County gay man reportedly killed and mutilated by MCAS Yuma Marines

   Eyewitness reports state that 23-year-old Amancio Corrales, a Yuma native, who most recently lived in Phoenix, was dressed as a women on the night of May 7th at Ron’s Place in Yuma. While dressed as a women, it is reported that Corrales flirted with a well known US Marine named “David.” Eyewitnesses at the bar that night said “David” was furious when he found out Corrales was a man. Corrales was seen leaving the bar in a silver Honda with “David” and two other men whom appeared to be US Marines. “David” and the two other men took Corrales to Paradise Cove, where later that night Corrales was found dead and mutilated. Corrales’ family who lives in Yuma, confirms Armancio’s penis was cut off, his throat slashed and that Mr. Corrales suffered severe trauma to the head.

   Link

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     Steven D on June 10, 2005 at 4:41 am

     I saw this over at Dave Neiwert’s blog.  The only place I’ve seen it until now.