The absence of national media coverage for missing black girls in Washington D.C. has sparked outrage across social media, as activists and concerned people created the hashtag #missingdcgirls to draw attention to the issue. Over the past week, 10 Black girls have gone missing.

Among the celebrities who've publicly shown their support for the missing girls, and expressed anger and disappointment in the lack of national media coverage are Meek Mill and LL Cool J. Meek specifically said he'd seen the news circulating on social media but thought it was fake because no national outlets were covering it.

"I thought this was fake because i only seen it on social media!!!! Americas media is getting out of hand with the disrespect to the lack of coverage of our people and it's becoming too blatant!! "WASNT YALL JUST SEARCHING FOR TOM BRADYS JERSEY" ???????" he wrote on Instagram.

LL Cool J went on a Twitter spree early this morning (March 24), posting the hashtag in consecutive tweets and calling on Diddy, Eminem and Russell Simmons to help bring awareness to the missing girls.

"Write anything that will grab headlines!!! Anything!!! Then use #missingdcgirls as the tag. wtf?!!" he wrote in one post.

Washington D.C. police have now increased their social media efforts following the outcry—according to the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, there are 38 total open missing persons reports in the area. WUSA9 reports church members met with parents and high school students on Monday to discuss the dangers of sex trafficking in D.C.

The disparity between media coverage for missing Black and Latina women and white women isn't new. On Tuesday, Black members of Congress sent a letter to the Justice Department and the FBI asking them to amp up their resources to find the missing girls and address the trafficking of black and brown girls, which has long been an issue across the country, but especially in DC. Specifically, the letter asked the entities to "devote the resources necessary to determine whether these developments are an anomaly or whether they are indicative of an underlying trend that must be addressed.”

You can check out the push to find #missingdcgirls below.

 

 

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