I saw a link to this on Facebook this morning.
On one hand, kudos, I guess, for being concerned about the safety of children. On the other, would whomever was concerned (and in this story, nobody seems willing to take the credit, surprise surprise) be concerned if the girls didn't look darker then their father?
I'm adopted, and multiracial, so this struck a nerve. I guess I'm lucky, having grown up in the suburbs of Chicago where multiracial children are somewhat common, because I didn't look anything like my mother. To some degree, this could have been my story.
Totally mixed feeling about this one all around...
-Minority kidnappings tend to get less play in the media and less attention in general.
Again maybe kudos are in order for caring. Somebody noticed, somebody reported what to them appeared to be suspicious. I'm a father, I'd like to think that if somebody was in the process of kidnapping my girls, somebody else would notice and alert the police. And statistically minority kidnappings tend to go unreported and/or under-reported.
-The only thing potentially suspicious facts were that his daughters looked different then him, and he seemed to be taking a while (apparently) buckling them in.
Again, I'm a father, and sometimes, my girls don't exactly cooperate in the parking lot, especially if they wanted something and I just told them no. My daughters look more like me then I looked like my parents, but still there's still a noticeable difference. I could easily attract a lot of attention in the parking lot with two screaming girls who aren't making the job of getting them into their seats easy with a tantrum. Living in a small town where everyone more or less knows everyone else is probably my personal saving grace.
This just leaves me with a sickly feeling here. Obviously race has some part in this story, but is this a sign that things are getting better (maybe folks are caring more about minority kids) or worse (would the cop have been called in the first place if his daughters were fair skinned)?