Halle's line 'He's a black kid.'

For a long time I was trying to figure out why that line haunted me. Hank tries to reassure Leticia that the cops would do their best to find out who ran over her son, and she says, "He's a black kid. You think they're going to do that?" Why did that keep playing in my head over and over?

Then one day it hit me: as an Arab-American woman, my concerns for my little brother (an 18-year-old with a very Arab beard) mirrors the fear she had for her son growing up as a black man in America. My brother's going off to college in a few months, and I've been wondering what kind of life he's going to embark on when he moves to a bigger city. Mostly I worry about job discrimination, which our dad has been hit pretty hard with throughout his life in the US.

I also fear for any children I may have someday. Leticia knew that the cops and news media would not respond to a black kid getting killed the way they would to, say, JonBenet Ramsey. Similarly, if any kid of mine was kidnapped or murdered.... well, an Arab kid isn't exactly Natalee Holloway.

But luckily my significant other is Caucasian, so maybe our kids will look white enough so that their Arab heritage will not make life difficult for them.

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