A Plea to #FindOurGirls
It is clear that AMBER Alerts are not issued for children of color. In our nation’s capital alone there have been 501 cases of missing children in 2017. Of those cases, a vast majority are Black and Latina girls. This knowledge hit the public just two months ago when Washington Metropolitan Police Department’s new commander, Chanel Dickerson, made a promise to find these missing girls, posting pictures of each one on their Twitter feed daily. It finally sparked uproar through social media, but is now just being covered by major news outlets.
At this point, the questions begin to roll out. Why has this not been addressed by our president? Why are children younger than 16 years old not receiving an AMBER Alert? Why are so many young Black and Latina girls being abducted? Are their lives and safety really that important to D.C. officials, and to the United States overall? Sadly, one cannot answer any of those questions definitely because nothing has been done about retrieving these young ladies.
In a letter to the Attorney General, lawmakers stated, “when children of color go missing, authorities often assume they are runaways rather than victims of abduction.”
The sense of brutal honesty behind that statement allows Americans to realize that Black children and children of color are not held to the same standards as white children are. The urgency to protect them is diminished because of the color of their skin. When one thinks of a runaway child, they think of a child who has behavioral issues. The first thing that should come to mind is that they might be living in a unhealthy and dangerous space or be victims of physical, emotional, or sexual abuse. Instead, it quickly transforms into a story that is plagued by the title of “problem child.”
As someone who has three beautiful sisters, two of which who are underage, it is heartbreaking to think of young Black girls being taken from their homes. It afflicts me even more to think of the authorities are not accepting or taking their cases as seriously as they might do for a young girl of a different race. The absent conversation of sex trafficking and slavery is pathetic. However, it seems this conversation of “runaway” is the implicit answer throughout this tragedy. The reason for these girls actively leaving their home is quite often blamed on the mother and lack of presence from the father. This is a direct attack on the Black family dynamic. A nasty comment from World Net Daily stated:
“These young people don’t want to be reunited with their mothers. They ran away from home to escape unbearable living conditions. Angry, single, Black mothers (and grandmothers) who don’t have any love are raising these kids. These women are often belligerent and violent toward the children. The kids are usually living in homes where the mother has a live-in boyfriend. Illicit drugs are prevalent. Sometimes the girls are made to work as prostitutes in sex-trafficking rings — even by members of their own families.”
Authorities and media must investigate these allegations before definitively making them. If these young girls are runaways, than it is the charge of the community to assist in making life more bearable for these children. Their last resort should not be to run away from their homes, families, and friends. And the reality of women and young girls being 98% of the human and sex trafficking trade in the world, authorities should not cancel out the likelihood of these girls being abducted and forced into modern day slavery.
As a young Black man, I plead for the authorities and America to take the necessary strides to find our Black girls. It is the duty of the community to take care of each other, despite race, age, or socioeconomic status.
Alexander Woods is a junior English major at Morehouse College. He is a Atlanta native with aspirations of becoming a fashion journalist.
