Why you’ve heard of Caylee, but not Brisenia or Marchella

Courtesy of Presente.org

Leslie Berestein Rojas makes an extremely interesting set of observations in the wake of the much-publicized trial of Casey Anthony.   A jury recently acquitted Anthony of murder in the death of her young daughter Caylee Anthony.  After making headlines for months, the Anthony case continues to make the news.   As Berestein Rojas observes, other tragic criminal cases involving children – the death of 4-year-old Marchella Pierce in New York and the murder of 9-year-old Brisenia Flores (which was covered in ImmigrationProf) in Arizona during a home invasion – have received relatively scant mediacoverage. “The stories of these three children are equally sad, how they died equally gut-wrenching. One difference is that Caylee was white, Marchella was black, and Brisenia was Mexican American. Does race and ethnicity factor into how these cases are reported?”

KJ