Do you recognize this girl?

Well, neither did I. Her name is Latasha Norman, a 20-year-old Jackson (Miss.) State University student who went missing on Nov. 13 after leaving an afternoon class. This is obviously a crucial time period in the case: where if she's alive, she might be recovered; or if God forbid she's dead, important evidence would be fresh and suspects at hand.

The media is going ape today because of new searches about to begin in the two-year-old disappearance of Natalee Holloway in Aruba, and sharing the attention is the case of missing Stacy Peterson and her creepy cop husband in Illinois. But what about Latasha? Today was the very first time I even heard of the case, just because the police chief in Mississippi was blunt enough, thank God, to say what we all know to be the case: Latasha's not getting national press because she's black. More:

"'As far as the interest by the national media in the story, I think race probably had an impact,' said Jackson Police Chief Malcolm McMillin, who is white. 'It's a small college in the South. It's the daughter of simple people who maybe are not important outside of their circle, and maybe we don't attach the same importance to them that we do for other people.'

McMillin said the nation's eyes have been on a Chicago case in which a former police officer, Drew Peterson, is suspected in the disappearance of his wife, Stacy. The couple is white.

'We need to show the same kind of concern for this,' McMillin said of Norman's disappearance, adding that heightened exposure could help develop leads in the case."

Comments

[Ned]

I hope she is found and I have sympathy for her parents and family. I don't care what color she is or her families status and wealth. People go missing every day, why the media pays attention to some and not others is anyone's guess. I suppose if the police chief can use race to bring attention to this case,I suspect this is his motive, and help solve it, fine.