CVK
I posted the item below yesterday, but took it down immediately when I received emails from Tamika’s family members. It turns out that I completely misread the show, and it’s a valuable lesson in how our assumptions can get in the way of our perceptions of reality. It turns out that Rebkah Howard is not white, she’s actually mixed. Below is my email to her relatives:

Ms. Friedman and Ms. Howard,

Please accept my sincere apologies about this mixup. I feel especially bad because–as you pointed out–as a mixed woman I’m usually hypersensitive to seeing other “mixed-looking” people. However, I think in this case because the topic of the show was all about the visuals of black vs. white, and because unfortunately Dateline didn’t provide any background about your family, I misunderstood the segment.

I will take the item down and publish an apology and retraction as soon as possible. But I wanted to ask for your permission to also publish your email to me (below) on the blog, because I think it really helps explain the background of your family.

Again, I’m very sorry about all of this. But I hope you understand that my outrage stemmed from my own frustration at seeing the racial inequities in coverage of missing persons–and I thought I was seeing it again on this show.

Sincerely,

Carmen Van Kerckhove

Dateline Ignores Its Own Advice
NBC Dateline aired a piece last night examining how network and cable news devote hours and hours of airtime covering missing persons cases involving young, attractive white women, but virtually none involving non-white victims. The segment focused on the story of missing Tamika Huston (pictured), using her as an example of the kind of story that is not being covered by the networks.

In the piece they admitted that NBC and indeed, Dateline itself, was guilty of this kind of racial profiling as well. But amidst all the orgasmic self-flagellation, they seemed to not notice that they were stooping to the same prejudice within this very piece!!!

Tamika’s aunt Rebkah Howard has been working tirelessly to try to get Tamika’s story out there, badgering network and cable news outlets to cover the story, hoping that will yield some leads. Rebkah was the only relative of Huston’s interviewed in the piece and they interviewed her at great length - she got a TON of airtime.

Huh, and guess what Rebkah Howard looks like? Yup, she’s a young, attractive white woman!!! (She’s a relative by marriage.)

Do you think it’s a coincidence that out of ALL the stories out there Dateline could have picked, involving non-white victims, they just happened to select this story, which allowed them to put this attractive white woman on TV for a good 20 minutes? And why on earth did Dateline not interview a SINGLE other person involved in this case? I understand that Rebkah has probably chosen to be the family’s spokesperson but I’d think that for such high-profile coverage, Tamika’s other family members wouldn’t have minded being interviewed. But why weren’t they? Did NBC think it was just too unpalatable to put Tamika’s black relatives on the air? Or any of her black friends?

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not bashing Rebkah Howard here. I think what she’s doing is incredible. Clearly she’s put a TON of time, effort, energy and skill into drawing the nation’s attention to Tamika’s disappearance, and she must love her niece very much because it cannot be easy to do all this while still holding down a regular job.

But, I find it incredibly ironic that in a segment all about how awful it is that televion’s coverage of missing persons is so biased, a piece in which Dateline unleashed an orgy of self-criticism, nobody seemed to notice that they were doing the exact same thing, yet again.