The Yasmin Acree Story: How The Media Has Treated The Case Of A Missing Austin Teen
By Steve Rhodes
TV One launched Find Our Missing this month with a show that included the cases of Austin teenager Yasmin Acree and the missing South Side Bradley sisters under the well-documented proposition that black girls – and poor black girls in particular – who have disappeared don’t get nearly the media coverage (if any) that white girls – pretty white girls in particular, and the wealthier the better – get.
“Find our Missing, launched Jan. 18, was designed to put names and faces to people of color, like Yasmin, who’ve disappeared without a trace. Each episode tells the story of a missing person or persons, beginning with the day they vanished and the frantic searches by loved ones and investigators to find them,” Austin Talks reports.
“Nearly one-third of the missing in this country are black Americans, while we make up only 12 percent of the population. Yet stories about missing people of color are rarely told in the national media,’ Wonya Lucas, president and CEO of TV One, the network airing the series, said in a press release.”
Point taken. But Acree’s case actually has attracted a fair amount of national media coverage, as we shall see, and her disappearance is more complicated than one may think, as we shall also see. And then you can check out TV One’s telling of her case.
Posted on January 29, 2012