- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
...it frustrates me to see readers waxing about pantyhose and high heels while this thread just sits.
I'm old enough to remember postcards that portrayed "pickanannies"* as darling and those postcards were purchased by white folks.
And I heard white elders effusing things like, "Aren't they darling," when they saw black children. So, in those situations, black children seem to elicit the same affection from white adults as white children. Therefore, why don't missing black children elicit the same reaction as missing white children?
I suspect it's because of the meme that black parents aren't good parents. Therefore, a missing black child is justice. I also suspect that the indifference is due to the realization among white folks that the day is coming when we will be a minority in America, so a missing black child delays that day. I suspect it's also due to class. It is rich white girls who garner the coverage. I suspect that there are poor white children who are missing that have received little to no coverage. The inequity of response might be due to richer folks having better skills at engaging the media.
* This was the word used on those postcards.
