“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offered that utopian world view almost 60 years ago, many thought it was an impossibility- and for those lacking any vision or hope it was. For a great many living in the Civil Rights era through Black Codes, Jim Crow and the real and present danger of the KKK, they believed that their world could never change. Thus, a dream such as Reverend King’s was nothing more than that- just a dream.
However, over the last 50+ years since King’s assassination, the world has changed, even by the standards that
blacks viewed how such change would eventually look. Despite this, the lack of accountability and the refusal to see any difference, regardless of blatant proof to the contrary, still continues to drive the narrative that America is a racist country.
As a result, many people believe that any change, no matter how great, is never good enough.
Where does our society lie?
Nelson Mandela once said, “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than the way in which it treats its children.”
For America and its citizens, our missing children have always been an area of concern regardless of color. As such, while many of the missing child alert systems such as “Code Adam”, “Amber Alert”, and “Megan’s Law” may have begun with a child that was white, these alerts have been responsible for the location and/or safe return of
thousands of children to their homes; again, regardless of color.
However, in the era of king “George Floyd” and his effect on all that he looms over, California’s king “Gavin” deems that we must be forced to change yet another working and successful standard of American life simply to appease the imagined slights of the few to trample the rights and lives of the many. For the ‘many’ in this case, their crime is simply not being born black.
According to CNN, “A new California law will create an emergency alert system to help find missing Black youth and women between the ages of 12 and 25.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 673 into law Oct 8. The bill, which goes into effect January 1, will enable the California Highway Patrol to activate the new Ebony Alert upon request from local law enforcement when a Black youth or young Black woman is reported missing “under unexplained or suspicious circumstances,” is considered “at risk, developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired” or has been abducted.
“The Ebony Alert will ensure that vital resources and attention are given so we can bring home missing Black children and women in the same way we search for any missing child and missing person,” State Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat who sponsored the legislation said in a statement.”
Yes, you read correctly- ‘An ‘Ebony Alert.’
Echoing the point, NPR offered the following:
“In 2022, up to 546,000 people were reported missing across the U.S. — with 36% of those cases identified as Black youth and women. And while Black people make up 13% of the U.S. population, nearly 40% of missing persons cases are people of color, according to the Black and Missing Foundation.”
Unfortunately, as is often the case when such numbers and stats are thrown into the ethos like confetti at a ticker-tape parade, you aren’t meant to hear the whole story. While they tell you that 36% of the missing are identified as black (which also includes kids that may look white but have black fathers), and that blacks make 13% of the population, they are simultaneously telling you another important fact.
Dissecting the race gauge.
If black people are 13% of the population, that means what remains is 87% of a mostly white population. This highlights and also reveals an automatic unintentional disproportionate focus on numbers (in other words, a child is missing), rather than skin color, explaining the 36% as well.
The same could also be said concerning the missing girls and boys, not taking color into account. According to Statista, a data and intelligence site, more than 206.000 females under 21 were missing, and at least 172.000 males under 21. Should a new alert be put in place for boys and girls separately as well? The danger isn’t just the idea of the alert- it’s the lack of consideration and study they failed to apply to it.
The Daily Signal had much insight in this regard:
“One reason black children are reportedly more often classified as runaways is that they are more likely to be homeless or in the foster care system. Or they are sometimes taken by family members, not by strangers, and authorities refuse to issue an alert stemming from a family custody dispute. Or, some critics charge, police may be too quick to classify those missing as young criminals.”
…
“One possible solution comes from one of the co-founders of Black and Missing, former police officer Derrica Wilson. As USA Today put it, citing Wilson’s work, “It’s time to revisit Amber Alert criteria to remove the prohibition on children who run away … The criteria should focus on danger to the child,” she said, “and the
classification of ‘runaway’ should be eliminated.”
“These children are missing,” Wilson was directly quoted as saying. Beyond that, there is the much heavier work of answering the pressing question: Why are black children more often homeless, in foster care, or more likely to be taken by a family member? The potential remedies there include considerations of family formation
public policy that the Left simply refuses to touch.
So, as was the case with the racial preferences of affirmative action, with racial quotas and set-asides, and with all the other heavy-handed “equity” solutions, leftists like the ones that Californians routinely elect to the legislature and the governor’s mansion are determined to solve the problem by fiat, with a solution whose color consciousness offends the sensibility of people, never mind the Constitution.
The losers from a law with dubious constitutionality and from the absence of real remedies will be missing children of all colors, all of whom need help.”
(**Editor’s Note: In 2020, the FBI states197,381 white children went missing, suggesting that missing white youth outnumber lost young Blacks by more than 71,600.)
Let us consider the alerts already in place:
The AMBER Alert system which employs a collaborative between law enforcement, radio and television ads, electronic sic signs as well a cell phone alerts have been responsible for numerous children of different nationalities, including scores of black children.
Frequent visitors to Wal-Mart will no doubt recall noticing the ‘Code Adam’ sticker on the glass as they enter to shop. Code Adam is based initially on the case of murdered 6-year-old Adam Walsh who was kidnapped from a department store in 1981. The implementation of this invaluable program has led to countless children being reunited with their parents.
The are stories too numerous to mention that involve black (all well as other non-white) children that are safe and sound tonight due the success of such nationwide alerts as these. By not using color as a place to start, how different might these same ideas have been?
Have we considered as Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh posited; the implications of, say, an “Ivory Alert?” The backlash of the idea alone would be as chaotic as it would be absurd.
The divisiveness of such racially biased/motivated ideas are clear, and seek to do more harm than good. Much like the gun control debate, we need not adopt new gun safety legislation- we only need to enforce or amend those laws already in place. In this writer’s honest opinion, just as making “Juneteenth” a national holiday, the “Ebony Alert” is moot, and is as worthless and pointless as the paper it was written on. But rest assured, just as fast as this diabolical disaster is discarded, another
