Judge Eugene Hyman JD ’77 wrote an opinion piece for the Mercury News about how America is neglecting its missing indigenous women. In the article, Judge Hyman discusses why the likes of Gabby Petito receive our attention while others like Ashley Loring Heavyrunner do not, and how we should start addressing this problem and the problem of domestic violence. Read the op-ed in the Mercury News or read a pdf of the article.
“…Yet we still haven’t addressed the core of “missing white woman syndrome”, because we continue failing to either identify those reasons or act on them. We can start with the obvious, that Gabby Petito was white, while Ashley Loring Heavyrunner was not. Caucasians statistically have typically higher income and levels of education, which some social scientists studying “missing white woman syndrome” correlate to stronger “pull” with local government and media. When misfortune strikes those with less perceived value, it is much more palatable to a wide audience, and palatable misfortune will not sell itself as a headline story.”
