YOUNG WHITE AND LIFTED, PT. 2
Have you seen me? Have you seen me on the news?
Both O-Dub and I have written about the media's propensity to only report missing persons who are young, female, attractive and white.
Completely supporting this thesis is the fact that Natalee Holloway is still getting thousands of times more news coverage than LaToyia Figueroa, a missing 24-year-old who is five months pregnant and the mother of a 7-year-old daughter. Figueroa was last seen on July 18th, 2005 in Southwest Philadelphia near her boyfriend's home.
Both are equally tragic stories. But Figueroa has only been missing for ten days, whereas Holloway has been missing for two months and, at this point, most people know what she looks like and where she disappeared. Which is to say, news coverage is more likely to bring Figueroa back home, safe and alive.
Yet, Holloway is still getting more press today than Figueroa. (A quick comparison search of Google News confirms this.) Sadly, the roughly 200 articles on Figueroa is a humongous improvement from a few days ago, when you could count the number of Figueroa articles on my two thumbs.
I didn't even hear about Figueroa until fellow bloggers pushed the story and cried foul to the networks. Perhaps this post is the first time you've heard her name, as well, which only further highlights the injustice at play.
Frankly, Figueroa's story is even more compelling and fit for television than Holloway's since she's pregnant (like Laci Peterson) and the mother of a young child. Both she and Holloway are young, female, and attractive.
The only obvious difference between them, of course, is that Figueroa is not white.
(credit: Dan Marcus)
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On a related note, why is there still so much coverage of the London bombings and virtually no coverage of the Egypt bombings? Both were surprise terrorist attacks on foreign countries allied with the US, although the death toll was higher in Egypt.
Similarly, why is there so much coverage of the London bombings and virtually no coverage of the climbing death toll of either Iraqi civilians or US military in Iraq?
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