Those who are taken from their homes, families, and livelihoods — the millions of black individuals who go missing every year in North America and across the globe — deserve the same dignity, support, and care from our community and broader society.
Commonalities in Missing Persons Cases
It is easy to overlook the sheer volume of people who are missing at any given time in North America. The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a Department of Justice agency, estimates nearly 100,000 persons are reported missing at any given time in the United States, with as many as 600,000 reported annually.
Circumstances surrounding missing persons cases are often enveloped in mystery, making them uncomfortable to think about or even to understand. Generally, people disappear either of their own volition or involuntarily. If missing persons choose to run away, they are often facing an extreme situation or trial that necessitates their decision. This can include mental health issues, abuse, or neglect. Victims may also have been in positions that made them vulnerable to going missing, such as homelessness and other forms of instability. Conversely, if missing persons are taken against their will, they may be victims of crime, such as abduction.
After being handed off to the police, significant efforts from external organizations go into retrieving missing persons. Professor by day and investigator by night, Dr. Sarah Miller’s work with Trace Labs represents one such non-governmental organization making strides in aiding communities with the recovery of their missing loved ones.
Trace Labs operates solely on donations and support from interested parties, with a mission to pull together significant amounts of information from open-source intelligence to facilitate missing persons investigations. Their services garner support in the form of volunteers from across the globe, people old and young, excited about making a major difference in the lives of families and the missing victims.
Once police have asked the public for help with certain cases, Trace Labs stages a comprehensive screening process and deploys volunteers to scour the internet with a variety of hacking and coding tactics for information — names, dates, addresses, etc. — that may help the police retrieve a select few missing persons. The mass online searches, or “search party events,” are gamified collective efforts. At times, event themes align with the victims’ backgrounds, especially minority groups whose cases tend to be overlooked the most.
Missing persons cases represent a diverse array of backgrounds, both in demographic makeup and in life experiences. Of the 600,000 cases that are reported annually, 40% of victims come from minority backgrounds. Trace Labs is not alone in its mission to bring light to these victims’ stories. The Black and Missing Foundation (BAMF), founded in 2008 by Derrica and Natalie Wilson, remains focused on highlighting black missing persons. The organization came about at a pivotal moment, a period where society’s biases toward white missing persons cases were finally being acknowledged.
In June 2004, Tamika Huston, a 24-year-old Spartanburg, South Carolina native, was reported missing. The young black woman was by all accounts a kind, sharp, and focused individual. The Huston family anticipated a deluge of national media attention for the nature of the case; how unorthodox it was to have a beautiful, promising young woman disappear so suddenly.
To their horror, the case stalled, barely attracting local news coverage. Compared to young white women who had disappeared under similar circumstances, Huston’s story may well have been buried for the sheer lack of attention it garnered. The Hustons’ strenuous efforts eventually culminated in her story being circulated in national media, which quickly led to a tip in the case. Ultimately, national media attention gave the Hustons the closure they deserved.
BAMF used Huston’s story as a cautionary tale about the damaging effects that media disparities between minority communities and others truly have. BAMF focuses on improving visibility in black missing persons cases to garner awareness and support for their stories.
The Black Community Perspective
Black individuals comprise only about 13% of the United States population, but they make up 16% of total missing persons cases. Disproportionate statistics for minority groups in the context of missing persons speak to the broader theme of a lack of interest and attention to their stories. The Brookings Institution’s Jada Moss found a marked underrepresentation and misrepresentation of black individuals — particularly children — in mainstream news and media.
Clear differences exist in investigation and resource allocation on the basis of race, both in law enforcement and in the media. “Missing White Woman Syndrome,” a phenomenon that describes the “overabundance of coverage that mainstream media outlets dedicate to missing persons cases of white women,” is a key correlating factor Moss points to in the lack of coverage for missing people of color. Media — be it digital, print, etc. — are the predominant forms of spreading information. In a society where collective attention is fixed on stories with the most clicks or views, in the words of BAMF’s Natalie Wilson: “equal coverage saves lives.”
David Person echoes Moss’ and Wilson’s sentiments, claiming that law enforcement tends to take cases more seriously when they are accompanied by increased media attention. A media consultant, journalist, and social justice advocate, one of Person’s many areas of passion is his production work on the podcast series “Finding Tamika.” Alongside earning accolades such as the duPont-Columbia Award for excellence in journalism, the compelling story “Finding Tamika” points to the reality that the missing case of a young black woman must spar with media for the same coverage as a white counterpart, no matter how sensational the circumstances.
Implications for the Black Community
Racial disparities in the media in missing persons cases are a difficult pill to swallow; no one person or people are directly at fault for the implicit biases built into this system. However, acknowledging the imbalance should be taken as an opportunity to fight for change. Understanding existing media biases is an asset to the black community. It is information that can push us to advocate for our people and affect change in the way media approaches the missing cases of blacks.
Missing persons are recovered by community members. Whether it be through tips about locations or suspicious activity, scouring the web for information, or advocacy and support such as BAMF provides, bringing our lost brothers and sisters home depends on how we relate to each victim and humanize their cases in ways that incentivize us to fight for them and uplift their voices when they cannot.
Wilson, Person, and others agree that the final, most important thing to remember is hope. Addressing media disparities and pushing for change is important. But when these cases finally receive the attention they need, it is equally important to rely on faith and hope to bring our lost brothers and sisters home. According to Wilson, God covers the cases and the communities when these situations arise. God is the ultimate driving force in guiding missing persons home. His unconditional love prevails when our missing loved ones are in darkness.