Twenty-five-year-old nursing student Carlee Russell who was missing for two days has now safely returned home and the internet is already abuzz with conspiracy theories but not actual further information. Carlee’s story, only a few days old, immediately drew public attention when it was reported that while on the phone driving on the 459, she saw a toddler walking alone, and once she stepped out of the vehicle to investigate, she disappeared, leaving behind several valuable personal artifacts, including her cell phone.
On Saturday night, Carlee came home and was subsequently taken to a UAB medical facility, and all of the Christians who claimed to have prayed for her safe return were suddenly not only baffled but felt that they were entitled to an immediate explanation.
And I’m here to tell you and them, and anyone who else needs to hear this, you are not.
There has been little information given to the public since that information was released and the family is asking for privacy while they make sense of everything that has occurred. Unfortunately for the internet that indulges in bloodthirst, a plea for respect can be seen as disrespectful to people who think simply because they got the outcome they prayed for, what they were praying against probably didn’t happen.
The National Center on Sexual Exploitation reports that Black women, despite making up only 13.6% of the U.S. population, make up about 40% of the trafficked victims, so it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think that she could very well not only been lured but kidnapped when it so frequently happens to Black women and they don’t all come back. Not to mention the overwhelming amount of press that abductions of white women receive. Every day on Facebook, I am sharing a new post of someone whose child is missing, and they are usually Black. Sometimes the post is deleted, stating that the person, usually a child, has returned or has been found safely, but that is unfortunately not always the case. And while I have definitely seen the post about Carlee, I have also seen multiple posts defaming her.
One person referred to the situation as being “Smolleted,” a reference to Jussie Smollet, who was bound and beaten in Chicago, only to find out he was complicit in his own attack, and it was a hoax. Little is known about his motive other than attention, but obviously, his cry of wolf did not bode well for his career and has made it increasingly difficult to believe other Black victims who are actually abducted. I have also seen a post that stated the reason she came home was because a picture of her was posted without her wig.
No one is required to believe her story, but they also are not required to make a mockery out of it, especially without details. If nothing else, there is a mother who is no longer grieving her worst nightmare. Additionally, people rarely fake their own kidnappings, including leaving valuables behind, nearly as much as they are, in fact, kidnapped. It is not a stretch of the imagination that a woman whose entire ancestral line was hunted, kidnapped and shipped off to a foreign land for their bodies to be used and tortured is somehow not immune to the same fate in the present day.
It just goes to show how little Black women are actually valued. That even when there was a massive hunt for a Black woman and prayer for her survival when given the best outcome of those prayers, the prayer warriors still needed more to pray about.
