Joy Reid Suggests People Who Care about 'Missing White Woman' Gabby Petito Are Racist
MSNBC host Claims public ignores 'cases involving missing people of color'
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MSNBC host Joy Reid has accused the American people of being racist by claiming the public only cares about the disappearance of 22-year-old Gabby Petito is because they are suffering from “missing white woman syndrome.”
The comments from Reid have triggered outrage as the mysterious case of Petito, who is presumed to have been murdered, has captured the public's attention.
Reid suggested during a segment on her show that Americans are only interested in the case because Petito is "white."
Reid said while Petito's family deserves "answers and justice," she felt the same media attention doesn't apply when non-white people go missing.
"It goes without saying that no family should ever have to endure that kind of pain," Reid said.
"And the Petito family certainly deserves answers and justice."
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"But the way this story has captivated the nation has many wondering, why not the same media attention when people of color go missing?" Reid asked.
“Well, the answer actually has a name, ‘missing white woman syndrome,’ the term coined by the late and great Gwen Ifill, to describe the media and public fascination with missing white women like Laci Peterson or Natalee Holloway, while ignoring cases involving missing people of color.”
WATCH:
MSNBC’s Joy Ann Reid: Media reporting Gabby Petito’s disappearance/presumed murder is symptom of "Missing White Woman Syndrome." pic.twitter.com/UYAWgaDyYr
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) September 21, 2021
MSNBC has extensively covered the case and its website Monday morning prominently featured an opinion piece on the missing woman.
Reid spent the remainder of the segment discussing multiple instances of missing black and Native American individuals she claimed to have never heard about in the same way as the Petito case.
Reid ended the segment by suggesting that missing women of color weren't noticed as much because they didn't look like the daughters or granddaughters of newsroom executives, alluding to one of her guest's earlier claims on the show that stories on missing non-white women weren't sensational enough for the white, middle-aged males leading newsrooms.
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Petito was last heard from in late August, and her family reported her missing on September 11th, after her fiancé Brian Laundrie, 23, appeared at his family’s home in Florida in the couple’s shared camper — but without Petito.
The two had been living with Laundrie’s family in Florida before deciding to embark on a cross-country trip that they were planning to document on social media.
Medical examiners in North Port, Florida, were scheduled to conduct an autopsy on Tuesday on a body found in Wyoming, to determine the cause of death of Gabby Petito.
The remains were discovered on Sunday in a remote area of Bridger-Teton national forest, in western Wyoming, and later identified by Petito's family.
Police and FBI agents searched for Petito’s fiance, Brian Laundrie.
Investigators have called Laundrie, 23, a “person of interest.”
His parents told FBI agents they last saw him a week ago, when he told them he was planning to hike alone in the 24,000-acre Carlton Reserve wilderness area, near North Port.
