Forgotten: Missing BIPOC Women and Girls

In 2020, 100,000 of the quarter million women and girls who went missing in the U.S. were black, brown, or indigenous. Black women and girls make up just 13 percent of the female population in the country but accounted for fully 35 percent of all missing women in 2020. This crisis is dire in indigenous communities. According to researchers, American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women in the U.S. experience higher rates of violence than most other women, and tribal and federal officials have stated that this incidence of violence constitutes a crisis. The neglect shown by the media toward cases involving missing and murdered women of color is a primary reason that this epidemic remains obscure to the public.