It's weird how things stick with you. Have you ever heard the names Charlotte Kinsey and Cinda Pallet ? Maybe not. They stand out in my mind because those are the names of two 13 yr old girls that vanished back in 1981 from the State Fairgrounds. I was 12 at the time. It was a really big deal. I don't really remember anything about child abductions prior to that point. But it changed my life. It was all over the news for what seemed like forever. We were all concerned and scared. I still remember their names from all of the media coverage at the time. I actually still remember their faces too (I know weird).They never found those girls to this day.
Honestly growing up in the Midwest, in a relatively safe community, we got dropped off at the movies, dropped off at the Arcade, dropped off at the Mall & even dropped off at the State Fair with no concern what so ever. Nothing really bad ever happened in our community until this. It didn't matter to me at the time that those girls were white & I wasn't. This was also right around the time that the Atlanta Child Murders started making national news as well. Trust, we never got dropped off at the Fairgrounds or anywhere else again.
As an adult, in this day of 24 hour news coverage, media, blogs, etc. I like everyone else have begun to see how your "appearance" plays into the level of concern and serious effort to find you when you disappear. Laci Peterson, Natalee Holloway, Chandra Levy, Polly Klass come to mind to name a few. Currently there is a Fac.ebook effort to find a missing woman from Atlanta, Stacey Nicole English, who was last seen the day after Christmas. She is African-American, appears to come from a nice family, appears to be upper middle class and she is young and attractive. But it seems that her complexion may be keeping her case from getting the appropriate news coverage.
I was excited to hear about this new show on TV One, Find Our Missing, hosted by one of my favorite actresses S. Epatha Merkerson (Law & Order junkie right here ! ) I know the media cannot report EVERY missing person case, but the obvious double standard gets to me sometimes, especially as a black female. Here is the preview.
Will you be watching ?
Thoughts ? Comments ? Questions ?
Beautifully Complex
4 comments:
Stacey English is an acquaintance of mine and I was distressed when I heard she was missing. With it hitting so close to home I have decided to pay more attention to stories like these. I will be watching the show.
YES!!! One of my favorite actress as well and I will be watching.
Down here, Stacey has been in the news almost from the first few days she was missing. While she did not garner national attention until later, she was definitely in the Atlanta news. I can only pray for her. The strange thing is they found out there is a young lady that looks remarkablely like her from the Saint Louis area that disappeared under similiar circumstances. The reason it is connected to her is the Person of Interest in Stacey's case is also from Saint Louis.
It is so sad that the media portray s "us" disappearing as if we just want to disappear yet "others" are immediately searched for as "foul play suspected"
@NaturallyK
Wow. I know this must hit you hard since you are acquainted with her. I am praying for some resolution of this.
@Newy
I am glad that she is getting lots of local coverage. I just could not believe that they didn't connect the impounded vehicle with the missing persons report for several days. APD dropped the ball on that one.
Interesting about the St.Louis case. I will be following that as well.
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