Race in the news

I had nothing to do with this, but I wish I had. A few weeks ago I asked would Natalie Holloway's disapearance in Aruba be such big news if, instead of being a white girl from Alabama she was a black girl from Brooklyn. Well, it appears I'm not the only person who felt race was a factor in coverage of this story. According to this morning's USA Today, news coverage in recent days of the disapearance of LaToyia Figueroa, a pregnant woman from Philly, was apparently spured by an email campaing started by Philadelphia area bloggers who demanded that the disapearance of this pregnant black woman be given the same type of media attention as the disaperances of Natalie Holloway and Laci Petersen. And it worked. all the networks are covering the story. Cornel West is right: race matters. The fact that an email campaign was needed to get the media to notice this woman's disapearance proves it. But at least now they've noticed. It's something.