♪ >> The issue of missing Black girls is a national crisis hidden from the mainstream media.

Today, we have the founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, Natalie Wilson, next on "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by... Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Over the next 10 years, Comcast is committing $1 billion to reach 50 million low-income Americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything.

Additional funding provided by Pfizer.

♪ ♪ >> Missing-person cases involving people of color in the U.S. are less likely to be solved compared with cases according to the Black and Missing Foundation.

The U.S. Census reports that nearly 40% of missing persons are people of color, yet African-Americans make up only 13% of the population.

A recent news article in The Guardian reported how critics have called out news agencies for Missing White Women Syndrome, the practice of amplifying the stories of missing White women, while marginalizing those of women of color, a term introduced by the late award-winning journalist Gwen Ifill.

>> We welcome to "The Chavis Chronicles" Natalie Wilson, founder of the Black and Missing Foundation.

Tell us how you got involved in this important work.

>> Well, first, thank you for having me.

The Black and Missing Foundation started because there was a young lady by the name of Tamika Huston who went missing from my sister-in-law's hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina.

And we read how her family really struggled to get media coverage.

And there was a young lady by the name of Lori Hacking who went missing, a White lady, and she got around-the-clock coverage.

And -- >> In the news.

>> In the news.

And Tamika's aunt Rebkah, who was also in P.R.

-- she called every news station that covered Lori Hacking, and no one responded.

>> This is in South Carolina.

>> In South Carolina.

>> Okay.

>> But this was nationally, as well.

Lori Hacking covered the news cycle, nationally.

>> In what year was this?

>> This was in 2004.

>> As you know, there was a very high-profile case of a missing young White woman.

>> Yes.

>> Gabby Petito was missing, and it caught not only national television, national media -- it was on the front pages of most of the dailies.

This disparity of media interest, media coverage -- how did that lead you to establish the Black and Missing Foundation?

>> So, when we heard about it, my sister-in-law and I decided to do some research to see if there was an issue of missing people of color around the country, because we definitely don't see our faces in the news.

And at that time, we found that 30% of all persons missing were of color.

That number has since grown to 40% since we've been an organization.

So, I'm in media relations and my sister-in-law is in law enforcement, and those are the two critical professions needed to help us find and bring awareness to our missing.

So, that's the inspiration behind it.

The motivation behind it are all of these families that are reaching out to us.

We're meeting them at the worst times in their lives, and they're desperate.

They don't know what to do to find their missing loved ones.

So that's the motivation to keep going, to help us find and bring awareness to the hundreds of thousands of people of color who disappear each year.

>> So, the Black and Missing Foundation -- based in Washington, D.C. >> Mm-hmm.

>> So, there's a national 800 number.

How do people contact you?

>> So, we are a national organization, and I ask your listeners or your viewers to please visit bamfi.org.

Go directly to our website so you can see the faces of those missing from your community, so you can help find them.

>> So, there's listing based on states, based on cities?

>> It's listed based on state.

So there's someone or many people missing from each community or each state.

>> And, so, you've seen, from both the outside and the inside, how the media responds to major issues.

>> Mm-hmm.

>> Have you seen the trend get better or are we still, in 2021, going into 2022, similar to 2004?

>> Well, I will say that we have come a long way.

I remember, when I first started, there was a young lady by the name of Phoenix Coldon, who was missing from St. Louis.

And no one covered her story.

And, finally, an assignment editor was tired of me calling and said, "Send me her profile."

And they did show it on air.

But I'm so grateful for Black press.

They have been with us and they have used their platform to help us bring awareness to our case.

We are, you know, trying to create a partnership with national media outlets.

That has been an uphill battle, but we keep forging forward, because it's definitely needed.

And I'll tell you why media coverage is so important.

One, it alerts the community that someone is missing so that our community can be vigilant and look for that missing individual, so it can speed up the recovery, but it also adds pressure to law enforcement to add resources to the case, and that's very vital.

>> So, you're talking about what's going on in these various states around the United States.

It's a national problem.

What is the federal government doing?

It seems like to me, some of these cases involve interstate travel or interstate abduction.

Shouldn't the federal government weigh in more on the cases of missing Black girls?

>> Absolutely.

I think that laws need to be created to protect our children, especially those that are being trafficked.

What we're seeing is that young girls and boys that are trafficked, when they are arrested, they are criminalized.

What they need to do is to be rehabilitated.

They need to have the resources needed so they can be functioning members of society.

So that's -- Those are laws that we need to pass.

And there are -- There's one law out there, called the Ashanti Billie Law, where -- >> It's a state law or federal law?

>> It is a state law.

>> What state?

>> It is in Virginia.

Ashanti Billie went missing, and she was a Black woman, a young Black woman, and didn't get any media coverage.

So, in the state of Virginia, they passed this law.

She was too old for the AMBER Alert, but too young for the Silver Alert.

So they passed this law to bring awareness to missing individuals.

But this needs to be on a national level, because so many of our missing women and girls are slipping under the radar.

>> So, as a mother, are you concerned about the protection of your children?

>> Yes, my behavior has changed because of this.

I'm very paranoid for my kids all the time.

And I also have grandchildren.

And I'm very aware -- Even with other people's kids, if I walk out the door, I can tell you where the kids are, where the parents are.

So my behavior, again, has changed, but it has made me hypervigilant and sometimes paranoid, because I don't know what could happen to me or my family or my child.

So that's why, you know -- One of the reasons why I'm so dedicated to making a change.

>> What advice would you have to our listeners -- not just to African-Americans, but to all people -- about the importance of keeping track of your loved ones?

>> Well, I will say that, as parents, we need to be that nosy parent and look at what our children are doing online.

I'll give you an example.

Since the pandemic, we have seen an uptick in sex trafficking.

And our children are doing more work online.

And the predators know that.

They are tapping into our children.

I had a young lady who was missing.

She was a gamer.

And she was talking to a man -- I believe she was in Texas -- in Colorado.

And he taught her all of these things.

And when she became missing, her family was just so surprised that she was talking to someone online.

So I would ask parents to be that nosy parent, have that conversation, maybe sit the computer in an open area so you can see what's going on.

We're all on social media.

And we ask parents to also create a fictitious account and see if you can befriend your child and see what information they will share with you.

So then you can have that conversation -- "Hey, you know, I wasn't a 14-year-old boy talking to you.

I am an adult, and you shared with me your home or your school, and that's not good."

>> So you are encouraging parents to collect intelligence on their children.

>> To save their life, because once they go missing, we don't have any intelligence to save them.

So absolutely.

>> From your perspective as the founder of the Black and Missing Foundation, what is the appropriate use of social media?

>> Well, with my co-founder of the Black and Missing hat, we use social media for good.

We cannot wait on the traditional news cycle to get information out to the public.

So we utilize social media.

Instantaneously, it has a vast reach.

So we like that aspect of technology.

But, also, the predators and pedophiles are using it to harm our children.

And stepping back a bit, I think, as a society, we share too much information on social media.

I see all the time, "Hey, I'm at the airport heading to Miami, and I'm staying at this hotel."

Well, you don't know who's looking, who is tracking you, who is then at your home maybe robbing it, who is waiting for you at the hotel to do you any harm.

So we just have to be mindful and careful in the age that we're in.

>> There's an understatement of the reality of the magnitude of missing Black girls.

That's why it's important to put some kind of number out there, because people are gonna take this too lightly.

Since 2004, the situation's gotten worse.

>> Yes.

>> It hasn't gotten better.

>> Yes.

>> To me, the media tends to ignore what happens to Black children or Black girls more than they have an affinity to raise public awareness about missing children who are white.

That's a problem.

>> Yes.

And that is true.

And there are a disproportionate number of Black women and girls that are missing compared to any other race.

>> Why?

>> Well, one, I believe that our girls and our women are adultified and they are sexualized, and they're not seen as victims when they go missing.

So we need to change that narrative around our missing girls.

They -- And change the narrative around missing people period.

They're our mothers.

They're our fathers.

They're our daughters.

They're our nieces.

And we need to understand that they are important to us and very important to our families.

And the families shouldn't be the only person looking for that missing individual or that missing young girl.

It should be all of us, collectively, as a community.

>> Well, it seems that, you know, we live in a society that is driven by technology, by innovation.

We're probably the most advanced scientific society in the world.

And so it's ironic that, as our technology increases, the problem of our missing persons and, in this case, missing children, missing Black girls, is on the incline, it's not on the decline.

So, what are we missing?

It's not that the technology is failing us.

I think it's the commitment of law enforcement, the commitment of the media.

We've already mentioned the disparity in the media.

>> Right.

>> What recommendations, Natalie, would you have the public at large, including the media, take to prevent our children from being missing?

>> Well, I also believe that there are so many systemic-racism or -racist actions that cause these problems in our community.

You know, you look at poverty, socioeconomic status.

A lot of these children or these young girls want a sense of normalcy, and the pimps know that.

"So I will give you a phone or shoes so you will sell your body."

So we have to take better care of our children.

>> As you look across the broad cross section of the United States of America, what's your advice to the public at large on how to respond to the growing problem of missing people, but particularly missing children, and particularly children of color that are missing?

>> To the public, I will say that they need to be -- We need to be more vigilant and know that sex trafficking -- Our women and children and men are disappearing at an alarming rate.

It's not happening abroad.

It's not happening in Russia or China.

It's happening here in our communities in our backyard.

>> What gives you hope?

>> What gives me hope is that... we will be able to find more missing people.

When we started the organization, we said, "If we can just find one -- just one person, we did our jobs."

But then the calls and the e-mails kept coming in.

So if we can find and bring home more missing individuals or at least have answers for families -- And I think that's the missing part of it.

These families don't know what happened to their loved one.

And then, ultimately, if we can lower the number of our children who are going missing.

>> You know, in the Biden-Harris administration now, they are focusing on human trafficking.

They are focusing on missing persons.

Very similar to the lack of data on police-brutality cases, there's a lack of national data on missing people.

So, what does the Black and Missing Foundation -- What do you say to law-enforcement agencies, local, state, and federal, how to be more effective in finding missing children?

>> Well, a couple of things.

With law enforcement, I think that there needs to be better sensitivity training towards communities of color.

We know that there's a sense of distrust between the minority community and law enforcement.

But we need to also build that gap.

We hear from families all the time, they contacted law enforcement to take the police report, and it wasn't taken.

They were told, "Oh, you know, it come back your loved one is on drugs" or "They're an adult and they can walk away."

So let's have that conversation about sensitivity training.

And, also, what we're seeing is that, when our children are reported missing, they're often classified as a runaway.

Well, if you're classified as a runaway, you don't receive the AMBER Alert or any type of media coverage.

So let's look at how we're classifying our children.

And even if a child ran away, what are they running to?

Are they running to a pimp?

So then you have a whole nother issue, because we know that within 24 to 48 hours of a child being on the street, they are lured into sex trafficking.

So let's do a better job -- >> In that short period of a time?

>> In that short period of a time.

Again, the child has to eat.

They need security.

They will do anything to survive.

So let's work collectively, and that includes law enforcement, the media, community, government agencies, to make a difference and to protect our children.

>> Tell me some of the stories about your success.

I think some of the families you've actually helped actually find missing.

Do you have a favorite success story?

>> Well, all of them are my favorite, but I will share one with you.

There was a young lady who went missing from Baltimore, and her mother did all the right things.

She knew that her child, her daughter, was talking to someone online, on an app.

>> How old?

>> She was 16 at the time.

>> 16 years old.

>> Yes.

And she was talking to someone online, on an app.

I believe it was Kik.

He mother took away her device.

This young lady went to school, and guess what she did.

She used her friend's phone, got on this app, and some man that she befriended, he came to her school and picked her up.

And he took her to, I believe it was Capital Hills, Maryland.

And, you know, she was a victim of sex trafficking.

Because of our partnership with "The Michael Baisden Show" at the time, he featured -- >> This is a public radio show.

>> Yes.

Syndicated radio show.

And he featured her on his program, his Facebook page.

Well, the Uber driver, they were trafficking her back and forth between DC and Capitol Heights, Maryland, and the Uber driver saw her.

Contacted us.

And we were able to get -- We were able to get the FBI involved and found her.

But she's not the same person.

She's tried to commit suicide.

>> But you found her alive.

>> We found her alive.

>> And that's -- I mean, that could have ended a different way.

>> Yes, it could have.

>> It's one thing to deal with the trauma of the aftermath, but I tell people all the time, when you have trauma, that's because you're alive.

>> Yeah.

>> People who are deceased don't have trauma.

So the fact that you saved this young lady's life is a success.

And, of course, hopefully you can get her the proper treatment to deal with the aftermath of the trauma.

Thank God for -- and see, that's why media is so important.

>> Yes, it is.

>> If it hadn't been for the radio show, the Facebook, the Uber driver seeing it and responding.

So technology and media can be used for the greater good.

>> Yes, it can.

>> If it's used in the right way.

>> Yes.

>> We need more success stories like that, Natalie.

>> Yes, sir, we do.

>> But I've got to ask you this one last question.

Over the last months, there's been a lot of controversy about Haitian immigrants trying to immigrate to the United States.

You know, they had a devastating earthquake, series of earthquakes, series of hurricanes, series of devastations, instability.

And so a lot of people are trying to come, seeking refuge in the United States.

And a lot of them are children.

I saw thousands of young women and their children sleeping under the bridge in Texas.

What do you say about the connection between immigration, homelessness, and missing children?

>> So because of the fear of deportation, we're seeing that a lot of our immigrant communities, they're not reporting their loved ones going missing.

And we need to have laws in place to protect these individuals, as well.

So they're being victimized yet again.

And I remember, you know, even though English is the language in Trinidad, there's still, like, a dialect, a language barrier and a cultural barrier when you come to America that you want the best for yourself and your family, and you're trying to make a way, but you have so many obstacles that you have to, you know, to be a part of.

But I just think that we need to have better laws in place to protect these most vulnerable immigrants so that they aren't exploited.

>> Yes.

What's your prediction for the future?

>> Um, well, with my Trinidadian background, I've been monitoring what is going on in the Caribbean.

And we would like to expand the Black and Missing Foundation to Caribbean countries because we're also seeing this issue happening there.

But, you know, ultimately, I think that I see a brighter future for our children if we work collectively, and that means the churches or the faith based organizations.

I understand that there are some topics that are taboo, that we don't want to talk about, but this is an issue that we need to have in the forefront and to share with the congregation.

And all of us can get involved and make a difference.

>> Well, Natalie Wilson, thank you for your passion, thank you for your leadership, your commitment.

You're making a big difference.

And we thank the Black and Missing Foundation under your leadership.

Thank you for joining "The Chavis Chronicles."

>> Thank you for having me.

>> Major funding for "The Chavis Chronicles" is provided by... Reynolds American, dedicated to building a better tomorrow for our employees and communities.

Reynolds stands against racism and discrimination in all forms and is committed to building a more diverse and inclusive workplace.

American Petroleum Institute.

Through the core elements of API's Energy Excellence program, our members are committed to accelerating safety, environmental, and sustainability progress throughout the natural-gas and oil industry in the U.S. and around the world.

You can learn more at api.org/apienergyexcellence.

Over the next 10 years, Comcast is committing $1 billion to reach 50 million low-income Americans with the tools and resources they need to be ready for anything.

Additional funding provided by Pfizer.

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