Would there be the same hysteria about Madelaine if she was black?

Question

Children go missing around the world every day. We don't all start emoting in this massly hysterical way. Now British MPs have made themselves look (even more) foolish by wearing yellow ribbons. Why was there not the same mass hysteria when the limbless torso of the African 'Baby Adam' was found floating in the River Thames a couple of years ago? Maybe the ritual murder of children in Nigeria, and now in the UK, just doesn't have the same news value for the British people?

Answer 1

And your point is.

Answer 2

I completely agree with your point. I haven't seen such emotional hysteria since the aftermath of the death of Princess Diana. Why is this particular child causing such a reaction with people reacting as if this were their own child missing, a vast outpouring of grief that is absent with other missing children. Also, the media has ignored the flouting of parental duties,( children being left alone for hours) I know the parents are suffering but the media usually only cares about a good story.. However it is not poor Madeleines fault that the public hysteria is embarrassingly well over the top ( with MP's now involved too) she needs to be found quickly and every effort must be made to insure the same response to other children in the same position. Each child is priceless. BTW I am white and I thought a post sneering that someone must be black to hold these views was offensive.

Answer 3

I'm not trying to rant here... but the people with the money are the people who can afford to put up a huge media stink about their children missing. I personally think it's unfair that some children get larger media coverage than other children that go missing... and that's black, white, rich, poor, Hispanic, Chinese, or otherwise.

The one thing that I love about the US is the Amber Alert system that we have in place here. This way, all missing children get immediate media recognition when it occurs. Shows stop and the news comes on. There are HUGE signs over the interstates here in Kansas City that when a child is reported as missing, then it is put on these marquees on the highways. When the shows come back on TV, there is the Amber Alert running on the bottom of my screen. I think that it is such a great idea. Then, the folks who can afford to make a bigger hooplah can. With the Amber Alert system, every child gets their fair shot at being found.

Hope this helps.

Answer 4

i would be just as "hysterical" regardless of race, religion or social class, but i agree that if Madeleine were of a different social class or colour or if she was the child of a Muslim family that it may be very differently portrayed by the media. i personally am more upset by the fact that she was left on her own than by any thing to do with race or social class. i just feel that she was so badly let down by her parents i know that ultimately the person who took her is to blame but they had a very easy target. i was putting my son to bed tonight and i just thought that if anything were to happen to him would David Beckham be making an appeal, i am a single mother on benefits and his father is a Muslim Turkish Kurd who no longer lives with us or See's him, but does that make my son any less special or beautiful. I'm not saying that Madeleine's disappearance warrants any less attention but that all children deserve the same amount of love and compassion ,as do all we all

EDIT- I've just read some of the answers to this and i saw a few saying that what makes this case different is that no one claimed "baby Adam" that no one stood up and demanded that his killers be brought to justice. but doesn't that just illustrate the point even further. why didn't the British public collect money to give him a proper funeral or to find out who he was. that there's no point wearing a ribbon of hope for an already dead child, how can you be so stupid. there is a race and class issue here but i don't know how we stop it if you first look at a child and see its worth in its colour,religion or class and not in its beauty and potential for the future. i hope Madeleine is returned safely and i hope for all our sakes that we can some day put our prejudices ( all of them!!) aside.

Answer 5

I actually found the same question passing through my mind the other day. One would like and hopes to think that it would not make a difference. However, the family is white, middle class, moneyed and like the Daily Mail's wet dream. I read an article the other day that was saying how all parents can relate to the family. Perhaps in the capacity of empathising about losing their beloved child but I think that it the only source of commonality for the majority of parents. I suspect that if the little girl and her family were from a BME background, there may not be quite as much media and public attention. However, I may be and hope I'm wrong...and I hope with all my heart that they find the little girl safe and well.

Answer 6

Cracking question, submitter.

For media coverage, I am developing a 'news value' rating for missing children. This will aid mass media in automatically determining which cases deserve blanket coverage - here's the 1st draft for determining a total mark out of 100:


Race: White +20, Black -2, Asian (It's in their culture, innit?) -10
Closeness to age 7: Ages 0-3, subtract 5. Ages 13+, subtract 10.
Possibility the kid has come from a Daily Mail reader's family: Add 20.
Possibility the kid has come from a Social Security claiming family - -20 (obviously a future welfare claimant).
Blondeness of child: +20, with an extra 5 for blue eyes.
Beautifulness of parents: +5 to -5, rated on marks out of 10.
Gender: Female, +15, Male, -5.
Parental backstory that 'hits a chord' with readers: +15.
Horrifficness of crime: +20.
Amount of charities set up in missing child: +5 for each charity.
Amount of governments/charities shuffling away whistling saying 'nothing to do with us, guv' when they fall into harm: +5.
Mass poster distribution that devote a large proportion of the poster space to promoting a newspaper: +5

Therefore Madeline McCann - 90% News.
Victoria Climbie (go on, Google the name, I bet you've forgotten all about it:) 8% News.

Answer 7

Sadly, you are correct - would not be the same hysteria.

When visiting US, I have seen this phenomena many times - when a young, white and especially blonde child or young woman is missing, the news coverage is constant. The same is not done for a young black woman or child.

That being said, I still hope Maddy is found alive and well.

Answer 8

The media "hysteria" started in Portugal actually, and is talked about so much only because is a British child that is gone missing.
Being Portugal such an insignificant country, people think that is by showing a good performance, and quick results in this type of situations that they'll get the respect that a well developed nation should get.
If the kid was from China, Russia, Venezuela, or African no one would know about.

Answer 9

Its the same old stuff on here all the time......

I don't know who you spend your time with, or if those are your own personal views but most people with any shred of decency wouldn't care about the colour of a child that went missing.

I would lay money on it that the people that constantly spew out the above rubbish are white do-gooders who in-fact cause more racial disharmony than anyone else,

As for the tragic little boy in the Thames, people in the UK were horrified.

Instead of of poisoning yourself with anger that people are sad that a 'child' has gone missing and that they only care because she is white and go and do something good with your time.

Please stop these repetitive nonsense questions....

Answer 10

I think what has caught the public interested in this case is that this could have easily happenned to them.We all leave our kids for a few mins to do various things thinking they will be ok and this case has hit the hidden guilt that we feel about that and so raises our interest.Its like the case of the elephant in the room that nobody talks about.

Answer 11

Mate - ur comparing apples with oranges. A missing child, where there is still hope, is not the same (however horrific it is) as a mutilated body.

This case is also all about timing. There's nothing else for the press to get their teeth into at the moment (and yes, its as cynical as that).

And its also about how the McCanns have "manipulated" the press - and very cleverly GOT them involved and KEPT them involved. Let's face it - if it was my child I would do exactly the same - to keep the profile high.