HBCUdigest.com January 20, 2012 Editorial: Arianna Carr and the Priority of Missing People The FBI estimates that 40 percent of missing people in the United States are of color. Many of these stories are grossly underreported. Because of coverage disparities, TV One and the Black and Missing Foundation worked together to create the show Find Our Missing, which premiered Wednesday night. The show is being called revolutionary because stories of missing brown people rarely, if ever, upstage stories of missing young, White women. The White women typically become household names, while others become fading public memories. Preferential reporting led to what many dubbed "missing White woman syndrome," the prioritization of telling damsel in distress narratives about White women without offering comparable coverage to missing racial minorities, men or older people in newsrooms and TV stations. "Besides sex, race is the biggest factor in determining how much interest journalists seem to show in a missing persons case," Robin L. Barton wrote for The Crime Report. " There's an unconscious bias in newsrooms that leads journalists to assume that men or members of a minority group go missing all the time and usually because of their involvement in some sort of criminal activity." Oftentimes these assumptions leave communities to scramble for smaller scale coverage and take matters into their own hands. These factors highlight the necessity of shows like Find Our Missing, which featured the stories of Hassani Campbell, a then five-year-old from Oakland, Calif. and Pamela Butler, a then 47-year-old Environmental Protection Agency employee from Washington D.C. Questions still remain about Campbell and Butler. Neither has been found. While print publications, television and radio remain outlets for missing people's stories, people increasingly turn to social media advocacy. People tweet, post Facebook links and create Tumblr blog posts about disappearance stories often skipped over or underreported by mainstream media. More often than not these stories of missing people of color render unpleasant or unsolved results. But, sometimes there is positive closure. The disappearance of 17-year-old Howard University student, Arianna Carr, made news recently, especially after her mother talked about the young woman being bullied and stolen from at school. Carr's story eased worries when the Oakland native was found unharmed Monday in Prince George's County, Maryland. Howard University released a statement on Carr's case. In part it said: "Carr is safe and appears to be in good health at this time. Arrangements will be made to reunite her with her family as soon as possible." While Carr's family and the Howard University community celebrate her story, many others remain mysteries or become nightmares. As Law & Order veteran S. Epatha Merkerson said during the Find Our Missing conclusion, missing people's cases serve as a "haunting and sober reminder that life is precious." Visit http://www.blackandmissinginc.com for more information. SANDRA M. PHOENIX Executive Director HBCU Library Alliance sphoenix@hbculibraries.org<mailto:sphoenix@hbculibraries.org> www.hbculibraries.org<http://www.hbculibraries.org/> 404.592.4820 Skype:sandra.phoenix1 1438 West Peachtree Street NW Suite 200 Atlanta, GA 30309 Toll Free: 1.800.999.8558 (Lyrasis) Fax: 404.892.7879 www.lyrasis.org<http://www.lyrasis.org/> Honor the ancestors, honor the children.