We need to take missing people seriously. It's not about newsworthy or who's case draws the best ratings or who seems the most worthy of our resources.
The incessant coverage of "Damsels in Distress"—white female teens and white women—have received and continue to receive such an extreme disproportionate coverage that it's ridiculous. It's also heartbreaking when you realize the number of people--boys, people of color--that go missing every day.
After almost 17 years in the advertising and marketing industries where we spend so much time building brands and crafting palpable, sellable images, I just can't help but see the parallels between our fetishizing of whites as the standard of beauty, success, excellence and humanity with how we treat people in society as a whole.
Every missing white girl is "the girl next door". Every missing white male is "clean-cut" and "has so much to live for". But missing people of color are treated as irrelevant....
It's just so frustrating. So i'm just trying to do my part to help change things by creating ads to draw attention to the disparity and by spreading the word about missing children and people of color.
Meanwhile, take this poster and pass it on; start/continue the discussion, demand more from our authorities and media and political reps. Maybe it won't affect your kid or your loved one, but then again, you never know.
