JaShyah Moore, Gabby Petito and What it Takes to Find Black Girls

JaShyah Moore has been missing for an entire month.

The tragic death of Gabby Petito highlighted disparities in the amount of attention missing women and girls receive based on race. White women and girls are more likely to make it to the national news and stay in news cycles for longer than their Black and brown counterparts. This has a substantial impact on whether and how soon they are found.

The speed with which Gabby Petito’s remains were found in comparison to similar cases has been largely attributed to public interest and amateur sleuthing. In some ways, it was the internet at its best: millions of people operating collectively to achieve a common aim–finding Gabby.

After advocates for women and girls of color, especially Black and Indigenous women and girls, brought attention to the disparities in news coverage, major media outlets like the Washington Post and the New York Times published op-eds on “missing white woman syndrome.” Not quite a mea culpa, but they weighed in on the cultural moment of reckoning.

In the past four weeks since JaShyah Moore has gone missing, these and other outlets have had the chance to put their money where their mouth is.

They haven’t.

JaShyah Moore is a child. She is just 14 years old, 5’5” and 135lbs. She was last seen in khaki pants and a black jacket leaving a deli in New Jersey. Her 3 year old brother has been asking every day for…