To begin, this article talked about the lack of public attention people of color experience. In particular, Ella Mae Begay (a woman of the Navajo nation) vanished three months ago, but there hasn’t been any media coverage on her disappearance. Gabby Petito, a missing white woman, was treated very differently. Petito’s disappearance in Wyoming caused a social media frenzy and was a major topic on national news. According to a state report, only 18% of missing Indigenous women in Wyoming have had any media coverage in the past decade.
This lack of media coverage is taking a toll on each family with a missing person of color. Begay’s niece feels that white lives matter more than the lives of people of color. This negative impact on people of color relates to de Beauvoir’s idea of the Other; Begay can be seen as the Other compared to Petito being the One. Additionally, Adichie’s single story concept is relevant to disappearances; people may obtain stereotypes of what they think missing people should look like (i.e. attractive white women). Lastly, Begay’s identity as a Navajo woman could lead to overlapping systems of discrimination/disadvantage because of her ethnicity and gender.
This article represents a systemic injustice because influential news sources are oppressing people of color by limiting their media coverage and power. This embedded hierarchy in media coverage with white people at the top is a long-term racial injustice. For this wrong to be righted, there must be equal media coverage in all cases of missing people, regardless of race. It’s not fair that Petito was found, while Begay is still missing. Ultimately, public attention is key in all disappearances, especially immediately after it happens.
This idea of intersectionality (the complicated system of overlapping identities) is relevant in this systemic injustice. Ms. Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” and talked about it in depth on a TED Talk. In particular, she talked about the lack of media coverage for African American women who were killed. These women were oppressed by the intersection of their race and gender, making them more underprivileged than a black man or a white woman. To conclude, these African American women deserve justice just like Ella Mae Begay.
Article source:
Whitehurst, Lindsay et al. “Petito Case Renews Call To Spotlight Missing People Of Color”. Huffpost,
2021, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/petito-case-renews-call-to-spotlight-missing-people-of-
color_n_614f38a0e4b03d83bad3a2ed.
Related images, links, and key terms:
Missing White Woman Syndrome: refers to the disproportionate media coverage of missing white women or girls who are oftentimes young, have the American standard of beauty, and are upper-middle-class compared to minorities who disappear
https://www.wfla.com/news/local-news/missing-people-of-color-ensuring-justice-for-all-tampa-families-frustrated-with-lack-of-response-to-their-cases/
Hi! This was a really great post. I chose to comment on yours because I also wrote about something similar a couple weeks ago. Missing White Woman Syndrome is a really big thing in the United States. When a White woman goes missing, the media is immediately attracted and the story blows up. This isn’t the case for many young children that go missing, men, or anyone that is nonwhite. It is really heartbreaking. Many families experience these overwhelming feelings of neglect everyday. I pray for all of those families out there that have missing family members that do not get the media coverage they deserve. Overall, really nice job!
This is really interesting to me- I feel like we very rarely hear about news stories about people of color going missing (if anything, we hear about the suspected abductor being a person of color). I cannot tell you the last time I heard a story of person (especially a woman of color) being reported missing and gotten media coverage. We should be treating all missing persons with equal coverage, not just to the people who may look the most similar to us.
Hello! This was a very well-written post. The media coverage that Petitio received vs. the media coverage that is given to others in the same situation is unbelievable. There is no doubt that situations like this one display inequalities and promote injustices. It is very hard to believe that one life deserves more attention than another life. Thank you for discussing this idea and bringing attention to it, as it is happening right now right in front of us.
Hi!
I really enjoyed reading your post, it highlighted other aspects that I didn’t cover when I wrote a post about Petito’s disappearance. What is sad, but true, is people are more likely to feel sympathy towards a white woman than a woman of color. I will play devils advocate for a minute and argue that Petito received much of this attention because of her and Bryan’s large social media following before the disappearance. They posted much of their life and people followed them so when she went missing all of her followers, who already knew her in a sense, started drawing attention to it. However, I completely agree with what you are saying and I think it’s horrible the way many indigenous people or people of color seem to be forgotten and are no doubt treated poorly in our criminal justice system.
I really enjoyed this post and chose to comment because this case has been very interesting to me. However, I had not even heard about Ella Mae Begay going missing, which just proves your point of this injustice even more! It is so heartbreaking that there is so much more media coverage over Petito compared to Begay. There should be equal coverage for both. This is just another example on how racism and injustice continues to be a huge problem even today.