'Ebony Alert': California's new law to find missing Black children sparks debate

California has enacted a new law called, “Ebony Alert,” which is similar to Amber Alert, to aid in locating missing Black children and young women between the ages of 12 and 25. On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 673 into law, which will go into effect on January 1. The law will allow the California Highway Patrol to activate an alert using electronic roadway signage to spread information when a Black youth goes missing. The law also encourages TV, cable, radio, and social media outlets to cooperate with the information.

Senator Steven Bradford, who sponsored the bill, while talking about the law, said in a statement, “Today, California is taking bold and needed action to locate missing Black children and Black women in California. I want to thank the Governor for signing the Ebony Alert into law.”

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“Our Black children and young women are disproportionately represented on the missing persons lists. This is heartbreaking and painful for many families and a public crisis for our entire state. The Ebony Alert can change this,” Sen. Steven added.

However, netizens are not too excited about the newly enacted law. Various social media users expressed their discontentment over it, with one user saying, “Guess they didn't like Amber. So who is the famous Ebony girl this is named after? Oh, it's just a reference to skin color? Good to know California has its priorities in order. Very important stuff.”

Another user inquired, “Why is the Amber alert not sufficient to find all children? Not sure I understand why something so important needed to be racially divided?” One more furious citizen wrote, “Amber Alert isn’t a color thing, it’s a missing child thing. Who cares what color, the child is missing!!”

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