Ethnic Identifications

* Re “3 Juveniles Charged as Adults in Teen’s Slaying,” May 10.

Why are the kids of Armenian extraction called “Armenian Americans,” while the kids of Latino extraction are called “Latinos”? Did [The Times] see the birth certificate of every person involved, allowing [you] to determine that all of the Armenian Americans were actually born in this country or naturalized, while none of the so-called Latinos were?

Seems like shoddy reporting to me, a non-hyphenated American with no vested interest in either of these groups or any other self-interest group. And golly gee, mightn’t it be just this sort of reporting that keeps on cementing the notion of “them” versus “us”?

Perhaps there will someday be a required course in, let’s say kindergarten, that teaches children that they are not any better than their schoolmates, just because their last names end in “ian” or “ez” or “ng” or “stein” or “son” . . . and that in this country, we are all created equal. (Kindergarten might just do it. By the time the little cuties are 8 or 9, their parents, cousins, older brothers and sisters, not to mention the local journalists, have all taught them that whoever they are, they’re much better than anyone else who is “different” from them. We have to get then early, before the damage is irreparable.)

KRISTENE WALLIS BURR

Valley Village