Help Us Find Us: Black and Missing

Well it's Saturday night, I guess that makes it all right. People say, what do you have to lose? It could be your life. There's been a lot in the news lately about Missing and Exploited people. We've all seen the story of the murder of a young blogger. She traveled across country with a fiance, who has now disappeared after her dead body was found. Now, the reason why there's so much attention is because the young lady, Gabby Petito, was a beautiful blonde woman who had her whole life ahead of her. Her face was plastered everywhere. All over social media. All over the news. They had volunteers searching for this young lady. Now all the stories are coming out about all the fights that were being had between her and her fiance, weird voice messages, etc. This story has also shed a light on the disparity between black women, and black men, who are also listed as missing. These people of color have had no media coverage given nor search parties organized. Families have actually had to pay their own private investigators to try to search for their missing loved ones. Unfortunately, we are all too quick to show the stories of people getting shot. People involved with gang violence. People who died of drugs. However, no one talks about the missing. No one talks about the people who seemingly vanished into thin air. No one talks about how the police claim that they are in some sort of nefarious activity. Often dismissive, officers explain why these people "disappeared" and have no resource to spare for that. I find it difficult because I know how much I love my family. I also know most people love their families too. Yhe very thought that someone could just magically disappear while they're on their daily routine, or while they're going to a new place or or studying a new idea, or just in transit somewhere is just heartbreaking. Particularly in Chicago, you see the news that is splattered all over the place. The negativity is what reigns supreme. People cannot find their loved ones. It can take years and rewards before people will even give tips. I'm even reminded of Jennifer Hudson when her family was killed. It took a reward for people to report that they seen the car where her young nephew lay dead. Why? Because they wanted that reward money, and we shouldn't be this way. It's just really heartbreaking especially for people of color. Not only for missing blacks but also for Hispanics or Latinx, or even our indigenous brothers and sisters. We've already seen the images of the Border Patrol beating Haitian refugees. The thought that people would just go missing, never to be seen again or never to be heard from. Unbearable. We would all love that ending like Elizabeth Smart being seen alive and well, even though many years later. Unfortunately it's often the case like Jilani Day, a promising young black man who was studying to be a doctor. He disappeared en route to an appointment with his professor. A body was found weeks after he was reported missing near his car, but whose body was not immediately identified. Only after all of the attention on Ms Gabby Patito that his family stepped up the pressure to find him. Suddenly the DNA test came through to positively identify his body. Now obviously this has created more questions than it has answers. But at least that's one family that has gotten the answer that was their worse case scenario. In Illinois, there are currently 143 missing persons cases of which nearly half are people of color. Again, where is this mentioned in the news?  The fact is that there are so many prominent cases of young people- black, hispanic, indigenous persons- who are missing. It really sets the tone for what we need to do as a country. Now, there is an organization called Black and Missing Foundation. They have done the work for the past 13 years and  they have been putting out the information of how our people are just going missing. They are trying to keep their stories in the news and spotlight as much as they can. BAMF works to make sure that more resources are used so more of our people are actually found. Think about it. You don't hear about missing young men, especially missing black young men, without assuming that there's some sort of gang activity related. We need to erase this stigma. We need to turn the page. We need to put as many sources into finding our people as we do into locking them up. Not everyone is a crime boss. Not everyone is a gang banger. There are many productive citizens who are living their lives and deserve to live their life to the fullest... without disappearing. We are not magicians. People don't just up and disappear. We need to find our lost. Help us find us. Please share your thoughts below. Thank you for reading this article and supporting this blog space. Stay safe, masked and healthy. Take Care and God Bless!!!