Mitrice Richardson has been missing for 13 days now. 13 days.

A Cal State Fullerton graduate who was living with her great-grandmother in South Los Angeles, Mitrice Richardson mysteriously disappeared following her September 17 predawn release from a sheriff’s substation near Malibu where she was booked
for allegedly failing to pay a restaurant bill.

Did I mention that was 13 days ago?

Now I knew something was up when I saw her father on KNBC and he said something about being worried about a girlfriend of hers that’s known for drugging her girlfriends. But I let it go. To me it doesn’t matter whether or Mitrice is a lesbian, bisexual, or even heterosexual. All that matters is that she’s a Black woman that is missing. A Black woman that’s been missing for 13 days. A Black woman who’s missing bypassed the Black community activists in Los Angeles until recently.

But apparently, the fact that Mitrice is allegedly a lesbian has prompted some to make issue of it.

And I quote:

What about her gay lover or the dirty dancing that she did ??? Come on family get honest about who Mitrice really is.

What the fuck does it matter who Mitrice is sleeping with or what kind of dancing she did? She is missing. A family is missing their daughter. And comments like that aren’t helping the situation.

As Black people, we really need to wake the fuck up and come off of this stupid bullshit. The life of a Black lesbian is no less important that the life of a Black heterosexual woman.

On any other given occasion when law enforcement is to blame for anything relating to Black folks we’re in the streets, we’re demanding justice, holding marches and town hall meetings. But not with Mitrice. This is just another example in a long line of events where the lives of Black women are not treated with the same sense of urgency by Black people.

Right about now, all that matters, all that should matter to everyone reading this, is that a Black woman is missing and it’s been 13 days. It doesn’t matter what she may have done, what she did, who she did it with, or why she did it. All that matters is that she is missing. Marinate on that and for those who know Mitrice and take issue with her being a lesbian, my blog is the not the place for those comments, because if you don’t know by now, that’s just one more thing Mitrice and I have in common. Now run and go tell that.