There is a racist double standard when it comes to missing women

Activism

Nov 22

Like much of USAmerica, I have been enthralled by the case of missing and murdered Gabby Petito. While I find it interesting, I am definitely not a huge true crime fan. However, the amount of coverage on the case and relatability of a young, pretty blonde girl made it impossible to turn away.

That is how it should be when girls, women and folks of other marginalized genders go missing or are murdered. Unfortunately, though, this kind of coverage is few and far between. During the search for Petito and the manhunt for her fiancé, Brian Laundrie, the remains of a number of people have been found.

It is good news that the search for Petito and Laundrie led to answers for all these other cases, but it shouldn’t take the search for one couple to find all the others. The others who were found were not your girl-next-door Instagram influencer, but were older men, people of color and LGBT+ people.

For all of USAmerican history, our society has been designed to protect and care about the missing white women at the expense of communities of color. From the violence waged against Native Americans as we stole their land to the weaponization of white women’s virtue to lynch Black men, the beautiful, innocent white woman has always been the damsel in distress at the forefront of the story of the Americas.

Women of color do not get the same media attention as missing white women, which means that the mysteries of their disappearances remain unsolved.

This is especially true in Indigenous communities across the U.S. Native women are 10 times more likely to be victims of murder than the national average. Indigenous women are more likely than white women to experience violence, be sexually assaulted and be murdered.

Thousands of Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit individuals have been murdered or have disappeared (heretofore referred to as MMIW). In 2016, the National Crime Information Center reported more than 5,700 MMIW, but many cases are deemed runaways, suicides or accidents and still more cases are unreported, so the actual number of cases is unknown.

In 2020, ABC released a new TV show “Big Sky” that follows detectives in search of two women who were kidnapped in Montana. This show is the perfect example of the erasure of Indigenous women and their struggles from media in crime shows. “Big Sky” follows the kidnapping of white women in a state where 26% of missing persons cases are of an Indigenous person despite Indigenous communities making up only 6.7% of the state population.

The show received backlash from Indigenous communities, and the network vowed to do better and learn from the criticism. It is long past due, however, for networks and shows to depict more diverse storylines. When white people are the only folks in the room making decisions, it is no wonder that white people’s stories are the only ones that get told.

When Indigenous women are the storytellers, on the other hand, they are more likely to focus on Indigenous stories.

The inspiration for this article is a podcast called “The Red Justice Project,” which is a true crime podcast hosted by two Lumbee women in North Carolina. They tell stories of missing and murdered Indigenous people in the U.S. and Canada. They started the podcast because there weren’t any true crime podcasts dedicated to uplifting the stories of Indigenous people.

As we have seen in the Petito case, awareness and attention to a case is vital to receiving answers. Because the whole nation was enamoured with news on the Petito case, folks in the area came forward with tips. When Indigenous stories don’t get coverage, it is harder to solve without help and tips from the public.

I also love this podcast because they recognize their ancestral tradition of oral storytelling in Indigenous communities. In this way, they are honoring their identity, the victims’ identities, and working to heal their community.

Header via Manny Becerra / Unsplash