Are Black Women Invisible? Domestic Violence In The Black Community…It’s Real As A Heart Attack
By Nsenga Burton/TheRoot.com
Have you ever heard of Margaret “Missy” Allen or Nikki McPhatter? In July of 2008, attorney Margaret “Missy” Allen was killed by a boyfriend who was a former client. Calvin McKelton was found guilty of strangling Allen and then dumping her body in Cincinnati’s East End. He was also found guilty in the shooting death of Germaine Evans. Prosecutors said Evans was killed because he was going to testify against McKelton. Even with the salacious details surrounding this case — a defense attorney murdered by her former client and boyfriend — the case got scant coverage in the media.
Margaret Missy Allen
How about Nikki McPhatter? In 2009, the Charlotte, N.C.-based U.S. Airways employee had gone to South Carolina to break off a relationship with her boyfriend, Theodore Manning IV, whom she had met online. Manning shot her in the back of the head, called another girlfriend to help him dispose of McPhatter’s body, put her lifeless body in her car, set it on fire, and then went home and had sex with said girlfriend. You might have missed the case, since the media was focused on Bonnie Sweeten, the 38-year-old crackpot and Philadelphia mom who told police that she and her daughter had been abducted by two black men, when in fact she had taken her daughter to Disney World. This woman’s lies prompted a national search and media frenzy, while McPhatter’s body lay burning in her car. No one knew McPhatter’s whereabouts for weeks, and the national media did not get involved in the search, as they did with Sweeten, who was actually lying.
Nikki McPhatter
Black women who are the victims of domestic violence that results in murder rarely receive the national media coverage that white women who are murdered as a result of domestic violence do. To be fair, a lot of women are murdered whose local stories do not become national stories, but local stories about missing black women or victims of domestic violenence rarely get elevated to national headlines. Do we have to be blond, pregnant, married or housewives to get coverage? We get coverage when it comes to disease, death, getting butt implants and being unable to find a man, but not when we are victims of domestic violence.
Both of these cases went to trial during Domestic Violence Awareness Month, yet few have heard of these stories, both of which have all of the details needed for national coverage. The point is, if you haven’t heard of these two women, you should have. You probably didn’t, because black women who are victims of domestic violence are largely invisible in the media, unless we’re an international recording star being beaten up by another international recording star. That is the continued tragedy of domestic violence and how it impacts black women. Nobody is checking for us — at least the “regular” folks.
Source: The Root
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Domestic violence is one of the worst issue happens with women which should not. I really feel bad to hear about domestic violence cases.
So sad,
The Black woman is a vital contribution to life. Society hurts itself deliberately ignoring this…We are still standing and will forever remain as Gods beautifully crafted artistic vision; First Lady Michelle Obama! I knew nothing of either case…God Bless their spirits and the love ones they left behind~
I hadn't heard of either of these cases…disgusting. This brought tears to my heart. Racism is not dead!
Domestic violence doesn't put men and women against eachother, it's the men who choose to do it that tear us apart!
It's very sad! I heard about the first case but didn't hear about the second. I wish domestic violence was a bigger issue, especially in our community. I don't even know if it's an issue of awareness, but we definitely don't get enough coverage.
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What a sad and alarming truth. I have a friend who relives the pain of her sister's brutal murder over and over in part because the case remains unsolved. This is absolutely terrible.
The loss of these beautiful women grieves my heart. It is a great evil than for a man to put his hands on a woman in anything other than love and comfort. Domestic violence is a generational curse that pits our men and women againist eachother and prevents us from raising our children to take their proper places in the world. It is an issue of our brothers not respecting us as the beautiful gifts God made us to be. Again, my heart grieves and my prayers go out for any couple experiencing this issue.
Oh my!! the government must create a more up to date law to stop domestic violence to protect all the women from it.
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