This is from the US Green Party:
The Green Party of the United States National Women’s Caucus released a statement today calling for a national task force to focus on solving the disappearances of black women and girls.
National Green Party Women's Caucus
www.gp.org
For Immediate Release:
Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Contact:
Monica James, monicajames3409@aol.com, National Green Party Women’s Caucus Spokesperson
Caucus spokesperson Monica James said, “As Black women and girls go missing, and the media hardly gives coverage and the police do very little to solve their cases, the GPUS Women’s Caucus believes a national task force is required to address this issue. As the Caucus spokesperson, this topic of the invisible, unknown numbers of missing Black women and girls has touched me personally and many of us the hardest. Some have never heard these stories, but in the Black communities, it’s the silent wishes of family and friends, exhausted, crying for help, that these women be acknowledged and found.”
The task force would accurately collect and share data on missing Black women and girls and provide financial and logistical support to local government agencies in solving the disappearances, among other goals.
Green Party 2020 vice-presidential nominee Angela Walker said, “The epidemic of missing Black girls and women (both cisgender and transgender) in the United States has been underreported for far too long. It is unacceptable that these disappearances are not prioritized, and this disregard only highlights the fact that this country does not protect or respect Black girls and women. It is past time for a task force that focuses on this national tragedy and brings aid to the families affected. As a Black woman, parent and grandparent, this is personal to me.”
The statement highlights research demonstrating that Black people make up a disproportionate number of missing persons. However, when Black women and girls are reported missing, they are frequently inappropriately classified as runaways, which removes the sense of urgency in the response. Public knowledge of the missing is limited because many of the stories never make it to the media, and few are prioritized or solved by the police, but the numbers are estimated to be in the tens of thousands. Except for primarily Black journalists and publications that have covered the issue, few of the stories are reported or ever resolved.
STATEMENT
As Black Women and Girls Go Missing, and the Media and the Police Do Little, a National Task Force is Required to Address the Issue
The Green Party of the United States National Women’s Caucus calls for a national task force to focus on solving the disappearances of Black women and girls that includes the following:
- Accurately collect and share data on missing Black women and girls
- Provide financial and logistical support to local government agencies in solving disappearances of Black women and girls
- Review cold cases involving missing Black women and girls
- Provide education to local government agencies on stereotypes that prevent officials from taking disappearances of Black women and girls seriously
- Seek input from the families of the missing Black women and girls to better understand the issue
Black people make up a disproportionate number of missing persons, both adults and children. Yet their cases get less attention from the media and the police. Black women and girls in particular get few resources. The National Women's Caucus of the Green Party would like to shine a spotlight on this disparity and we call for a national task force to focus on solving the disappearances of Black women and girls.
Nearly all people reported missing are found. Per the NCIC, of 609,275 reports made in 2019, only 2171 remained active at the end of the year. But active cases stay in the system indefinitely. According to the FBI, “As of December 31, 2019, the NCIC had nearly 87,500 active missing person records. Youth under the age of 18 account for 35 percent of the records, and 44 percent of the missing person records are people under 21.” The records have accrued since 1983.
Blacks make up 13.4% of the American population (per Census estimates for 2019) yet the NCIC statistics show that 33.8% of reports in 2019 were for missing Black people. The percentage of Blacks in the 37 years of active cases is even higher.
A PLOS ONE study by van de Rijt, et. al., of New York State 2017 data, found that Black children were twice as likely as non-Black children to be still missing at the end of their observation period. This disparity persisted even after controlling for things like age at disappearance.
Min & Feaster, in their landmark 2010 study, found that missing Black children got 19.5% of news coverage about missing children despite accounting for 33.2% of cases. Other studies report the same results: white missing persons of all ages proportionately get far more media coverage than do Black missing persons.
Surprisingly, Min & Feaster found that missing boys got more news coverage than missing girls. While more recent studies by other authors have found no gender difference or a small one in favor of girls, Min & Feaster state that missing girls got 37.8% of news coverage despite accounting for 57.4% of the cases in the same time period.
Black people go missing about three times more often than might be expected based on population. Higher rates of poverty, homelessness, and incarceration all stem from systemic racism, decades of imposed housing and job segregation, and inequity in education and health services and these all contribute to a variety of factors that make someone more likely to disappear. But once a Black child or adult is missing, they are also a lot less likely to be found.
A 2019 study by Jada L. Moss showed that “in 2016, African-American missing persons cases appeared amongst the remaining older and open cases four times as often as the cases of White and Hispanic missing persons.”
When Black people go missing, their disappearance is often framed in a way you don’t see when white people go missing. Black children are usually classified as runaways, even when they are young or it’s out of character. While running away is in fact the most common reason why an older child goes missing, it’s used as a way to dismiss cases for Black children. Police may not bother investigating and the media rarely profiles the case. Amber Alerts only go out for suspected abductions.
The task force would provide education to local government agencies on stereotypes that prevent officials from taking disappearances of Black women and girls seriously and seek input from the families of the missing Black women to better understand the issue.
REFERENCES
Why the Crisis of Missing Black Girls Needs More Attention Than It’s Getting
La’Tasha D. Mayes
Ebony, March 24, 2017
Missing Children in National News Coverage: Racial and Gender Representations of Missing Children Cases
Seong-Jae Min & John C. Feaster
Communication Research Reports, Vol. 27, No. 3, July–September 2010, pp. 207–216
Black kids go missing at a higher rate than white kids. Here's why we don't hear about them
Harmeet Kaur
CNN, November 3, 2019
The
Forgotten Victims of Missing White Woman Syndrome: An Examination of
Legal Measures That Contribute to the Lack of Search and Recovery of
Missing Black Girls and Women
Jada L. Moss
William & Mary Journal of Race, Gender, and Social Justice. Volume 25 (2018-2019) Issue 3
Article 9 April 2019
The urgent crisis of missing Black women and girls
Treva Lindsey
Women’s Media Center (WMC), February 20, 2020
There Are 64,000 Missing Black Women in The USA. So Why Aren’t We Seeing Their Cases Reported in The Media?
Samantha Clarke
Medium, Nov 23, 2019
There Are 64,000 Missing Black Women and Girls in the United States and No One Seems to Care
BlackNews.com, February 15, 2019
Missing black women's cases are often unsolved, underreported. Here are 7 from Montgomery
Safiya Charles
Montgomery Advertiser, November 15, 2019
2019 NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Statistics
FBI Releases 2019 Missing Person Statistics
Racial and gender differences in missing children’s recovery chances
Arnout van de Rijt, Hyang-Gi Song, Eran Shor, Rebekah Burroway
PLOS ONE, December 31, 2018
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If the media could stop fawning over Joe Biden, maybe they could cover real issues?
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Thursday, January 21, 2021. Bombings slam Baghdad, US media gushes over Joe Biden.
This morning, Baghdad is slammed with bombings "in a busy commercial area near Baghdad’s al-Tayaran Square."
and Justin Malcolm (WALL STREET JOURNAL) report, "Twin suicide bombings ripped through a crowded marketplace in Baghdad on Thursday, killing at least 32 people and wounding at least 75 others in the first such attack in Iraq’s capital in more than two years." The writers insist that "the explosions shattered a period of relative calm." It hasn't been relatively calm in Iraq but it does provide cover for your outlet that's ignored the ongoing violence -- especially the violence aimed at the protesters -- when shocked readers see the story. As XINHUA points out, "sporadic deadly incidents still occur in the war-ravaged country as IS remnants have since melted into urban areas or deserts and rugged areas, carrying out frequent guerilla attacks against security forces and civilians" Samya Kullab and Qassim Abdul-Zahra (AP) note, "Blood smeared the floors of the busy market amid piles of clothes and shoes as survivors took stock of the disarray in the aftermath." The first bomb helped draw the crowd, the second one then went off. Martin Chulov (GUARDIAN) explains, "The interior ministry said the first bomber had claimed he was ill and when crowds gathered to help, he detonated his bomb." Aqeel Najm, Jomana Karadsheh, Kareem Khadder and Tamara Qiblawi (CNN) add:
ALJAZEERA's Abdelfattah Fayed states, "The injured were rushed to the nearby hospitals. Local reports suggest that the number of fatalities will rise as the large number of those injured are in very critical condition." Ramadan Al Sherbini (GULF NEWS) notes, "Photos carried by Iraqi media showed bodies lying on the ground in the aftermath of the attack." XINHUA reports:
Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Thursday condemned in the strongest terms the twin suicide bombings at a crowded commercial area in Iraq's capital Baghdad.
"That terrorist attack is a heinous act that came at a very important time. It undoubtedly aimed to hinder Iraq's efforts to restore the country's security and stability and achieve the aspired economic reform," Aboul-Gheit said.
MIDDLE EAST MONITOR offers this context, "The latest bombings come just days after the government unanimously voted to postpone the country's general elections to October this year. They were scheduled for 6 June. Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi had pledged to hold early elections after taking office last year, to appease anti-government protesters demanding a reform of the country's political system and an end to rampant corruption and poor public services."
Among the many hideous moments on US TV yesterday? The efforts to turn Bully Boy Bush into someone worthy of admiration. The War Criminal is beloved by those who whore for corporations. Hannibal Khoury Tweets:
Corporate whores are happy. They spent yesterday ooh-ing and ahh-ing over aged debutante Joe Biden's coming out party. The rest of the world? Not so much. Kooky | Destroyer of Mayo notes:
Palestine is not celebrating today Venezuela is not celebrating today Iran is not celebrating today Syria is not celebrating today Iraq is not celebrating today Cuba is not celebrating today Bolivia is not celebrating today Yemen is not celebrating today
Chile is not celebrating today Afghanistan is not celebrating today Honduras is not celebrating today
I'm not letting liberals enjoy this. There is nothing to enjoy, only the continuation of capitalist terror and hegemony
Also a preemptive response to liberals finding this: I'm Syrian, ask me about the Obama years
Yeah the new president is a war criminal who has terrorized the places I listed. Take your smart comments to other places
Joseph Kishore (WSWS) reports of the inauguration:
President Joseph Biden’s inaugural address yesterday was significant above all for its banality. Amidst an unprecedented political, social and economic crisis of the entire capitalist order, Biden delivered remarks filled with cliches, incoherent non sequiturs and the emptiest of abstractions.
One would not, of course, expect Biden to deliver a socialist speech. He is a capitalist politician assuming the position of “commander-in-chief” of the most powerful imperialist country. However, in the tradition of American politics, the inaugural address of the incoming president used to be an occasion for speaking in some form to the political situation and the policy of the incoming administration.
[. . .]
The poverty of Biden’s remarks is not just an intellectual failure. He knows full well that any hint at a significant shift in policy would spark a sell-off on the markets. As it was, the markets rose during his speech. In the minds of the political establishment and the media, this is the main factor in concluding that the speech was a great success. They were all somewhat richer at its conclusion than at its beginning.
Moreover, the political representatives of the ruling class, and particularly the Democratic Party, are acutely aware of the fact that any serious examination of reality—including the political and social forces behind the rise of fascism in America and the bipartisan policies that have produced the catastrophic spread of the pandemic—risks a social and political explosion that will threaten the entire capitalist order.
Biden’s appeal to “unity” is, ultimately, a desperate effort to cover over a massive social chasm. This chasm does not separate the Democrats from the Republicans, who, whatever their differences, both represent the same oligarchy. It is the unbridgeable division between the capitalist ruling elite, on the one hand, and the working class, on the other. It is the fear of the open eruption of this conflict that drives Biden to his abstractions.
ADDED: Glenn Greenwald Tweeted:
The following sites updated:
