The Gabby Petito saga has raised questions about who the media focuses on in cases like these, and it seems disproportionally white ... so says a member of the Black Eyed Peas.
We talked to Taboo (Jaime Luis Gomez) -- who is of Mexican descent and identifies as an indigenous person -- and he broke down the phenomenon of "Missing White Girl Syndrome" ... something news networks/society has been accused of doing during this entire ordeal.
Put plainly ... the guy says it is, indeed, a real thing -- and the proof is in the pudding on wall-to-wall coverage of Gabby's story for weeks on end.
As Taboo eloquently puts it, there are scores of Black and indigenous women who go missing every single day ... but don't get even a drop of the same mainstream attention as Petito did -- or any number of missing caucasian girls/women over the years.
That's not to say this is criticizing Gabby or her family or anyone affected by the tragedy -- quite the opposite ... Taboo says he has all the empathy in the world for them.
However, he does feel an underlying issue exists and doesn't wanna shy away from hard talks like these out of fear of propriety. Check out this chat -- you can tell he's passionate about speaking up for his people and other marginalized groups, so this hits home for him.
Taboo just wants to get the conversation started ... in hopes of more equality for all down the line.