On Christmas Day 1996, 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey was found dead in the basement of her family’s Boulder, Colo. home, sparking a decades-long obsession with the still unsolved case. You’ve certainly heard of Ramsey if you’re of a certain age, but you likely have no idea who Tineshia Jackson, Taranika Raymond or Kreneice Jones or Asha Degree are.
Nine-year-old North Carolina native Degree went missing on Valentine’s Day 2000 under mysterious circumstances and has yet to be seen again. Yet, there’s little to no fuss about Degree, and certainly no Netflix docuseries, as there is about Ramsey: “Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenét Ramsey.”
Ramsey’s death gripped the country, with photos of the young beauty pageant contestant appearing on countless newspaper and magazine covers. Images of her all dolled up in fancy gowns with her blonde curls topped by crowns were unavoidable. It was very clear that her death was supposed to touch America’s hearts because she was an adorable little girl from a seemingly respectable white family.
However, the lack of coverage for Jackson, Raymond and Jones — all young Black girls who went missing in the ‘90s, and whose cases did not receive the national media attention that Ramsey’s did — underlines that when white women and girls are victims, they are seen as more important.
Even if the aforementioned Black girls were treated with the respect they deserved and had as many resources poured into their cases, they certainly wouldn’t still be making headlines almost 30 years later.
The Netflix docuseries “Cold Case” examines the intense media scrutiny of Ramsey’s case, as well as the constant suspicion of her parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, her half brother John-Andrew and her brother, Burke, who was nine when his sister was killed. DNA results officially “cleared” her parents in 2008.
Obviously, it’s a tragedy any time a child is murdered. Since no one has been charged for the crime, there’s been no resolution, which is one of the reasons the case has continued to captivate people. While the circus-like atmosphere surrounding the media coverage has not led to the capture and prosecution of the perpetrator, it has kept the case relevant and the investigation ongoing.
In contrast, even in high-profile cases like the controversial shootings of Tamir Rice and Trayvon Martin, the media eventually moved on. Whether it was because those were young Black boys, or that the alleged perpetrators were known, we can’t know for sure. But it proved that in the eyes of the media, when our children are murdered, it’s not seen as an equally serious crime.
Regular stories about botched investigations from the past and recently discovered graves of Black victims tell us how crimes against our community have never been given their proper attention or dignity.
According to Black and Missing, in 2023, 162,755 persons of color under the age of 18 were reported missing. We don’t usually see those names and faces circulated around the internet and made into important stories. Unfortunately, stereotypes about people of color often impede the path to their cases being considered crimes right from the start.
Whether it’s assumptions about family stability, misinformation about immigrants, or just plain old racism, when Black folks go missing or are killed, they simply don’t get the same coverage and considerations as white victims.
If all those media outlets had given one-tenth of the effort in reporting on murdered or missing Black children that they gave JonBenét Ramsey’s case in 1996, maybe we still wouldn’t be constantly battling the narrative of Missing White Woman Syndrome in 2024.