Her Name Is Jahessye Shockley

Boston.com blogger Francie Latour writes about Jahessye Shockley, the missing black 5-year-old girl from Glendale, Ariz., whose kidnapping has received little to no media attention, in contrast with baby Lisa Irwin of Kansas City, Mo., who is white. It's nothing new. Missing children of color oftentimes, she says, receive scant media coverage.

She is 5 years old, she is from Glendale, Ariz., she was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans, and pink flip-flops, and she is black.

The last characteristic matters, and not only because Jahessye Shockley's family needs the public's help to find their little girl alive. It matters because according to the Justice Department, children of color make up 65 percent of all missing children cases; 42 percent of those are African-American, 23 percent Latino.

It matters that Jahessye is black because despite those statistics, of which she has now become a part, the face of the missing child in America has long been, and continues to be, a white face. Six years ago, it was Baby Jessica. Right now, it's Baby Lisa.

Read Francie Latour's entire blog entry at Boston.com.

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