Why is Sabina Nessa murder not all over the media?

[postingfortraffichere]

Such a tragic killing and sad, truly awful to hear about this murder.

Though I can't understand why, it doesn't get the same media/public attention as Sarah Everard who died in similarly tragic circumstances not long ago.

Both are equally tragic, two young women attacked in similar circumstances - the only difference I can see in these cases is the colour of their skin. Sarah's murder was everywhere - before we knew it was a police officer responsible.

Women had lined the streets in protest to make the country a safer place for women.

I can't help but notice where are these women protesting for Sabina? Or for the Killmarsh murders, or other women of colour?

The media treats women of colour - even to this day - very differently to white women.

It feels like the media are sending a clear message that black lives STILL 'don't matter' quite as much as their white counterparts.

[AtlasPine]

Why are some people so defensive about the pointing out of institutional racism? It won’t change until we call it.

[Pixxie7]

I think the OP makes a valid point a couple of years ago there had been a number of black boys stabbed and then a white girl which was widely reported with purple ribbons tied around the park. I remember thinking at the time.
Although the cases are different both involve 2 young women who have been killed.

[UsedUpUsername]

[quote GoIntoTheLight]@UsedUpUsername it's not "ridiculous" at all - it's a well-known phenomenon called missing white women syndrome.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome[/quote]
Just because it has a Wikipedia entry doesn’t make it true.

The reality is, if you go missing, you need people to push the case to both the police and the media. With the latter, it’s an easier ‘sell’ if it’s an attractive woman killed by a stranger, sure.

But dubbing this phenomenon ‘missing white woman’ syndrome leaves out unattractive white women, old white women, poor white women, white women who were drug addicts or prostitutes.

Best example of this is the Cleveland kidnappings. There was just as much local coverage about Michelle Berry as there was about Gina DeJesus, who was not white. But Michelle Knight didn’t get any coverage as a poor white single mom from a broken home. No one was interested in her case, and her kidnapper taunted her with the fact no one was looking for her.

Someone tried to use the Cleveland case as an example of this phenomenon, btw, but you’ll see an interesting correction at the end of this article: www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22441124.amp

It seems the media is only interested in the ones when the murderer didn't know the victim

This is what drives a lot of it. If it’s a woman missing from domestic violence or via her work as a prostitute, then viewers feel safer (it won’t happen to me!)

But a stranger? Could happen to anyone then, and viewers feel unsafe. Drives interest in a case. Even if from an overall risk perspective, domestic violence is the far greater risk …

[AGameOfCrones]

@AtlasPine

Why are some people so defensive about the pointing out of institutional racism? It won’t change until we call it.

white fragility

[adrianmolesmole]

[quote MyPatronusIsACat]@MsHedgehog

Your post is a disgrace and an insult to Sarah Everard. And so is the whole thread. I am hiding this repugnant thread now. I am sure it won't last long. The OP @postingfortraffichere knows it's a stinker, and that is why she has posted it at almost midnight when there is little moderation.[/quote]
Your post is disgusting, over the top and ridiculous.

How dare you call a thread trying to highlight the murder of a woman "repugnant" and a "stinker"?? How dare you try to get it deleted.

Mods please don't delete this thread.

Nobody is denigrating poor Sarah Everard here, if you cannot understand that then you are ridiculously stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Missing white woman syndrome is a real thing as we can all see. And so is Typical White Person's Knee Jerk Response to Anything Remotely Relating to POC, of which you are a clear example.

[adrianmolesmole]

My last 2 paras are aimed at @MyPatronusIsACat, not to the Mods!

[wannabeamummysobad]

It's because Sabina is not white. If the media and society were honest there is a hierarchy to the "importance/care" assigned to the public. It goes;

White women>white children>white men> non black people of colour>black men >black women.

History and current cases sadly show us this every day.

[Plumtree391]

Charlie50, you are right there, all that you said.

I read that Sarah Everard's family campaigned to keep her in the news before her body was found, otherwise we may have heard little about her going missing. Of course, once it was known that a police officer had kidnapped, raped and killed her, it became huge news, especially when it came out that fellow officers had been suspicious of him.

The police are generally rubbish when it comes to violent crimes on women, always have been.

[Booknooks]

Interesting how some people refer to anyone who isn't white as black. Also it's possible to discuss the bias without referencing SE specifically, why not just say the coverage white women get?

[Nuffaluff]

I do actually find it really offensive that the horrific murders of Nicole Henry, Bibaa Smallman, Sarah Everard and now Sabina Nessa are being played off against each other, in a strange kind of Top Trumps, when the actual issue is male violence. Sarah Everard was kidnapped and brutally sexually assaulted, for days maybe, before being murdered, and yet there is this strange focus on her being white and somehow lucky and privileged. She is dead, they are all dead.

Yes.

[GCAcademic]

Nobody is denigrating poor Sarah Everard here, if you cannot understand that then you are ridiculously stupid. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Unfortunately (and I say this as a brown person) there is a definite undertone of Sarah Everard being somehow privileged to have been kidnapped, raped and murdered while being white. Comments like “typical missing white woman syndrome” certainly convey that, especially when Sabina Nessa was not a missing person, but was discovered murdered (as indeed dozens of women are every year without much media interest at all, particularly older women) and the circumstances of the two cases are very different.

[SD1978]

One was missing, the other found dead. Sounds crass, but there is a difference in those two scenarios. I don't really think the situations can be compared although I also agree that crimes against certain people don't receive the same media coverage.

[Lasttimeneveragain]

@TheFairPrincess

I don't know why people are pearl clutching so hard right now, is it guilt/defensiveness?

This is an absolutely well known social phenomenon with decades of evidence behind it.

I am a white woman, there are lots of connotations to that which I am aware of. People seem to be personally offended by this OP which is very strange. You are not the victim here. Literal murder victims are.

It stinks very much of "I'm not a racist but........"

Everyone points out all of the differences in the cases. No one had mentioned the glaringly obvious difference though, have they? One was white and one was not.

There has already been a suggestion up thread that it was honour based. Why do we make this assumption?

[Charley50]

Yes @adrianmolesmole - and many white women and girls go missing everyday in the UK, and don't get any media attention at all. There are hundreds of runaways and trafficked girls not getting media attention, of all ethnicities.

Do not forget class in this. Even at the time of Bibaa and Nicole's murder, their mum mentioned colour AND perceived class (due to their address) in lack of police response to take their going missing seriously.

Think of Natalie Connolly; brutally killed (murdered IMO) and left to die by her millionaire partner. Both white. He got two years I think for manslaughter.

[nyktipolos]

The people who are deny race ever has anything to do with it AND the ones sayings it just about race seem in capable of critical thinking and/or seeing detail and/or nuance.

There's a shit of ton of reasons there's reporting differences. Race very well play a small part. But its not the only or main part.

[Jobseeker19]

Its everywhere what you talking about

[GCAcademic]

Everyone points out all of the differences in the cases. No one had mentioned the glaringly obvious difference though, have they? One was white and one was not.

Surely that is the entire basis of this thread and the difference in their skin colour has been discussed by multiple posters? Very disingenuous to deny this.

Meanwhile, the narrative that a woman was privileged to have been kidnapped, raped and murdered while white continues and we have a man on here whose first thought is how privileged white female murder victims are rather than looking to the issue of male violence, though he is not alone on MN in being oblivious to that. A thread that was started on that topic is languishing well down the boards with no one interested in discussing the apparently irrelevant topic of male violence.

[iloveeverykindofcat]

Just because it has a Wikipedia entry doesn’t make it true.

(Wikipedia page literally links to large bodies of statistical evidence)

[wannabeamummysobad]

@Nuffaluff you being offended doesn't change the discussion nor does it change what we are seeing in the press and society.

Yes, these women are all dead however, some of them had a better chance of being found alive due to the extra attention their cases received. God rest the soul of Blessing Olusegun who's family and bf told the police where and when she went missing (they were on the phone) yet the police did nothing for days until her body was found washed up in the sea. Rest the soul of the two sisters found murdered in the park- police officers had time to take selfie's with their bodies, send them on group chats etc but no time to investigate their murders.
Then we go to the west London case of the teen with sickle cell who's parents explained he was CEV yet the police did nothing for days until the black community and media started organising. His body was found on the other side of london in Epping forest despite leaving the house with no money or phone.
Finally (because I have to get ready for work), Stephen Lawrence; the police spent year's "investigating" how Stephen's friend contributed to his murder instead of arresting and prosecuting his racist murderers (people came forward with evidence that the racists did this). 20yrs later and Cresssida still won't admit there is institutionalised racism in the met police.

Spare your offence for their lives not the fact some people on this thread are highlighting a truth we sadly all see.

[OnlyFoolsnMothers]

Sarah was missing hence the media attention- equally though I don’t think non-white victims get as much press.
Also in the case of Sabina, the police had arrested someone before releasing so they didn’t take everything to the press straight away

[OverByYer]

It is all over the media.
Sarah Everard had a lot of coverage because she was missing before she was found murdered.
Sadly Sabina was found murdered. It’s another awful crime.

[gerispringer]

I live a few miles from this case and that of Sarah Everard, the Nessa story is all over the local news. It’s on the radio this morning - she was going out to meet a friend, so new evidence is coming out all the time. There is a vigil planned for tomorrow evening. so this idea that it isn’t being reported or no one cares is simply wrong.

[UsedUpUsername]

@iloveeverykindofcat

Just because it has a Wikipedia entry doesn’t make it true.

(Wikipedia page literally links to large bodies of statistical evidence)

I read through it (recommend ppl do, in fact) and it wasn’t actually very conclusive, which you would have noted if you’d read carefully through it.

But I suppose you’ll just copy and paste the evidence that supports your thesis, won’t you?

[iloveeverykindofcat]

@UsedUpUsername

Oh my God, I'm a sociologist . I work for a major UK research university. I've read a lot more than a Wikipedia page. But yeah, I totally got my Russell Group PhD but copy and pasting, that's how it works.

[KittyMcKitty]

@postingfortraffichere

Yes I appreciate there are news articles about it, but it hasn't dominated the news anywhere near Sarah ever area murder IMO

Because Sarah was white. Look at the coverage of Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman’s murders.