Mistaken Identity
In response to “Case of Mistaken Identity Highlights Border Tensions,” April 12:
The arrest of performance artist and activist Guillermo Gomez-Pena, whom San Diego’s police suspected of kidnaping his biological blond son, confirmed my worst fears about racism in our society.
I am a Latino man with dark skin, dark hair and brown eyes. My 5-year-old biological daughter has light skin, blond hair and blue eyes. When I go out with my daughter to the store, the park, amusement parks, etc., I have been often been stared at by people as if there is something inherently suspicious about a Latino man with a blond, light-skinned child. I have always wondered how I would react, and how I would to explain to my daughter being stopped by the police for not fitting cultural expectations about race that our society has.
In our multicultural and multiethnic society, we should expect a heightened awareness on the part of police, and society at large, about how children are not born color-coded, and that the “racial” appearance of children does not necessarily reflect the so-called racial characteristics of their biological parents.
MILTON F. AVILES
Los Angeles
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