Atlanta police are currently searching for a 12-year-old girl, Taylor Hill, who went missing Friday morning.
One Atlanta family is having an incredibly frightening start to the new year as their pre-teen daughter has gone missing.
Taylor Hill was last seen around 12:30 a.m. on Friday before she got into a dark-colored car that was parked in front of her home in the 160 block of Florida Avenue.
Hill’s mother said that she got into an argument with her daughter shortly before she left home.
Hill is a Black female standing at roughly 5’1 and weighs about 90 pounds.
Reports say she has black hair although recent photos also depict Hill with dark brown hair.
She has brown eyes and was last seen wearing a gray shirt, gray sweatpants and pink boots.
Atlanta police are asking for anyone with information about the teen’s whereabouts to contact them immediately by calling 404-546-4260.
It’s a tragic occurrence that happens all too often in the Black community.
Statistics presented by the Black & Missing Foundation found that nearly 40 percent of all reported missing persons under the age of 17 were Black.
Overall, Black Americans made up more than 40 percent of all missing persons cases in 2010 although they only represented a little more than 13 percent of the population.
Unfortunately, obtaining media attention for these cases continues to be a battle for the Black community.
Many Black families have expressed their own frustrations with trying to get sufficient media attention after a loved one went missing.
What’s even more surprising is that media executives don’t deny the fact that white people get more attention from the media when they go missing.
Executives have argued that missing persons stories are more newsworthy when the people are “privileged” because this group of people goes missing far less often than others.
That ultimately creates the perception that there is an expectation that Black people will be abducted and therefore are no longer considered to be newsworthy when missing.
“To live with the idea that there is a high probability and expectation that Black people are going to get abducted and killed is a human rights issue,” a RealityCheck.org contributor wrote. “The missing white woman syndrome articulates a lived experience of the intersectional realities of racism, sexism and classicism, which currently supports the myth that Black people are not valued, important, or worthy of efforts to enforce laws in protecting Black lives.”
With Hill still missing hours after her disappearance, the proper media attention will be essential to helping law enforcement locate her quickly.