and he's official of sexual assault and the social media post and then disappeared from public view. but an interview with a french newspaper. she says the post was misunderstood. there's been a huge welcoming party, the seller girls, football heroes. they brought home the africa cup of nations for the 1st time after beating egypt to the penalty shootout. it's the biggest triumph in senegal, sporting history, and the victory parade of the capital bank are brought tens of thousands of on the streets. the government declared a national holiday to honor the footballers president mackey sal, cut short a trip abroad to welcome home to place ah good heavy with a fellow, adrian finnegan, harry though how the headlines and al jazeera western leaders scrambling to find

a diplomatic solution to the crisis between russia and ukraine in meetings with the german chancellor, the u. s. president, one moscow of economic punishment. if it invades if russian rage, that means thanks for troops crossing the on the border of ukraine. again, then there will be we. there will be no longer a nor stream to we will bring it into what it, what, how will you, how will you do that exactly. since the project and control of the project is within germany's control, we will, i promise you will be able to do french president mariama kron asked you to travel to ukraine for talks. it follows a 5 hour meeting with russia's lead of letting me put her put in on monday, which both side said was constructive, tougher restrictions being brought back in hong kong as it battles record curve at

19 cases. public gatherings will be limited to 2 people, and religious venues will be closed. come yet come where your ting, adams are now given this severe pandemic, i hate to publicly accept that we have to go back to this may stringent level. we'll be introducing a band on cross family gatherings, even in private and will increase a penalty for those who don't comply with a compulsory testing requirements. if they don't comply, the fine will now be doubled. the corruption trial of israel's former prime minister has been delayed. after allegations that police used controversial spyware on monday and is really newspaper reported, the officers hacked the phones of benjamin netanyahu. son and his associates, protested business leaders, and cabinet ministers are also said to have been targeted with the israeli made pegasus spyware. and those were headlines for these continuously announces era after the stream, which is coming up next. as punches intensify along the russian crane border u. s. presidential bypass threaten president pollutant this severe economic

sanctions saying of conflict of hers. it could be the largest invasions for port 2 kinds of romantic talks, a few possibilities, what we live for moscow to bring the latest development on al jazeera with . i'm sorry, ok, you're watching the stream in the united states, the cases of black women who go missing rarely make the headlights. so i question today is not why does that happen? we all know why that happens, but what can be done about it? in recent years, communities, families have be involved with somebody who's been loved, who's gone missing or even murdered. they have run around to protect black women. and we give you one example. it's an hbo documentary called black and missing a detector, kept saying she ran away and i'm like, mom on the way. it was like

a punch mother. he's. when a black person is in distress missing, it's not a big deal to law enforcement because they don't think we have much to lose. this one always gives me this. remember when she was a little girl, you blame yourself because it never was as to what? missing 2009 both old and made a new stations. nobody would talk to me when i full coined the term missing white woman syndrome. if you don't meet those criteria are lot here. blue eyes, your stories are not newsworthy. here's my knee. she's missing her story is just as compelling. we have nothing for our missing people except black folks to spit in rich helping us share this story with you. this issue with you on the stream, alex iesha a mara, thank you so much for being part of our program. alex with introduce yourself to our global audience. tell them who you are, what you do. thank you so much for having me. my name is alexandra. i'm the

director, political advocacy at black boston, a community organization. and a dr. student at suffolk university studying is development, is get to having. i sure i want you to introduce yourself try stream audience, but also tell them your connection with this particular issue. black women going missing, not being reported enough. my name is ayesha miller, and september 11th 1986. my mother was kidnapped and murdered, as well as my oldest sister was 18 years old at the time. and for 21 years, we didn't know what happened to them. and it wasn't until the cold case detect this work that case in 2007, 2008, where they found him and he was already in prison for haven't done the same thing to another young lady just 2 months after they kidnapped. and he kidnapped and murdered my mother and sister. so now what i do is host the show that reflects and

focuses on the effects of childhood trauma on adult behavior. i should thank you so much and i really appreciate you being on today show bringing your personal experience and showing with us and out show i'm going to bring in m r m r a thanks for being on the screen. again, please introduce yourself to our audience. tell them who you are on what you do. hi . well, thank you for having me. my name is marco for and i am the creator, host and executive producer for becker gone, a true crime podcast. thank you so much. all right, so we have 3 guests who are able to answer your questions. really dig into this topic. it's a hall conversation to have. but if you're on youtube right now, your comments, your questions. i welcome you can be part of the discussion. alex, set start alex a mara. i should. let's start with giving our international what is an idea of what it is like when you see coverage of, if you see coverage of black women who's gone missing or maybe something tragic has

happened to them. just in a nutshell, alex, can you how i'm not sure what it understand what it is like. you know, what i can say when i black women or girl is gone missing. there is not equitable coverage. and i think a lot of people understand why missing white women missing syndrome, which was coined by african american journalists. one fell back in 2004. and this was basically aligning with that same sentiment is that when black women and girls are missing, there is a lack of urgency. but when it's someone that is white or, or in other words, or not, in other words, but what people will say is conventionally attractive white women. that all it is m o. and when people view that, oh, it's like this person is huge soft. so it really goes back to the depictions of

black womanhood and black girls, how we, how's, society has trained our mind to think about black women and girls. and i think that reflects on how our law enforcement on treats black girls we, we've been trying to view them in a certain way. so there is not equitable coverage. and i think that's one of the reasons why is because there's a lack of protection. we are seen as, you know, we don't, we're not valuable to society. i see you nodding, i'm articulate that. no, go ahead. yeah, yeah that's, i mean, that's exactly correct as one of the reasons why i started my show there, you know, we, we all know that there is a lack of coverage of the stories. but there's a lack of concern. and, you know, one of the excuses that, you know, people often make is that they, when they elevate the stories of, i'm missing my women like gabby potato. one of the things that i heard over and over again was that she was so reliable and that they could see themselves in her,

and they could see their daughters and her or their friends and her. and they don't see that when black women are missing and that's a problem, and it's the way in which their stories are covered. it's the way in which we don't get into their lives. we don't find out who they are. and so, you know, how could someone connected them if we don't, we don't know these women. so, you know, that's why i wanted to do a show that focuses more on telling who these women were so that you can eliminate the excuse the, well, i can relate to that or, you know, we can all relate to each other, even if it's just that we are women, you know, to me like we will have different struggles. we all come from different places, but some of our struggles are the same and we can relate to each other, you know, in a way that makes these stories more real for people and more, you know, something that they, they care about. i think that's what makes the difference that a t so was a young white woman who eventually was found to have been strangled. that story was on cable news almost every night. it was like a running tragic, so all pra,

i sure would be what you want to add. my question is, do we hear about it? do we actually hear about it? you know, it comes on, but it's a blip in the news. it comes on maybe one news cycle, one or 2. i know, at least from my family, maybe a week that was about it and until we started raising, i was isn't going to the police more often. we wrote to everybody. every news outlet, not news outlet, television programs, major networks that we're on at that time and no body paid attention. no one gave us any credibility. so what i know and understand is that nobody listens well. very few people is not going to say no one, but now i'm grateful that we have more opportunities to do that such as the different platforms such as it ms. black grow, gone in my own. we're able to bring

a voice and bring the voices alive, and i don't know that we are human, just like my mom, even today, this is 35 years. this is taking me 35 years to even talk about to the degree that it needs to be talked about for me because it's so personal. it was so hurtful. benny i can't so i should, sorry. you sent, you sent us this, this pitch you sent us several pictures. one is you are the spitting image of your mom. ok. so everyone, this is, this is i. she has mom. this is, this is little i'm going to say baby elva you. you're about 9 at the time. this is you ayesha, and you lost your mom and your sister in a tragic situation and you had about a week's worth of attention from the media and that was it. why did they move on? why didn't they stay with this story? at that time, they wanted to accuse my father, because generally in a domestic case, they want dependent on the relative somebody that they knew. so it went unnoticed

and because they couldn't connect him to it, they had no dna. it wasn't that popular back in 1086, but they couldn't pin him. and so they couldn't conclude the matter for him. and so it just went cold. the case went cold and unfortunately, and regretfully this the tommy least the weren't. who was the assailant. he did the same thing to another young lady just 2 months after that. she lit and because she lived, she is the reason why we know what we know to day. and it took that long, but even her, nobody paid attention to her case either. again, i'm so i'm sorry, i just wanted to kind of take on what i'm on. i just point about the, you know, reaching out to media outlets and them just not carrying bag as such. a common thing i see in the story that i tell of these families,

particularly of the missing women, reaching out to the local media and them just kind of just like this is really not that interesting of a story for us. and that is, it's sad because they, you know, that's their 1st um, you know, the place they go is to their local media. and i think that there's also a difference between the local media covering it and the national media covering it . a lot of times the local media will pick up these stories, but it stays within the conte vines of the small town or the area or the city in which the crime took place. and it doesn't ever make it to the national stage. and that is the difference between you know, the cases of missing black women on the regular and cases like the gap people. tito, cases that they do often get elevated to that national level more, you know, more often than black women cases ever have. now you said, then i think alex goes fast and then i 2nd the

a little motor i thing handling think nice. go ahead. no, this is a really funny conversation. and i also want to talk about black families because i think black families are forced to do the work that law enforcement is supposed to do. so in boston, we had a case, i'm sure i'll pringle from liberty massachusetts on. and her remains were found by her fair. and this goes back also to the documentary natalie and erico los. and they also stated that on, you know, the 1st 24 hours of when a person goes missing is super critical. and in a lot of jared jones distinctions i'm you can't, you have to wait all the way out to 24 hours to, to file that that person is missing. so there's a lot of the way the structure in law enforcement also hinders the development of like making sure that block woman and block girls are safe as well. but why is it

that block families are forced to do the work in a lot of people are saying long foresman. it is inadequate and i would agree with them, but it is inadequate. let me just bring in 2 to 2 young women who were found dead . they died on december, the 12th 2021. so he is low in smith fields. and this is brenda rose on my laptop. and what happened to them really speaks to what you're talking about, the detective process, the police process. so with lauren smith fields, her family was not told that she was found dead. they had to go to her apartment, her landlord put a note on her, on the door and said, if you are looking for lauren, please call me. that is how they found out. and then with parental rules again, a family were not told. it's almost if the police were shrugging something. if we are really focusing on, we know what the problem is. like with knowing what progress previous we are focusing on. now, what do we do?

it's not just the media, it's the police to i show you stop. yes, they do both because they want to come to a quick conclusion. they will close the case out as quickly as possible, and whomever they can pin it on, you know, member, they can get to confess or find some type of evidence to lead to that person's character. they want to do that, and if they can't do it, then a switch to the back burner rights, which it was the case even with my dad, so which he had nothing to do with it. he kept saying that i didn't do it. i love my way, so he was not involved. however, when the man who did it timely, stuart was a serial. an offender. right. he done the same thing in a $970.00. came again in 1986 twice in 1086. and so, but nobody's looked at him even when the young lady went to the police in november,

the st of $986.00. nobody followed up again, right? so he did eventually go to prison for her case. but to lee our 2 cases, they took 21 years to lead our 2 cases. and so, you know, and, you know, unfortunately my family found the body of my oldest sister in our home and we didn't know what happened to mama. we did it now. so i want to bring in the voice of don lp crosland, he's an attorney, i'm going to play this video and an a mara. i want to react of the back of this video. krista now is bringing some of these ideas about now, what do we do? we know that black women are not being taken seriously when they go missing a when they're murdered. he has some solutions. here is the death of lawrence smithfield is an absolute tragedy. and what we're asking for is it much. she was

reported dead by white man. she met on bundle. she's a 23 year old. beautiful 5 ran you to influencer instagram motto, college student. and from the time her dad, the bridgeport police department, didn't even have the decency to notify the family. they didn't know investigation, they preserve no evidence. and as we see today, we don't have any answers as to how she died or how these drugs ended up in her system. that's unacceptable. so we, while they were just as a site for us, is it the department of justice comes in bridgeport, connecticut, and does a proper investigation. they deserve answers. and we want those answers now. i mean, yeah, i think that you know, in a case like with laurens, but filled it's very typical for the police to react this way. when, when a, when a woman of color, black woman goes missing, there is, you know,

i should story about the process investigation when, when of her mother's death, of her mother murder and the kidnapping of her sister, the lauren smithfield. story. it's very familiar and the stories that i've told about how the police initially react. i think it's important to understand that even when these police reports are these, missing persons reports are filed. please don't immediately start investigating is not like you call and say, hey my level one is missing and then they start hitting the pavement and searching for your loved ones. sometimes even after the a missing person report has been filed, it takes a police weeks to start investigating the crime. and usually that investigation only takes place if something else occurs that sparks their desire to, you know, some type of sign, a foul play or something come, someone comes board or social media campaign. we will just show you some of the central me is that the people on social media made the police investigate a murder. and that's why potential my and i should say, let me,

let me correct myself. yeah, sorry. and i think that's how true crime serves a purpose because what it does is it creates the, you know, we, as human beings, we are kind of voice as we like to hear about other people's lives. and that's why social media. so, you know, popular. so telling these stories then sparks an interest in these stories, and then it creates, you know, a groundswell on social media. i was saying before the gabby potato story hit, cnn, and m s m b c. in mainstream media. i was seeing it all over twitter, all over instagram, all over tick tock. and then i started seeing cnn picked up the story. because, you know, the media is very much interested in what we are interested in these days. whatever is the trending topic, whatever is popular, they're then going to latch onto that. and then in turn, that puts pressure on the law enforcement and police because there's no way you can have millions of people tweeting at you. what's going on with this case. and you just like bringing your hair and you know, yeah, so we have to kind of, you know,

it actually as much as it starts with the police and starts with the media. also start with us. as, as, as, as social media, you know, consumers of people on social media, people like true crime or just human beings. in general. we are the ones that drive these stories. and if we can care about lauren smith, i've, i've lost my pills. is one of those cases that has been become more popular because of the social media and a way before i thought on the news. i can't even tell you how many people have sent me, tag me about the story, sent me messages about the story way before i saw it on the news. so it really does start there and it can start there. i think that is where the difference is going to be, not in the mainstream media, not at the police level. i think it really is. want to start with us. all right, ladies before you can, you are, may i just bring in a one person? he's important then and then alex, you pick up a meeting in the back. yeah, i want to bring in erica marie river. she's the founder of al, bought girls. this is the community saying we need to take care of our own. and

then alex, you can respond right off the back of it. his erica one star black girls for many reasons. the main one being because these types of cases are often under represented in the media. but i also wanted to pay attention to this site being victim. and just sharing the story about who these women and who these girls are were and keeping in mind that they have relatives and loved ones. you still care about them and are still searching for their stories and true crime. often. it can be a bit of info, tainment entertainment, and we don't always consideration that there are still people that are left behind and picking up the pieces of tragedies. and i wanted to have a space that was not only sharing the cases, but very sensitive to that as well. will work that she is doing is so powerful. so she literally a one woman show creating a database of quantitative measures, you know,

putting in how many black women and girls have gone missing. also gathering articles, documents, police reports that qualitative aspects as well. so that shaping those stories. and as a community organizer, that is so important that we take care of our own, and that we figure out i lost connection and that we figure out different solutions so that we can, you know, also promote the development of our black girls. i will say that it is with our communities, but we also need to hold our elected officials accountable. busy as well, like we can't do it all by ourselves. representative route, we're just richardson of minnesota has launched the 1st task force ever in the united states on for missing black women and girls and murdered black women in black women and girls. and i think for me being in boston,

one of the reasons similar to morrow saying was that social media is such a transformative space there. i wrote an op ed about the ongoing crisis of missing black girls and boston because of the social media. and because black women and girls were organizing digitally and saying views are so many cases, how come we are not talking about it. so from i'm, i'm a writer at heart. so i decided to use that as a way for solution. but i say we need, we need separate task force, we need more than one task force to do this. and we can't work. and we can't work in relation the child justice unit police headquarters, department human trafficking department. we have to work together to figure out an approach. i'm bringing you back in here because as erica was speaking, i could see the emotion on your face. i also want to share this page because this page on al black goals is your family story here. myrtle hudson, keen told to murder by serial killer. so many families do not know what happened to

their loved ones. you know, what difference does that make to you? i made a major difference. i just happened to be searching for tommy lee stewart because every few years, i do a search for him to make sure he's still in prison. and i just happen to be doing that and i came across the story for years to have been no coverage on my family story. i'm on level kidnapping. and i found erica. and she and i instantly connected via instagram. i wrote to her and i told her, hey, this is my family story, and it just, it developed from there. and she and i have built a relationship where it's personal, it's personal to me. and i celebrate all the work that she's doing to bring light and bring a voice allowed employees to the victims and their families and how it impacts their family. she human eyes is the,

the women and the black women who have gone missing are murdered. so ever grateful for her. i have a couple of quick so you you to questions? audience is what you that empathizing. they were asking questions, instant art says back as we're almost at the end of the show. so as a says, have you ever witness guess 1st hand, how much a great impact the more news coverage, more police effort has had a alex, i see you nodding your head very clearly. what, what have you seen? yes. well there was a case. i'm not, i'm not going to say the name of the person, but there was a case in our organization like austin, where we had one of our members friends were missing and we blasted it and we did the boost black girls campaign. and that definitely helped law enforcement and help our elected officials understand that this is very important. all right, well, one more youtube, right? i hear pre appreciate. they said enough one on youtube. is it? because it's the coverage because of the lack of coverage because of ratings that

it seen. white cute women get more ratings than black women amara be honest, be filed most almost definitely. yeah. there, there are there yet with everything. and you know, america, that, that is, that is what it is. and a lot of it is readings and, and black women on the news media outlets also like their stories are going to bring, you know, bed awareness or people are gonna care or, you know, that the story is interesting enough. and so yeah, that, that's um, that has a lot to do with what we are changing the status quo. well, not re amara alex is ayesha. a changing the status quo. all of the polkas out the conversations, the websites are changing, how black and missing women are being treated. thank you so much. i really appreciate your time today. thank you for your comments on youtube. i see next time ah

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executions, torture censorship is not acceptable. and you won't hear such strong words from, let's say berlin or paris, or london, or man in cairo on al, does there ah words, not all. the french and russian lead us whole talks in the hope of using the crisis of ukraine's florida. ah, hello, i'm adrian again. this is al jazeera alive from dough, also coming up hong kong, impose as strict to measures to combat a record. why is included 19 infections, spying on its own citizens more fall out, and israel, off to accusations that police use spyware. to target politicians and.