A new California law signed this week sets up a statewide “Ebony Alert” system to prioritize searches for missing black children and young adults.
The “Ebony Alert” notification system, which is similar to an Amber Alert, will allow local law enforcement to ask the California Highway Patrol to activate the alert when a black person aged 12 to 25 goes missing.
Like the Amber Alert, the Ebony Alert will use electronic highway signs to notify people about the missing black person. The Ebony Alert law encourages radio, television, cable, satellite, and social media systems to cooperate with disseminating the alert’s information.
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on Sunday. It will go into effect on January 1.
The law was created in response to the large number of missing black children and adults who the law says “receive less media attention to the fact that they are missing.”
“Data shows that Black and brown, our indigenous brothers and sisters, when they go missing there’s very rarely the type of media attention, let alone AMBER alerts and police resources that we see with our white counterparts,” said state Senator Steven Bradford (D), who spearheaded the legislation.
In addition, black children and young women are “disproportionately represented on the lists of missing persons,” Bradford said.
In California, an Amber Alert requires the victim to be under 17 or have a proven disability, there must be a reason to believe the child is in danger, and an Amber Alert cannot be used for custodial disputes or runaways.
Advocates for the Ebony Alert argue that black children often get classified as runaways, meaning they will not get an Amber Alert.
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However, the bill quickly attracted criticism, with many social media users branding the legislation racist for separating missing children by the color of their skin.
“So that ain’t racist? Cause first of all, my name is Amber, and I’m black. So why can’t black people have Amber Alerts,” one TikTok user said in a video. “Pay attention right now to how Democrats are still in 2023 telling black people that we need to be segregated from white people in order to get them to pay attention to us.”
“That has to be the most racist s*** ever. If a child is missing, why do we care if it’s black, purple, yellow, or green?” another TikTok user posted.
An Instagram user sarcastically suggested a “Juan alert” for Hispanic missing children.
“Why do we need a separate alert for black and brown kids? How about actually LOOKING for these kids instead of creating ways to segregate us even more!?” another Instagram user wrote.
Other users supported the Ebony Alert system, with several calling for every state to adopt it.