Missing White Female Alert

[VanBuren Boys]

illegally, I completely agree.  The media is only concerned with ratings and selling advertising.  The more sensational the story, the more attention it gets, the more money they make.  Here in Texas minorities are always in the news.  Stories of Missing children, black and hispanic are always making headlines here. 

[Made4law]

I see the point this article is trying to make, but I think it overlooks the obvious connection between these women -- their stories are sensational.  A missing pregnant woman and a runaway bride?  C'mon, that sounds like it came from a movie.  There are plenty of other white women who go missing whose stories don't get that kind of attention because they are fairly conventional and unsensational for media purposes.  I think the primary goal of any media is to sell stories, and the weird, unusual and sensational tends to sell better than the ordinary, typical and mundane.  The media execs are first and foremost concerned with making money, and not necessarily with the race of the victim.

I disagree, though your statement that these crimes/incidents are sensational are true, that does not mitigate the fact that they follow these cases like it's the end of the world...ALL of the cases that they blow up are of WHITE women...People of color also fall victim to sensational crimes and very little media coverage is devoted to them...If those women Lacy Peterson and Runaway Bride or the Aruba chick were a person of color the hype machine would not have been in full force and you know it.  Please take solace in knowing that if you Illegally Blonde were to go missing everyone would know it, because you are a white woman and a law student which would be enough for an all channel alert (not that you wouldn't deserve it and I hope you stay safe). I believe your view is tainted a bit, mine would be too if I were a white girl. I'd be just like you are right now, hoping that they keep a vigilant watch out to keep all us white girls safe.

[Made4law]

illegally, I completely agree.  The media is only concerned with ratings and selling advertising.  The more sensational the story, the more attention it gets, the more money they make.  Here in Texas minorities are always in the news.  Stories of Missing children, black and hispanic are always making headlines here. 

Locally they make news, but rarely does it make National News were CNN, FoxNews, MsNBC, CourtTV have to "follow this developing story" like it matters to the world.

[LittleRussianPrincess, Esq.]

I see the point this article is trying to make, but I think it overlooks the obvious connection between these women -- their stories are sensational.  A missing pregnant woman and a runaway bride?  C'mon, that sounds like it came from a movie.  There are plenty of other white women who go missing whose stories don't get that kind of attention because they are fairly conventional and unsensational for media purposes.  I think the primary goal of any media is to sell stories, and the weird, unusual and sensational tends to sell better than the ordinary, typical and mundane.  The media execs are first and foremost concerned with making money, and not necessarily with the race of the victim.

I disagree, though your statement that these crimes/incidents are sensational are true, that does not mitigate the fact that they follow these cases like it's the end of the world...ALL of the cases that they blow up are of WHITE women...People of color also fall victim to sensational crimes and very little media coverage is devoted to them...If those women Lacy Peterson and Runaway Bride or the Aruba chick were a person of color the hype machine would not have been in full force and you know it.  Please take solace in knowing that if you Illegally Blonde were to go missing everyone would know it, because you are a white woman and a law student which would be enough for an all channel alert (not that you wouldn't deserve it and I hope you stay safe). I believe your view is tainted a bit, mine would be too if I were a white girl. I'd be just like you are right now, hoping that they keep a vigilant watch out to keep all us white girls safe.

I'm really not in the mood to argue right now, so I won't initiate another infamous BLSD drama, but suffice it to say that I am tired to hear that my view is somehow tainted or that I simply don't understand because I am white.  In essence, you're patting me on the head and saying, "Here, here, white girl.  It's okay that you don't get it.  You can't help that you're white and ignorant."  I am aware of the racial tensions in this country and have fallen victim to them myself.  Sure, I don't know first hand what it is like to be any other race or ethnicity but what I am, but that doesn't mean that I cannot understand and cannot care about the plight of others.  Made4Law, I understand your concern for your people and will never condemn it, but not everything out there is a race issue.  A lot more of these issues come down to money than to race, and I don't have to be Black to understand that.

[Made4law]

I see the point this article is trying to make, but I think it overlooks the obvious connection between these women -- their stories are sensational.  A missing pregnant woman and a runaway bride?  C'mon, that sounds like it came from a movie.  There are plenty of other white women who go missing whose stories don't get that kind of attention because they are fairly conventional and unsensational for media purposes.  I think the primary goal of any media is to sell stories, and the weird, unusual and sensational tends to sell better than the ordinary, typical and mundane.  The media execs are first and foremost concerned with making money, and not necessarily with the race of the victim.

I disagree, though your statement that these crimes/incidents are sensational are true, that does not mitigate the fact that they follow these cases like it's the end of the world...ALL of the cases that they blow up are of WHITE women...People of color also fall victim to sensational crimes and very little media coverage is devoted to them...If those women Lacy Peterson and Runaway Bride or the Aruba chick were a person of color the hype machine would not have been in full force and you know it.  Please take solace in knowing that if you Illegally Blonde were to go missing everyone would know it, because you are a white woman and a law student which would be enough for an all channel alert (not that you wouldn't deserve it and I hope you stay safe). I believe your view is tainted a bit, mine would be too if I were a white girl. I'd be just like you are right now, hoping that they keep a vigilant watch out to keep all us white girls safe.

I'm really not in the mood to argue right now, so I won't initiate another infamous BLSD drama, but suffice it to say that I am tired to hear that my view is somehow tainted or that I simply don't understand because I am white.  In essence, you're patting me on the head and saying, "Here, here, white girl.  It's okay that you don't get it.  You can't help that you're white and ignorant."  I am aware of the racial tensions in this country and have fallen victim to them myself.  Sure, I don't know first hand what it is like to be any other race or ethnicity but what I am, but that doesn't mean that I cannot understand and cannot care about the plight of others.  Made4Law, I understand your concern for your people and will never condemn it, but not everything out there is a race issue.  A lot more of these issues come down to money than to race, and I don't have to be Black to understand that.

Hey I don't want any drama either and I was defending you...I don't blame you for your position, it would be insane for any white girl in America to not be happy with the attention these cases are getting.  It means if something were to happen to you, people would care and do everything in their power to find you and bring whomever harmed you to justice...I'm just pointing out that they don't do it for everyone...

[hilljack]

This thread is stupid.  Not the topic, it is interesting I guess, but the thread has no value...it sucks.

[dbgirl]

I don't think this thread is stupid.
There is definitely an imbalance going on, whether it is about money (which IMO is most likely) or race (also a factor) some cases are getting more media attention than others.

I personally do not think there is such a thing as paying too much attention to a missing person, however. I just hope that any case of stranger abduction gets a good amount of attention.

[_BP_]

We agree that the murder of the white baby is more likely to gain national attention right?  I don't buy the argument that it's economically driven though. I mean, money might be the tip of the iceberg, but the ice below the water usually points to something else. Yes whites care more about what happens in their "manicured lawn communties" (thanks dbgirl).  Then the question becomes why?  Why do they care more about white babies dying than black babies dying?  Does has nothing to do with race?   

[ScurvyWench]

I don't think this thread is stupid.
There is definitely an imbalance going on, whether it is about money (which IMO is most likely) or race (also a factor) some cases are getting more media attention than others.

I personally do not think there is such a thing as paying too much attention to a missing person, however. I just hope that any case of stranger abduction gets a good amount of attention.

My best job EVER was working to balance this discrepancy and help minority families get the same access and national attention as white families. I follow ALL of these stories and have all of the news tickers.

Money, and being willing to make yourself a national spectacle and have all of your business all over the news are all major factors.

[_BP_]

Article I found:

White Girl Disappears in Aruba
 
by James Buchanan

-An Associated Press article reports “Two men were charged Sunday in connection with the disappearance last week of an Alabama teenager who was visiting the island with classmates to celebrate their high school graduation, Aruba’s attorney general said. Authorities on the Dutch Caribbean island also requested a special diving team from the FBI because of rough currents in some areas, said Attorney General Caren Janssen. The arrests came nearly a week after 18-year-old Natalee Holloway disappeared during a five-day trip to Aruba with more than 100 other classmates from Mountain Brook High School, near Birmingham, Ala. The men — ages 28 and 30 — were arrested Sunday morning…”

The thought of an innocent young girl straight out of high school becoming the victim of some horrible crime in a supposed vacation paradise is shocking for many Americans. The Associated Press article about this missing girl in Aruba is currently the most viewed article in the world. Photos of the distraught relatives and classmates and one of the Black suspects are linked to the article.

This tragedy raises a number of questions. How could the parents allow their naive 18 year old girl to vacation in a Third World country? While the island has beautiful beaches, the population is far from beautiful. Almost every island in the Caribbean has a huge Black population. Black slaves were brought in to work plantations hundreds of years ago and today they form virtually the entire population of Haiti and Jamaica. Aruba has a mixed race population comprised mostly of Blacks and native Indians. Presumably the parents would not let their 18 year old daughter vacation in Detroit, so why do they think the Blacks in Jamaica or Aruba are significantly different from our home-grown minorities?-

Got to love you James Buchanan.  Interesting to see how some folks think...haha.  Somehow he failed to point out that Aruba averages like 2 murders per year for a population of 72,000.  That is a per capita rate that would be the envy of most U.S cities. 

Oh, he failed to wonder why two black security guards who were never seen with the girl were quickly arrested, while the three "suspects" who were the last people seen with her (leaving in a car in the wee hours of the morning) weren't arrested until 11 days later.  Maybe the fact that it would be easier to arrest two black security guards, than the white son of a judge (the one who was supposed to have been "romantically involved" with the young lady).  I doubt he would retract those statements if it's proven that those two black guys had nothing to do with it.  Guess it wouldn't make much of a difference, the negative image has already been furthered.