The Carlee Russell situation will not stop me from believing Black women

OPINION: The Hoover police press conference has cast doubt on Carlee Russell’s abduction story, but that doesn’t mean other Black women shouldn’t be believed.

Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.

Carlee Russell was missing for 49 hours before she returned home to her family Saturday night after reportedly being abducted from the side of the road on an interstate in Hoover, Alabama. 

In a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, Hoover police revealed more details about the case. 

Police said they only spoke with Carlee briefly upon her return Saturday evening, and they are looking to speak with her again to get more details about what happened in the 49 hours that she was missing after calling 911 to report seeing a white toddler walking along the side of the interstate. 

According to police, Carlee told them that when she got out of her car to check on the child, a white man with orange hair came out of the trees and told her he was checking on the child as well. She said the man grabbed her, took her over a fence, and she was held captive in an 18-wheel tractor-trailer. 

She allegedly told police she could hear a woman with the man, but she never saw the woman. She also told police she heard a child crying but never saw the child either. 

Police said Carlee told them she managed to escape at one point, but she was recaptured and then taken to a house and held captive there. 

No details were given on how she escaped. 

Police said no one else reported seeing a child on the side of the road, and there were no reports of a missing child. 

Police also revealed that surveillance footage from her job at Woodhouse Day Spa showed Carlee taking a bathrobe and a roll of toilet paper from her job before leaving the night she disappeared. 

Police said Carlee went to Target and bought snack foods, including Cheez-Its and granola bars. 

Police said they reviewed her internet search history, and among the search terms they found were the following:

• How to steal money from a register without getting caught
• How much is a one-way bus ticket to Nashville
• Do you have to pay for an Amber Alert?
• How old is too old for an Amber Alert?
• Searches related to the Liam Neeson movie “Taken”

Police said there were other search terms they found that they would not reveal. 

The information in the news conference casts serious doubt on Carlee’s story of being abducted, but it’s not going to stop me from believing victims. 

If this situation stops you from believing victims, you were likely already looking for a reason to not believe victims. 

If anything, we should be happy that a missing Black woman got the level of national attention that Carlee did, and we should be advocating for that to happen every time a Black woman or girl is missing. Black women and girls do not get the same level of publicity or attention that missing white girls and women do. This is a fact. 

According to the National Crime Information Center, 268,884 women went missing in the year 2020, and of those, more than 90,000 were Black women and girls. This means that while Black women represent less than 15% of the entire U.S. population, they made up more than one-third of the women and girls reported missing. And cases involving Black girls and women, on average, stay open four times longer than other cases. Unfortunately, we don’t hear their stories because they don’t get told. 

The Carlee Russell story isn’t going to make people stop believing Black women, and it isn’t going to make them stop looking for us. The simple fact is they already don’t believe us, and they already don’t look for us. 

We should take this opportunity to help increase the publicity missing Black women and girls receive. We should be amplifying these stories and raising public awareness about the crisis facing our community with regard to missing Black women and girls. 

I’m disappointed. I still have many questions. But I’m also glad Carlee is home safe, and I hope she gets whatever help she needs to move past this situation that will likely haunt her for the rest of her life no matter the outcome. 

Be disappointed. Have questions. Feel everything you need to feel about this situation, but whatever you do, don’t let it stop you from caring. 

At the end of the day, a Black woman was missing, and she got the level of attention we wish all missing Black girls and women could receive. 

Let’s focus on making that the rule and not the exception.

Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at moniquejudge.com.

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