When Laci Peterson went missing, the biggest media push that her disappearance got BY FAR was on the morning news programs (they of the cooking demonstrations and lightweight celeb interviews). The explanation was that Laci was young, white, nearly a mother, pretty, and upper-middle-class--exactly the demo that the morning news programs were after.

Race is not the only thing Elizabeth Smart et al have in common; they all come from economically comfortable to well-off families, people that others either relate to or aspire to be. I have to think that poor white children disappear too, but they don't provide a chance to show off the four-bedroom house in the leafy suburb where she was snatched or the vacation in South Beach that turned into a nightmare for this family.

The producers figure that their target demographic (read: white, wealthy SAHMs) can't relate to these stories (the unspoken message is that they won't relate to anyone different than they are) so the stories get cut. Sadly, they'll call the focus on some children and not others a business decision.

My comments are all about the marketing today...

Here's hoping it reunites some missing kids with their families.

Ms. Harding.

Are African American missing kids usually kidnapped by non-custodial parents, just like white kids? Or, if African American men are the absent fathers we keep hearing about, is there something much more sinister going on here?

Just before the Elizabeth Smart disappeared, there was a similar story about a 5 or 6-year-old black girl who was missing. I can't remember her name. TV news immediately abandoned the stories about the black girl in favor of the pretty blond teenager. It was really disgusting.

I hope it is successful in helping find these kids. The internet is so powerful these days, who knows...

But let's not turn against the Elizabeth Smarts of this world either. A loss is a loss is a loss.

Then why isn’t this Salon’s cover page? I seem to recall Elizabeth Smart getting a decent amount of Salon coverage back in the day (a quick search confirms that) but none of these black kids did.

I mean – if it’s really such a big deal (and I agree that it is) you need to do a better job of covering these black kidnappings too or it just sounds hypocritical.

I don't know where this obsession with missing white women/girls came from, but it's way overblown. Yes, it's a good idea to have regional awareness in case anybody sees a missing child/person, but why do I need to know about a little girl who was kidnapped in Floria, 2,500 miles from me? At some point it becomes gratuitous. We are invading the privacy of the families involved simply to ... I'm not sure what we get out of it. But it can't be good. And if we keep the interest regional, then the media will be able to show more missing local kids, since they won't be busy obsessing over children missing half a world away.

You raise a good point, but I suspect that Ms. Harding is doing the best she can with what she has. At least she isn't writing about high heels or underwear or some wank site. I suppose that Salon's editors are just purveying to their readers' purient interests in giving prostitutes the front page and filling Broadsheet with titillating stories about...tits. Missing black kids just aren't as sexy as high heels.

Again, thank you, Ms. Harding. I'm been critical of you in the past, but you've made me proud. Now, if only these black kids had been tarted up like Jon Benet Ramsey...and been blond...and white...and rich.

There is also the oddity of reducing this essay, even though it has 437 words and Logan's essay has 418 words and is displayed fully on the Broadsheet page. Are you familiar with Amanda Marcotte's book, the ostensibly progressive one with the cartoon images of the white girl fighting the black "savages"? Ms. Marcotte argued that in her excitement, she missed how the cover might offend, while in the book, she argued against racism. Reducing Ms. Harding's essay might be replicating this dynamic and the greater cultural dynamic of reducing the importance of missing black children by not tendering them coverage. Not only won't Salon give this front page treatment, it doesn't even merit a full display of Ms. Harding's essay on the Broadsheet page. I'm not suggesting that this was done with malice. I am suggesting that the cultural evaluation that Ms. Harding addresses might be at play at Salon, just as surely as it infiltrated Ms. Marcotte's choices.

...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.

You raise some very important points here. I had once also speculated to myself that a certain cultural malaise in America might come from the idea that the 'prototypical' White American will become a minority. I wondered a few times what will happen when this actually becomes true.

I'm more into thinking the explanation is class rather than stereotypes about bad Black parents. I think it's also the aesthetics of the pretty-looking missing girls; other missing children will simply have a less heartbreaking impact on viewers.