The New York Times has published a story on the Latoyia Figueroa case, and the role of the Philly blogosphere in promoting it:
After weeks of frustrating obscurity, the case of Mr. Figueroa's daughter, Latoyia Figueroa, 25, has finally captured the national news media's attention, spurred by the persistent nudging of Philadelphia-based Web logs and a city councilman distantly related to the Figueroas.
In the process, the case has become a flashpoint for the growing unease in minority communities across the country about the way they believe many national news outlets focus relentlessly on missing white women, while giving little attention to equally compelling stories involving poorer minority women.
"Certainly, everybody hopes that they find out what happened to Natalee Holloway in Aruba and to all the other missing young women," said Juan F. Ramos, the city councilman, as he handed out leaflets on the teeming corner of 52nd and Market Streets. "But for a while there, you had to wonder: why not Latoyia?"
[snip]
You just had to listen to the simple facts of the story to realize that there was something seriously wrong here," said Richard Blair, who runs a Philadelphia-based political blog, allspinzone.com, writing under the name Richard Cranium.
"The fact is, this issue of news organizations' obsessive coverage of missing white women has been simmering in the blogosphere for a while now," Mr. Blair said.
What the Figueroa case has done, he said, is give people something on which to focus their attention.
"When black women disappear, the media silence can be deafening," began an article in the June issue of Essence magazine, which chronicled cases of eight missing black women.
While we continue to hope and wait for Latoyia's safe return, we can take some measure of solace in the national attention that her case has received -- thanks, in large part, to the efforts of Philadelphia bloggers.
This story highlights the fact that all of us -- from the smallest bloggers to the largest -- can have a real effect on the world we spend so much time documenting. Freed from the demands of commercial pressures, freed from the false imperative of objectivity, we can help point to the stories that matter, the stories that need to be told.
As Sam Cooke wrote:
It's been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come, oh yes it will
And if it doesn't come soon enough, you can bet that they'll be hearing from us.
America's Most Wanted
I think Latoyia's case was on America's Most Wanted Saturday night. In the digital cable description of the episode, they mentioned a missing pregnant woman from Philly. I saw it halfway into the program so I'm assuming that it was 1. her and 2. they lead the show with it.
That's great to see...
...though I hope the media gets the message that when anyone goes missing, it should be reported regardless of their sex, race or hair color.
And if it doesn't come soon enough. . .
to paraphrase an old yiddishe saying: from your keyboard to G-d's eyes.
Not everything can be reported
Surely there are far too many missing people for that. But let the folks the media decides to report about match somewhat the reality of who is going missing. It isn't just upper middle class white women from the suburbs.
Maybe not reported...
But word can be spread. It would be great to have you and Richard involved in this discussion:
http://www.phillyfuture.org/node/1390
While the media can only report on what is newsworthy - we can all provide a service.
Post new comment