Missing Black girls and the individuals and organizations trying to help

By Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent 

Have you seen Iniaya Wilson?

Just 14, Iniaya has been missing from her Columbus, Ohio home since January 25.

She’s African American, has brown hair and brown eyes; standing 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighing 120 pounds.

Have you seen Skylar Mannie?

From Lancaster, Calif., Skylar is also Black and just 13 years old. She was last seen on Feb. 14.

She has black hair, brown eyes, stands 5 feet 5 inches and weighs 130 pounds.

The two are among the estimated 64,000 Black girls and women across the United States that have gone missing. Iniaya and Skylar are also among an unfortunately growing number of young people listed in the “critically missing” section of the expansive database of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

That includes girls and women of all backgrounds, an important distinction because of the lack of media coverage of African Americans who’ve gone missing.

That has spurred activists and some in Congress to action.

In efforts to address the problem of missing Black children nationwide, Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), and Yvette D. Clarke (D-NY) initiated the Congressional Caucus on Black Women and Girls in 2016. Through the caucus, they hope to create public policies that “eliminate significant barriers and disparities experienced by black women.”

According to BlackNews.com, members of the caucus believe that more federal assistance and collaboration is needed to further eliminate the problem.

“I feel like knocking on every attic, every garage to see where those girls are,” House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi said. “Let’s be an example to the world that we can’t rest until these girls are found.”

Further, the nonprofit Black and Missing But Not Forgotten, also has focused its attention on spotlighting and finding missing African Americans.

Since 2007, the organization has sought to develop relationships with media, government agencies and the public to ensure that missing African Americans receive prompt attention and concern to garner the best possible outcomes for each case.

A 2010 study about the media coverage of missing children in the United States discovered that only 20 percent of reported stories focused on missing Black children despite it corresponding to 33 percent of the overall missing children cases.

The report revealed that missing Black youth – especially Black girls – are underreported in the news and it seems that many people don’t even care.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said that in 2018 alone, there were 424,066 reports of missing children made to law enforcement around the country.

John and Revé Walsh and other child advocates founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children as a private, non-profit organization to serve as the national clearinghouse and to provide a coordinated, national response to problems relating to missing and exploited children.

Walsh, who formerly hosted “America’s Most Wanted,” now does similar work with his show, “In Pursuit.”

The show, which airs on the Investigation Discovery network, has remained relentless in its pursuit of missing children.

Original Article

Epidemic of missing Black girls continues to stump authorities, frustrate parents

by Stacy M. Brown, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

Lashaya Stine, 16

Lashaya Stine, 16, was walking down the street alone in Aurora, Colorado.

It doesn’t appear that the young African American female had any sort of trip planned, as she left her wallet and phone charger, and she didn’t take any clothes.

According to a television station in Denver, police released surveillance video of Stine taken on the morning of July 15 around 2:30 A.M. She is seen walking by herself in the area of East Montview and Peoria Street. The video was sent out to the public a little over two weeks after her disappearance in hopes of generating more leads.

Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29.

The estimated 75,000 missing black women and girls continue to stump law enforcement while frustrating and devastating families. It forces the question: Does anyone care?

Since NNPA Newswire reported on the alarming lack of interest in the cases of missing black females, readers – including law enforcement – have responded by using social media to bring to light the host of African Americans and others of color who’ve gone missing.

The social media account for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children retweeted the NNPA Newswire story and then accumulated a long thread of missing girls – some as young as a few months old.

They began each tweet with: “Have you seen this child?”

Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

Among the missing are:

Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20.

Anya Washington, missing from Houston, Texas since Jan. 29.

R’Mahnee Williams-Turner, missing from Palmdale, Calif., since Jan. 26.

Whitney Elliseau, missing from Lakewood, Calif., since Feb. 5.

Jada Cyrus, missing from Boston, Mass., since Jan. 29.

Myla Abanda, missing from Fairfax, Va., since Nov. 16.

Zakiah Abdul-Khaliq, missing from Austin, Texas, since Aug. 27, 2018.

Yasmin Acree, missing from Chicago, Ill., since Jan. 15, 2018.

Harmony Adams, missing from Columbus, Oh., since July 18, 2018.

Kelli Allen, missing from Atlanta, Ga., since Dec. 20, 2018.

Kelly Allen, Missing from Berkley, Miss., since March 13, 2007.

Kaaliyah Alston, missing from Hillsborough, NC., since Aug. 21, 2018.

Hazana Anderson, missing from College Station, Texas, since Oct. 28, 2018.

Karyn Anderson, missing from Walkersville, Md., since March 24, 2018.

Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018.

Rae’vanna Anderson, missing from Duluth, Ga., since Nov. 3, 2018.

A comprehensive list can be found on the website for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(NCMEC).

For families with a missing or sexually exploited child, NCMEC provides crisis intervention and local counseling referrals to appropriate professionals.

The organization’s “Team HOPE” program connects families with peers who have had similar experiences and can offer coping skills and compassion. When a missing child is recovered, NCMEC helps the family with the reunification process, including mental health services and travel assistance.

Psychologist and Navy veteran Sheri Davis said it’s vital that the missing are given attention by the media and especially law enforcement.

Davis said she relates well with them on a couple of fronts: She once went missing and she’s also the victim of domestic violence, a trigger for some who’ve been made vulnerable to abductions, run away and become the eventual victim of sex trafficking.

“One thing I think for sure about the missing teens is that human trafficking is a hotbed in my city [and around the country],” said Davis, who lives in Madison, Alabama. “I think it’s very easy for the courts and police to turn their heads the other way and not deal with the problem at hand.”

Tim’Monique Davis, missing from Moorhead, Minnesota since Jan. 20.

Davis continued:

“I had to escape from my abuser in the middle of the night … naked and running down the road and praying that a good bystander helps me while I’m covered in blood. The families of these young ladies need to be in the face of [law enforcement officials] and let them see the pain they are in every day that those girls aren’t home or safe.”

Why the Crisis of Missing Black Girls Needs More Attention Than It’s Getting

An academic study analyzed news coverage of missing children and found that only 20 percent of reported stories focused on missing Black children. This, despite the fact that Black children account for 33 percent of total missing children cases. In other words, missing Black youth are grossly underreported in the news. For missing girls, it’s even worse. When Black girls go missing, far too many people don’t know or don’t care.

Consistently, Black teen girls are disproportionately reported missing from their homes and communities, and when they go missing, the disparity in coverage compared to missing White teens is shameful. Black girls’ lives matter. Our girls deserve protection and support, but our society seems content to ignore them at best and dehumanize them at worst.

We see this regularly in Pittsburgh, where I live. When this happens, my organization posts the information on our social media networks using the hashtag #BlackGirlMissing. This community-driven effort is often what returns girls home safely to their family and community with minimal reporting from the media and limited support from the police in those critical first 48 hours.

The same disquieting trend was recently reported in Washington, D.C., with 10 Black and Latina teen girls who have gone missing in the past few months. In most cases, we don’t know whether these young women have run away from home, were abducted, subjected to violence, funneled into the sex industry — put simply, the proper alarm bells are not being rung, and not nearly enough is being done to ensure these girls are brought back to their homes and to safety.

This is a nationwide problem. As of 2014, 64,000 Black womenwere missing across the U.S. That’s a highly disproportionaterate within the total number of missing persons reports. You’d think we’d hear the stories of 64,000 missing women on the news — yet, we don’t.

There is a connection between the frequency with which Black women disappear and the cycle of criminalization and incarceration of Black women and girls. By ignoring or underreporting their stories, the media is failing these girls. But so is the criminal justice system.

The second an opportunity emerges to punish Black girls, legal authorities seize it and push Black girls out of school, into the criminal justice system as Dr. Monique W. Morris discusses in her book, Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools. We’re routinely punished for such everyday behaviors as driving our cars, standing on the sidewalk and browsing in stores; instead of showing us empathy and prioritizing alternatives to incarceration, authorities are quick to criminalize our behavior.

Look at Bresha Meadows in Ohio. After enduring years of physical harm from her abusive father, Bresha finally stood up to him in self-defense as he threatened to kill her mother and siblings. At the age of 14, Bresha saved her family members’ lives. But instead of finding trauma-aware, culturally competent care for her as a survivor of abuse, police incarcerated her in juvenile detention and charged her with aggravated murder. No matter the circumstances of Black girls’ lives, we are consistently disregarded and dehumanized by the media and by law enforcement.

The media and criminal justice system should respect, protect and trust Black women and girls — instead of unjustly persecuting us. The media and the criminal justice system should function as tools to support our girls, not as systems that repeatedly fail them. Demanding proper support from formal structures can start at the grassroots level: When we hear of a Black girl who has disappeared, use #BlackGirlMissing to amplify her story. Listening to Black women sometimes means interrogating why they’re not speaking, why their voice has gone silent.

La’Tasha D. Mayes is the founder and executive director of New Voices for Reproductive Justice.

In this article: black girls, missing persons, News Media, Washington D.C.

Original Article