She Still Matters To Me
I had buried
my disdain for media coverage of missing women being so unbalanced.
I suppose it just became this extra garment that I added to the baggage that comes with being a woman of color. My
black girl bag.
I don't want to complain about the hardships of having both a vagina and brown skin because I absolutely adore having both...
immensely.
At the same time, being a black woman in this so called modern age of alleged progression, I some times wanna holler. Sometimes I want to cry. When I see women devalued in any way I feel a pang, and when it is a woman of color, the pang is felt on a deeper level.
I can bemoan about how the many unrealistic images of ideal beauty are sometimes literally white washed. I could go on and on about how european beauty of blonde hair and thin thighs, and blue eyes is upheld in magazines, media.
They don't always resemble women of color.
In fact, more often than not, America's idea of beauty is embodied by an actual crackhead.
I could also lament about music lyrics and videos that perpetuate stereotypes and hypersexualize women of color. These are items already in my black girl baggage that I have resolved to either accept defeat or have reconciled them with my own ideals about the world I live in.
It's getting too heavy though - this black girl bag.
I have enough crap in there as it is. I don't have room to fit this garment of inequality.
I don't need another item that I am expected to not only put in my bag, but where on my back.
No, this won't fit. My black girl bag won't close and I don't want to force it.
I was channel surfing last night and saw that
Dateline NBC devoted the hour to the tragedy surrounding the death of 17 year old
Taylor Behl.
Again, the questions came barreling at me:
Why aren't women of color who are missing considered newsworthy?
Who decides what stories are more compelling than others?In this particular tragic story that Dateline covered there is no information being sought from viewers. They are not asking for clues or help with the investigation. Instead of broadcasting a show for children who are yet to be reunited with their families after evacuation we watch another tragic recount of another young woman who has been murdered. The sensationalism of journalism is undeniable and you can't help but wonder how the family feels having their loved one exploited for ratings; but this story is so compelling.
Why?
This story is compelling because the young lady was young, beautiful, a freshman in college, and middle class. She also had questionable contact with someone she hardly knew.
Sound familiar?
There seemed to be a cautionary tale for parents laced through out the program. Perhaps they are helping parents of attractive white females who are enrolling in college. Perhaps this is their target audience. I don't exactly know, and therein lies the problem.
There was something that tugged at me harder than the tragedy itself.
It was the realization that the unbalanced media coverage is so deeply entrenched in how our society views sex, class, and race that the decision makers won't ever be held accountable for their choices unless a spotlight is glaring them in their collective eyes.
Will it take a proverbial Hurricane Katrina to display our ugly truths that exist behind the camera? I read an
article where a professor of media studies stated:
Such cases fit a convenient narrative pattern that storytellers have used for more than a century, a pattern whose design still incorporates remnants of an outmoded view of women and black people and their roles in society. “In many, many cities going back 50, 75 years or more, journalists would refer to ‘good murders’ and ‘bad murders,’” Clark said, explaining how editors and reporters choose what police stories to cover. “The example of a bad murder would be the murder of an African-American person from a poor neighborhood,” he said. “The definition of a good murder is a socialite killed by her jealous husband, the debutante murdered by her angry boyfriend.” When it comes to police stories, Clark said, there is “this perverted, racist view of the world. White is good; black is bad. Blonde is good; dark is bad. Young is good; old is bad. And I think we can find versions of this story going back to the tabloid wars of more than a hundred years ago.”
The last time I wrote about this I asked, is it my responsibility to tell the powers that be that we matter? Well, I knew when I wrote it that it was indeed my responsibility. If it isn't mine then whose is it?
I plan to contact the producers and reporters of this Dateline episode. I decided not to email it when I was so emotionally charged. I prefer that my words are heard so I am being careful not to be accusatory or insulting. I just want explanation, clarification, and perhaps even validation that I am NOT crazy. There really is a concerted effort being made not to showcase stories of certain demographics. If there is no discussion about it, no mention of how hurtful this is, then I don't think there will ever be any change.
I don't want my nine year old nieces to feel as if their lives are not valued as much as their blonde friends. Of course, it is up to her parents and me to teach her that at home but if what we teach them is polar opposite to what is reinforced in their world? Well, then they are made to carry the weight of that garment in
their black girl bags. I want to remove it from mine so they won't have to carry so much when they get older.
No, I don't want all media coverage to be discontinued about missing women. I just want there to be an evaluation made on why they select the stories that they do. Can they honestly say it has nothing to do with race, class, and money? Will they point fingers or talk "numbers" ? Will they ever decide to be an agent of change? It is impossible for me to predict.
All I can do is air the dirty laundry, hang it up, and refuse to put it in my black girl bag. There is simply no room for another damn thing.
