Nearly 300,000 women and girls are missing in the U.S., and despite the fact that African Americans make up under 14% of the U.S. population, 34% of the missing are Black. You wouldn’t know that if you watched the constant and intense coverage the disappearance of white women like Gabby Petito receives, as opposed to the near silence when the missing are women of color.

Soledad O’Brien is a veteran journalist who knows all too well the reaction in many media organizations when she’d pitch stories about missing Black women, girls, men or boys. 

So O’Brien executive produced a four-part docuseries for HBO, called “Black and Missing."

She joined In Focus to talk about the three years she spent following the Black and Missing Foundation and their founders, sisters-in-law Derrica and Natalie Wilson, highlighting the important work they do in making sure when people of color go missing, they get the same attention as missing white people. 

She speaks to the reasons law enforcement often do not take missing people of color seriously, often believing their disappearances may be their own faults, or that they are probably involved in something nefarious.

Never one to fear calling out those in her own profession, she talked about the neglect the media shows when it comes to covering the search for missing mothers, daughters, fathers, sisters and brothers of color.