Recently during my summer break, I have been hooked into watching the latest Netflix murder documentaries. From American Murder: The Family Next Door to American Murder: Gabby Petito Case and even to What Jennifer Did?
From my intense watching, I came across an appalling discovery that was also brought up in the American Murder: Gabby Petito Case, the concept of missing white person syndrome.
How did the term missing white person syndrome come to be? This term was coined by Journalist Gwen Ifill in 2005 during the coverage of the disappearance of Natalie Holloway. Natalie Holloway was a white teenager from Alabama who made headlines across the United States. Her case was aired on news stations around the clock and was the top of the headlines for months. That same year, La Toyia Figueroa, a 24 year old pregnant Black woman also went missing; however, her disappearance received very little media coverage. Journalist Gwen Ifill came up with the term missing white person syndrome to refer to the bias in the media which tends to cover young, attractive, and middle to upper class white women.
It is devastating that years later, this problem still persists. In the Gabby Petito Case, the hashtag #gabbypetito gained over 794 million views on Tik Tok whereas the hashtag #rosalitalongee, an 18 year old Indigenous woman who went missing in 2015, had only 16,400 views by 2023.
The term missing white person syndrome highlights the notion that some lives are treated as more valuable than others. When Black women are covered as victims of violence, they are usually portrayed under stereotypical tropes, such as the oversexed Jezebel and other negative connotations, which may have the effect of victim-blaming and mitigating perpetrator responsibility. Whenever there is a lack of empathy depicted in the stories told about victims of color, it desensitizes people.
The Missing White Person Syndrome goes beyond the media, it trickles down into the way the law enforcement, forensics, and public policy continue to prioritize certain victims over others. In the case of law enforcement, studies have shown that often Black and Indigenous girls tend to be classified as runaways or troubled youths, and they are believed to be in need of less help; clearly such labels result in delay in investigations and reduced urgency.
In order to address this grave matter, it is important that we not only hold media outlets accountable but also consider our own consumption habits and challenge the institutions that continue to maintain these disparities. Missing White Person Syndrome goes beyond being a media bias; it is a mirror that reflects society’s distorted sense of whose pain matters more.