Our Black Girls

Why is it that, according to the National Crime Information Center of the FBI, approximately 33 percent of people reported missing are Black, but that isn’t reflective of the evening news?

We need to bring awareness to the stories of our Black girls who have been mistreated, are missing, and who have been murdered because they matter. Their lives matter. They are real people, not just sensationalized news bulletins. Let’s keep their stories alive.

The women in these stories we report on are more than the highlight clip on the ten o’clock news. These are and were our sisters, many of whom endured deception and/or violence. We shouldn’t sweep their stories under the rug and move on to the next hot topic. We need to remember what they went through in order to change patterns of behavior. We need to teach our children how to protect themselves from predators who seek to do them harm. We need to teach each other how to avoid those who whisper sweet nothings in our ears but also use emotional or physical abuse to control us. We need to recognize that all that glitters isn’t gold. We need to highlight stories of our missing Black girls because their stories go under-reported in the media — if they’re reported at all. We cannot control the actions of those who are set in their diabolical ways, but we can learn from one another’s experiences.