By// Juleyka Lantigua-Williams

The only thing worse than knowing that your child has vanished is accepting that your loss is not a priority to those in a position to help. While mainstream media continues to turn its back on our young, Black and missing, it’s time for the community to stand up for our lost loved ones.

_______________________________________________________

Iquilla Degree’s alarm went off at 6:30 am.

She went to wake her young son and daughter, who shared a room. Her boy jumped up as usual to get ready for school, but his sister’s bed was empty. Degree checked the kitchen, every closet in the house and the family’s two cars, but Asha was not there. She and her husband desperately called relatives, but their precious child was nowhere to be found. “That’s when I went into panic mode,” recalls the heartbroken mother of the morning her then 9-year-old daughter went missing.

TO READ MORE PICK UP THE NEW ISSUE OF JET MAGAZINE, ON SALE APRIL 8.