Henry Louis Wallace

I love the Investigation Discovery Channel (ID). In fact, I love it so much my husband calls it my “murder station" and shakes his head when he sees me watching my “murder shows.” I don't know what it says about me and I probably don't wanna know, but I watch faithfully every day.

One thing I've observed is that the vast majority of the shows feature white killers. That makes sense given the demographics of the U.S. but the sociologist in me finds it interesting that black perpetrators are underrepresented on the shows about serial killers.

This may surprise you as it did me, but according to Psychology Today, approximately 20% of the country's serial killers are black. The article also rightly points out that popular culture only lionizes white serial killers. The one exception to this rule is Wayne Williams, the man convicted for the Atlanta Child Murders.

If we let the media tell it, we might believe only white men are serial killers. I talked about this a bit in Of Things Unseen, along with the unconscious biases we (society) hold about serial murders. In addition to believing white men are the main perpetrators, we also believe white women are the main victims. And that’s just not the case.

The ID channel has done a pretty good job of telling the stories of black serial killers and their black female victims. Through their shows, I learned about Henry Louis Wallace (Bad Henry), Lonnie David Franklin Jr. (The Grim Sleeper), Carl Eugene Watts (The Sunday Morning Slasher), and Nathaniel White. And these men all had one thing in common:

Black Women as Victims

Henry Louis Wallace’s Victims

Most or all of their victims were black women, a demographic that has rarely been seen as innocent victims. The news media loves white female victims, particularly if they are blonde-haired, blue-eyed, and middle class (a phenomenon known as “Missing White Woman Syndrome”). This fixation leaves out other missing and murdered groups, including men and little boys, and especially black women.

I chose to write about this issue in Of Things Unseen. Although it’s a work of fiction, it shines light on a very real problem. Our societal biases have created a climate wherein police don’t view black women as true victims and are therefore less likely to spend time making important connections between cases. The Grim Sleeper was able to terrorize Los Angeles for 20 years because the LAPD categorized the deaths of his victims “NHI” meaning No Humans Involved. That’s a direct reflection of the way black women are viewed.

The black community shares a bit of blame here, too. The Grim Sleeper was protected. Not by police, but by the residents of his neighborhood. I was stunned to discover that there were people who knew he was killing women, but they either convinced themselves their good friend Lonnie wouldn’t do something like that or they turned a blind eye because they were benefiting from his largesse.

We need to do better. All of us. Black women’s lives matter but historically, we have been unprotected and disrespected (shout out to Malcolm X), expected to shoulder countless burdens without complaint or redress. I hope readers are able to empathize with the black women in my story who are not just victims, but fully-actualized human beings who deserve to be treated as such. They’re mothers, daughters, wives, sisters, coworkers, and classmates, and they deserve better.

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