Help Find Latoyia Figueroa
As most of you know, I live in Alabama. My heart goes out to the family of Natalee Holloway. But I’m quite tired of all the missing folks that the television news networks choose to air being pretty white females, usually from middle- or upper-class families. It’s not just the pretty people with media savvy that should have their face shown up on the TV screen.
[Heck, shouldn't there be a network all about missing folks? Homebodies would totally eat that up, and the advertisers would probably pay for it. There's a niche there!]
Anyhow: Latoyia Figueroa is missing from West Philadelphia, best known as the home of the fictional Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Philadelphia Webloggers are trying to get her visibility up. As Scott McNulty notes, that Webloggers are trying to help get media attention to an issue is not the item of interest herehttp://blankbaby.typepad.com/blankbaby/2005/07/help_find_latoy.html—Webloggers do that all the time. It’s that Latoyia Figueroa is missing, and that her case needs as much attention and care as any other missing person’s case.
I’m not entirely sure what the outcome of lending a few small voices will be, but … it can’t hurt. Lend yours, if you feel so led.
I have seen this story pop up on foxnews.com a few times. So not all of the national news outlets are ignoring it. They’re also covering the natalee hollaway story quite a bit more than cnn.com I think too. I made sure to add the “.com” to both since I don’t know how either correlates to what’s on tv. I get my news from the internets!
July 29th, 2005 at 06:30CNN.com picked up the story yesterday as well. That’s nice and all, but it’s TV coverage that’ll really help break such a case.
July 29th, 2005 at 07:45I see. Yeah, I don’t pay attention to TV news. Even when Rick puts it on at home, I’m usually on the laptop or crocheting and only half paying attention.
July 29th, 2005 at 08:56Although this case has been bullied onto the national news to prove a point about race and media by political opportunists like Richard Cranium, it never was a case about a missing woman and is not national news. There is nothing particularly unusual about this case. She is an inner-city African-American/Latino woman, living a more than unconventional lifestyle in a high crime area, and now she’s missing–big surprise. Furthermore, this story is hurtful to minorities because it has done nothing other than to reinfornce negative stereotypes: (1) LaToyia’s father and other relatives are barely literate; (2) LaToyia’s best friend said: “She coulda been snatched up by anybody, or one of her baby’s fathas, or some guy she’s messin wit” (rolling eyes); and (3) rather than save up more money, LaToyia and Baby Fatha No. 2 took their money and bought fried seafood rather than pay the $35 co-pay for prenatal care. The Natalee Holloway case is national news. She is a beautiful young woman, with a full scholarship to the University of Alabama, who disappears on what would otherwise be a dream vacation to an island resort with the lowest crime rate in the world. Big, big difference, in every respect. I hope LaToyia returns home safely, although I doubt it. In the end, however, we should not have to have our national news littered with this story. I assure you the end result will only cause more embarassment and humiliation, and it’s clear that national news anchors are annoyed by having to cover this story because they too, of course, realize it’s not national news. Wise up Cranium, this isn’t about you and your outdated political agenda.
The real story here is the favoritism that LaToyia is receiving as a result of her cousin being a member of City Council. More money and resources have been expended trying to find LaToyia than any person in Philadelphia history. This story has backfired in the faces of all liberal bedwetters.
July 31st, 2005 at 15:34Mike,
August 5th, 2005 at 10:05MIKE HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT LATOYA’S STORY IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN NATALEE’S? THIS WOMAN HAS A 7 YEAR OLD DAUGHTER THAT SHE TAKES WONDERFUL CARE OF SHE IS PREGNANT WITH ANOTHER CHILD… AND SHE CAN HAVE AS MANY BABY FATHAS AS SHE WANTS!!!!!!!!! MY MOTHER NOW 56 YEARS OLD FROM NEW HAVEN CONNECTICUT HAD 3 CHILDREN BY THE TIME SHE WAS 21 ONE DECEASED DUE TO ASTHAM AFTER BIRTH AND ME AT 29 YRS OF AGE WE ALL 3 MY 2 OLDER BROTHERS AND I HAVE DIFFERENT FATHERS WHO NEVER HELPED!!!!!!!!!! at 35 my mother owned a 14 room house in inner city new haven, raised a masonary worker who is now 40 married with 2 kids he makes atleast 80,000.00 annually, a 36 year old army vetrean wounded in the stupid ass gulf war married/divorced with 2 kids & last but not least me a 26 year old single mother of a 7 yr old daughter a Registered Nurse… so if i went missing am i not important or maybe becausei am a clooege graduate i may be conidered? i pray that GOD has mercy on your corrupted soul. how dare you. for all we know Natalee lsot her self… remember miss lady from atlanta, GA mind you a few of my brothers in-laws from Georgia participated in her search as i will be trying to get sometime off next week to visit philly and ofer my services. i hope and pray none of your loved ones ever go missing.. MAY GOD BLESS YOU!
NICOLE BROWN, R.N.
August 5th, 2005 at 10:13LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT AN INNER CITY BLACK FEMALE, PREGNANT AND ALSO THE MOTHER OF A 7 YEAR OLD WHOSE FRIENDS HAVENT HAD THE BEST EDUCATION IN THE WORLD, AND HAS MADE SOME NOT SO GREAT DECISIONS IS LESS IMPORTANT THAN A WELL-TO-DO WHITE GIRL WITH A SCHOLARSHIP AND GOOD GRADES WHO ALSO OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT MAKE GOOD DECISIONS. GIVE ME A BREAK!!!!! MAYBE IT WAS BAD DECISION MAKING THAT GAVE LATOIYA 2 BABY DADDY’S BUT IT WAS JUST AS STUPID FOR AN 18 Y/O TO GET DRUNK IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY, LEAVE WITH 3 STRANGE MEN, AND NOT TELL HER FRIENDS AND LEAVE HER CELL PHONE. WE COULD GO BACK AND FORTH ABOUT THESE SITUATIONS BUT THE BOTTOM LINE IS EVEYONES LOVED ON IS IMPORTANT AND THERE IS A 7 YEAR OLD GIRL WHO IS MISSING HER MOTHER DESPERATLY AND THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH HER FAMILY BEING LITERATE AND YOU BEIG IGNORANT!
August 6th, 2005 at 01:04BIANCA SINGLE MOM, 3 KIDS, 2 BABY DADDYS, CRT
ONE LOVE NICOLE
I’m sorry, but I’m not moved by either of the posts in reply to mine. Therefore, in furtherance of my previous commments on this “story,” this case presents a miserable failure by left-wing, radical bloggers to bully a barely local news story onto the national news scene. As I’ve said repeatedly, this is not national news by any measure, and thankfully the national news broadcasts have dropped the story after just one or two days. This woman led a selfish, irresponsible, and dangerous life, just as her mother did, and she is now likely suffering for it in the same way. During the one or two days that this was on the news, the Natalee Holloway story did not receive quite as much attention as it usually had, but it is now back in the limelight once again because it is national news that people care about. No one cares about the LaToyia Figueroa case because it has nothing to do with the lives of 88 percent of the American public. Instead, the LaToyia Figueroa case is a clear and vivid reminder to the large majority of American families about how not to raise your children. LaToyia, who didn’t have even $35 between her and Baby Fatha No. 2 for the insurance co-pay for prenatal care, turned around and went out with Baby Fatha No. 2 and bought fried seafood platters. This, in spite of claims that she was “hard working.” This sort of behavior is more indicative of animals or savages than human beings. Let’s get our focus back people, and concentrate our efforts on Natalee and other deserving people and let God’s will take over the LaToyia case. The LaToyia case has been a huge embarassment to minorities and society as a whole–let’s drop it. It has reinforced every negative stereotype and now has nearly everyone saying: “Stereotypes are the rule–let’s not be confused by rare exceptions.”
August 7th, 2005 at 13:19Y’know, Mike, you make a lot of wrong-headed assumptions. Let me start by telling you that I’m a Bush voter, both elections.
And I don’t know how you justify to yourself that the Natalee Holloway case is not a local story bullied to the nationsl stage and the Latoyia Figueroa case is not. They’re both local cases bullied into the 24-hour news cycle. But Holloway is socially acceptable because she’s pretty and white? Whatever.
I’m quite hopeful that God’s will will be done in your life, and that if you’re ever abducted, that we’ll have the grace to come and look for you, despite the fact that your comments so far in this matter have made you look like an unmitigated asshole.
And … I’m closing comments on this entry now.
August 7th, 2005 at 13:34