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A Virginia man was accused of kidnapping his own children last week because, according to Walmart security, a white man with biracial children just didn’t “match up.”
An interracial couple from Prince William County, Virginia, are speaking out after their local Walmart called police based on a suspicion that Joseph, the father of their three daughters, had kidnapped the girls. The couple have been married for almost 10 years and although they have had to face racism in many different forms since they began dating, now that their daughters have been directly affected they will no longer remain silent about the “ignorance that still exists.”
According to MyFoxDC:
On Thursday evening, Joseph took all three girls to the Walmart in Potomac Mills in Woodbridge to cash a check. He says they weren’t there long, but spent a few extra minutes in the parking lot while he buckled the girls in and then made a phone call. Joseph says he then went to pick up his wife, Keana, and as they were arriving home, they were shocked to find a Prince William County police officer waiting for them.
“He asks us very sincerely, ‘Hey, I was sent here by Walmart security. I just need to make sure that the children that you have are your own,’” Joseph says.
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Joseph says the officer told them a Walmart security guard reported seeing him in the parking lot with the girls and thought it was strange.
After the officer confirmed that the girls were in fact the couples children and left Keana called the Walmart looking for an explanation. She was transferred to a security officer who claimed it was a customer and not a security guard who raised the “alarm” concerning her husband and children. Keana said they told her, “Well, the customer was concerned because they saw the children with your husband and he didn’t think that they fit. And I said, ‘What do you mean by they don’t fit?’ And I was trying to get her to say it. And she says, ‘Well, they just don’t match up.’”
When the news station contacted Walmart for their side of the story they would only say that, “There’s still a lot of unknowns at this time and we’re currently looking into the situation.”
Photo: Screenshot
Although my son is half Mexican, he actually looks African American. (Currently has dreads down to the middle of his back) One day when I was getting him from school, he asked if I could give his friend a ride home. As the friend got into the van, he stopped in his tracks, glancing back and forth between me and my son, he said, “Charlie, you’re dad is white!” That being said, I remember when my kids were small, one of my biggest fears was that they would be abducted. Yeah, I guess it appears that there may have been… Read more »
Sorry Tom, but that doesn’t add up. I’m a father to two multiracial children. I’ve been hassled plenty, given evil eyes and had people with guns get in my face in the airport. It makes an impact on the kids too. It teaches the children that strangers have some absolute right to question their family’s legitimacy and can harm their self esteem as well. It isn’t okay to harass someone on the basis of race. The overwhelming majority of child abductions are done by people of the same race. Targeting interracial families doesn’t even make sense based on the math,… Read more »
For everyone commenting and saying “It’s good that they were concerned and said something…” You apparently didn’t watch the video. The father, Joseph, points out that the girls were playing “my dadddy, no my daddy” tug-of-war with him while in line. They were not screaming and crying, they were not behaving in any way that would be “concerning” to anyone. The ONLY problem with the “picture” was that he was white and they were not! So you think it would be OK for the father of my children, who happens to be Mexican to be confronted and questioned by the… Read more »
Here’s where the super paranoia about dangerous men comes into play. A lot of people have been told directly and indirectly to be suspicious of many man alone with young girls. This paranoia can be pretty independent of actual evidence. For example, the misandrist superparanoid might look at the tug of war over “daddy” and suspect that he forced them to do that to cover up the fact that he’s a kidnapper. Or it’s Stockholm syndrome or something and he’s convinced them to call him Daddy. When the kids act like he’s their father, how do we really know he’s… Read more »
Absolutely true! My sister and I were raised by a single dad and I remember reaching an age where holding his hand in public or showing him the affection we were so used to suddenly became “inappropriate” in the eyes of society…It was at a much younger age than I think many people realize too. And it was sad and confusing for me and my sister in ways I can’t even explain…All it takes is an accusation, and although we didn’t understand it then, I understand now as an adult how difficult it must have been for my dad, who… Read more »
This is one of the many unfortunate drawbacks of our society’s current paranoia, constant mutual surveillance, and celebration of subjectivity in law enforcement. Welcome to the wonderful world of informants. This stuff must drive cops crazy. This is the triumph of mushy-headed thinking, putting coercive power behind simplistic bumper-sticker-type slogans. “Always trust your instincts.” “Listen to your gut.” “If you see something, say something.” “Better safe than sorry.” As if “instinct” is never anything racist or unjust or totally insane. As if no one would ever lie about how they felt about something they saw. You can actually kill someone… Read more »
What can I say?
I think a few George Carlin routines explain the problem perfectly. Whether it’s this excessive worship of and devotion to children, which in part explains this paranoia about “children’s safety,” or even the excessive fear of germs that has come to permeate a large segment of society, paranoia rules the day. Same thing with Schrodinger’s Rapist.
Americans in general have become a bunch of neurotic twits.
Living abroad is looking better and better.
As a white Mom of four adopted children, two are bi-racial. I often get looks as well as my husband. People are always trying to figure it out. I do understand the fathers upset. But, I have to say I am glad someone was concerned about a possible child abduction. This world is crazy and you never know. People often turn their heads. How would that person feel if they were being abuducted and they never reported it?
While this is not an ideal situation, I imagine had this been a black stepfather and three little white girls that this would have gone a lot worse for everyone.
I predict people will call this a “racist” incident, when in fact it’s deeply sexist. White mom with three little biracial girls – I see this everyday. Black mom/nanny with three little white girls – also a daily occurrence, depending on where you live (where I live most of the nannies are Asian).
Man of any color with three little girls that “don’t match”? Not so much.
“I predict people will call this a “racist” incident, when in fact it’s deeply sexist.” I was thinking the same thing. It’s at least equally sexist as it is racist. He didn’t get the cops after him just because he looked too dissimilar to his kids. He had the cops called on him because he’s a man, especially a man in the company of little girls. Man plus girls plus they don’t have the same skin color he does equals criminal suspect. Glass half full, though, this is a kind of progress. There’s enough history out there in law enforcement… Read more »