Missing white children receive far more media coverage than missing Black and brown children – a fact advocates often point to when explaining the disparity in attention provided to non-individuals of color.
But another unsettling fact has emerged with the release of the FBI’s latest statistics on missing children.
The federal agency noted about 346,000 children in the U.S. in 2020, identifying 125,727 Black juveniles. In addition, the agency said 197,381 white kids went missing, suggesting that missing white youth outnumber lost young Blacks by more than 71,600.
This is alarming, disturbing and problematic,” Jefferson said. “First, the combination of white and Hispanic children denies the Hispanic community raw data of their missing children. This process denies research and resources to fund and find their missing and exploited children or to examine causation.”
FBI officials did not return several messages seeking comment.
“The NCIC data isn’t robust or reliable to paint a complete picture of the magnitude of the problem facing missing persons of color,” said Natalie Wilson, co-founder of the Black & Missing Foundation.
“We believe the numbers are much higher based on underreporting,” Wilson stated.
She noted that the FBI classified all missing Latino individuals as white despite research revealing that 24 percent classify themselves as Afro-Latino – otherwise identifying as Black.
Further, “immigrants don’t always report their missing because of fear of deportation,” Wilson concluded.
Jefferson noted that “from ‘West Side Story’ actress Ariana DeBose to Jennifer Lopez and Carmen Perez, the co-founder of the Women’s March to ‘The View’s’ Sunny Hostin and Ana Navarro, Hispanics are not monolithic.”
“Some identify as biracial or Black. Therefore, a separate category is critical to finding missing children, too,” Jefferson said. “More compelling is by combining white and Hispanic as one race, the figures mislead the public about the status of missing Black children whose missing outnumber all other races.”
