Follow

Missing persons of color should be a pro-life issue for Catholics

The Gloria Purvis Podcast

Gwen Ifill famously coined the expression “missing white woman syndrome” to describe our national obsession with a small subset of missing persons–largely white and female– to the exclusion of many other victims, especially persons of color. This week Gloria talks to Natalie Wilson, co-founder of The Black and Missing Foundation, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit dedicated to searching for missing people of color when police and the media fall short. Their work is also the subject of the award-winning 4-part HBO documentary series, Black and Missing, produced by Geeta Gandbhir and Soledad O’Brien. For Catholics, this should be a pro-life issue, and one that we examine seriously. Forty percent of the about 600,000 people who went missing in 2019 were people of color — most of them Black. And Black people's cases take four times longer to resolve. Gloria and Natalie also discuss how the Black Lives Matter movement encompasses more than police violence; it extends to the issue of police neglect to investigate cases of Black persons gone missing. Lastly, if you’ve been enjoying the Gloria Purvis Podcast please consider sharing some feedback in this brief Listener Survey! Links: The Black and Missing Foundation Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices