What Is An Ebony Alert?
Built for Black youth who don’t get breaking news treatment.
When a Black person goes missing in the United States, the chances of a national alert being issued are slim. Media coverage is inconsistent and often nonexistent. Law enforcement urgency varies depending on the zip code, the family’s persistence, or public outcry. The result? Countless Black youth, some barely in their teens, fall through bureaucratic cracks. Thousands of Black people are buried beneath silence.
Enter the Ebony Alert, a targeted notification system designed to make a difference.
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What Is Ebony Alert?
The Ebony Alert is a state-level public notification system designed to help locate missing Black youth who are disproportionately overlooked by traditional alert systems, such as AMBER or Silver Alerts. It focuses on missing persons between the ages of 12 and 25 who are Black and:
Have been reported missing under suspicious or unexplained circumstances
Are considered at risk
May be victims of trafficking or exploitation
It was specifically designed to respond to the racial and gender disparities in how missing persons cases are treated by the media and law enforcement. The system is currently active in California, having been signed into law in October 2023 and taking effect on January 1, 2024.
Further, the Ebony Alert fills a critical gap in existing systems. The AMBER Alert has strict requirements (evidence of abduction, for example), and the Silver Alert primarily applies to older adults or individuals with cognitive impairments. The Ebony Alert acknowledges that Black youth often don’t meet these rigid definitions, but they are no less endangered.
Why It’s Necessary
According to the Black and Missing Foundation, nearly 40% of missing youth in the U.S. are persons of color, despite Black children making up only about 13% of the population. That statistic has remained stubbornly high for years.
Yet, missing Black people are rarely the faces we see on the nightly news. Their stories don’t become true crime podcasts. The urgency often just...isn’t there. The Ebony Alert is a response to this enduring erasure.
The Ebony Alert is not a cure. It’s a tool, a long-overdue one, that begins to recalibrate a system long skewed against Black families. It’s a reminder that being missing doesn’t mean being invisible.
As more states examine their alert systems, the Ebony Alert sets a precedent that every missing Black youth deserves the same urgency and visibility as anyone else. We are not simply statistics. We are daughters, sisters, students, mothers. And we deserve to be found and helped in times of crisis.
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