Missing Black Women

When living things go missing, there are various degrees of urgency assigned to retrieving them. For pets, there is some urgency depending on the time the pet has been missing, but other than looking at a sign, people generally sigh and move on with their lives. Children who go missing have their own signal in the United States–an amber alert–because society feels a responsibility to return the child to care as quickly as possible. Adults who go missing tend to attract less sympathy, and least among these are Black and indigenous women, especially in imperial countries.

Because Black women are expected to work beneath most people, the only time when people notice we are missing is when we stop performing certain tasks. As Black women tend to be support staff and not leaders, most people depend on us working behind the scenes to make them look good. Outside of a work setting, there has been a message that anything goes with us, from harassment to outright violence. Therefore, if we go missing, the first ones to notice would be our employers, and there are too many hungry people for an employer to miss one Black woman instead of finding another one.

Also, Black women have been working for most of our lives, therefore commuting as well. Due to low wages, many of us have held multiple jobs, and do our best to get to our jobs as safely as possible. This matters because when one is a housewife, there is little time without eyes on the street when a housewife takes care of her needs. However, if someone has unpredictable hours based on public transportation availability, vehicle dependability, the location of resources and childcare, or residential insecurity, it is impossible to have eyes on the street at all times. Unfortunately, because Black women tend to have service and support jobs with varying hours, or share responsibilities with people who may be hard to reach, we remain more vulnerable targets for abusers.

Finally, because womanhood has generally been reserved for white women within imperial landscapes, there is little urgency when Black and indigenous women go missing. Our existence is designated to serve a purpose, and outside of that purpose, the mindset has been simply to “get another one,” removing our humanity and compromising our safety. In the United States, the lack of urgency was so obvious to the country that Saturday Night Live made a spoof about the difference in searches. It was difficult to see the same attitude in Paris, but then again, imperial is as imperial does.