Black girls matter

[Forwhatitsworth101]

Whilst I’m sad about the Sarah Everend case I can’t help but feel even worse knowing if she had been black literally no one would have cared and it would not have made national news.

Countless non-white women are abducted and murdered and literally go unnoticed.

There is undoubtedly a discrepancy, and this isn’t ‘good news’ but as a white woman this is the first time I’ve actively noticed it, and that’s because of all the high profile effort and discussions of racism that there have been in the past year. So for anyone that has put the emotional labour in, thank you and know that it is paying off. I am committed to sharing stories of black women who suffer on my social media to help try and raise the profile. I agree the contras with Nicola and Bibaa’s murders is pronounced.

I do also think that the publicisation of a missing person is different to a domestic murder though as often the police are requesting evidence. But the amount of coverage should be equal.

@IFoundMyselfInThisBar

I agree that black women being murdered would have got less press coverage. That is the fault of the press and the people (white men) who run the press in this country, they don’t put in the main headlines. In turn, most of the public only look at easy to access news stories, so I don’t think it’s that the public don’t care, it’s that they don’t have easy access to certain stories. People are mostly heavily influenced by the press, unfortunately. People need to realise that our press is very bias and they push the stories that they want to.

I can only imagine how this makes black people, black women in this case, feel because I find it makes, as a shite woman, very angry, sad and frustrated. I care but I don’t know what the fuck to do about something that is so in control of us all.

I agree with you OP and with this quote tjat news reporting/visibility a key issue and blocker.

I am also a white (hopefully not shite) woman and think the all lives matter line is crap.
I was totally unaware of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henrywhich is frankly horrifying and a tangible example of structural racism within the media.

I also do not get the Madeline McCann phenomenon - yes it's tragic but wow what a collosal waster of resources. I always think about the half life the poor siblings must have led as a result.

Thank you for starting this. I remember feeling so outraged and upset in the summer about Nicole and Bibaa. After the “we are not racist” society of editors statement , where are the journalists who stood up for their own reputation, why are they not questioning this?

I guess interest in the Sarah Everard case grew over the week she was missing. The fact that a policeman has been charged is obviously horrific and I think that is why it has generated this level of public interest. I think the conversations that are happening are really important but I want that level
of outrage for all women.

@Forwhatitsworth101 I understand what your saying but I believe the police aspect is what's causing people's outcry.

This should be a time for us to show that solidarity. A woman has been murdered by a police officer, this should be about her, whoever she was.

I would absolutely expect the same support and coverage had she been black, and would feel exactly the same about it as I do now.

I appreciate you don't think everyone would, but I really think this is about women not race.

This received days of headlines and news coverage before the police officer was arrested. That is not the only reason it has received coverage.

I'm white and I notice that there is a difference in how crimes are publized

Obviously Sarah's case is utterly abhorrent and tragic and I don't think it detracts from that to, at the same time, ask for all victims of male violence (police or otherwise) to be remembered.

There was a 25 year old woman killed with her son just a few weeks ago in February. She was from the Philippines originally and called something like Bennylyn. It has been in the news. Terrible how her life and her son's has barely been acknowledged. It's not at all to detract from what happened in London, but I do agree there is an issue regarding equity in terms of the focus the media gives cases.

It has hardly been in the news, I meant.

I wanted to add that police aspect on the case of Bibaa and Nicole should have caused national outrage but it didn't. Doing that those officers did totally undermines trust in the police, especially from Black women. It reads as though when we are in need we won't be taken seriously or we will be mocked. To share whatsapp pics of corpses is the very lowest thing you can do when you've been entrusted to monitor a crime scene, to ensure the victims get justice!

The police officer in Sarah's case is clearly trash but this is not the first time we have seen policemen treat women in such an inhumane way!

I'm white and I agree with you, Op. The difference in coverage and public outcry is stark and clear evidence of systemic racism, imo.

I'm usually the first one to point this out, however,
in this case I think the aggravating factors are the momentum of social media to find her when she was missing and the alleged perpetrator being a stranger as well as being a police officer. Violence against women is more often at the hands of someone they know.

The difference in reporting various cases, and the public reaction to them is shocking. Nicole and Bibaa didn't get an organised vigil or a visit from a member of the royal family.

I'm also white and I agree. I used to live in Hackney and a local boy (Black) went missing at the same time as a White girl elsewhere. Guess which one was on the national news and which only in the local paper. They were both young (7/8) so not teenage runaways. It turned out he'd managed to get himself to Heathrow as he wanted to see a parent abroad I believe. But it was days, not hours, before he was found.

I couldn't understand why Nicole and Bibaa didn't make more headlines and outrage. What happened to those women and their family was horrific.
To have been attacked and killed when celebrating, and then to be abused after death by more men. Horrendous.

I do think race and also class come into play when seeing which cases gain traction in the news.

And also ,I hate to say it, how attractive the victim is deemed to be.

I agree. If the victim had been a 57 year old, non-attractive office cleaner, I suspect there also wouldn't have been the same coverage.

Good god OP I never even heard of the twins case and am now frantically googling - what a disgrace!

YES this is an example of black people or non whites not being seen as valuable as white lives - or at least the racist media assume the public are not interested anyway because in their eyes it doesn't make as good a story.

If they were blonde haired blue eyed twins. We WOULD know about it, period. And anyone who denies that is part of the problem.

It's a fact they're twins that makes it worse IMO (not worse than Sarah I just mean blatantly is an example of racism).

Sarah is tragic and I'm not taking anything away from that story but this is an example of black lives not mattering to the British press. Disgusting.

100% agree: she was white, middle class, young and pretty and so this case gets the attention other (equally awful) crimes do not. I say this as a white middle class woman only a couple of years older than her.

It was a terrible crime, absolutely awful. Its really sad for her, and for her family. Nobody is saying anything different. We can acknowledge how terrible it is whilst also at the same time acknowledging that it's gotten more attention because she was white etc.

Yes I think class is also a critical factor. I can't help thinking a middle class university educated woman will raise more 'concern' amongst other middle class university educated women. I think there is an element of 'it could've been me.' Whereas had this happened to a working class woman in Glasgow or Tyneside then somehow it's a bit 'other' and not so close to home.

Again - pointing this out is not to minimise the absolute tragedy of what happened to Sarah. But I do think it's a conversation that needs to happen.

Good to hear the people at the vigil last night were reading out the names of other women who died from male violence. But the media aren't interested in that and it's the media that stokes the interest of the general population / what gets discussed on Twitter etc.

God bless these women;

www.mylondon.news/news/local-news/names-faces-24-women-who-20093764

I am white English and I absolutely agree with you.

As a result of the furore happening around Sarah's murder I have made a point to follow missing people on Twitter and I am shocked how many women of colour go missing without the same publicity.

We must do more.

I also noticed (was going to post about it and still might) the makeup of the sympathy attendees to lay flowers and mourn.

They were all white. And I say this from the angle of both sides - when a black person dies and attracts media coverage the attendees are always black.

And to me this is a problematic factor that is as society don't seem to express thief public care as much either unless the victim looks like us/could have been someone close to us.

It's sad on so many levels.

I wanted to add that police aspect on the case of Bibaa and Nicole should have caused national outrage but it didn't. Doing that those officers did totally undermines trust in the police, especially from Black women. It reads as though when we are in need we won't be taken seriously or we will be mocked. To share whatsapp pics of corpses is the very lowest thing you can do when you've been entrusted to monitor a crime scene, to ensure the victims get justice!

All of this... and it was 13 officers involved. The police officers involved still got off lightly. Curious, if they have a history of this and what the victims look like.

www.kilburntimes.co.uk/news/crime/iopc-refers-inappropriate-photos-of-kingbury-murder-to-cps-6579410

Nicole and Bibaa were not twins. I agree their murders were awful and the allegation of the police officers' conduct takes it to another level of horror.

Spot on. And class, age, nationality, etc.

The story was high - profile before the police officer was arrested.

I was shocked to read about Blessing yesterday - the petition is here (sorry for long link)
www.change.org/p/government-justice-for-blessing?utm_content=cl_sharecopy_25112392_en-GB%3A4&recruited_by_id=467dfb30-83db-11eb-aa1c-5b4b906c3217&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=psf_combo_share_initial