Protecting the babies

Yeah, so this happened. While I appreciate the security guard's "concern for the children", it's hard not to think this is maybe a little bit rooted in some bigoted thinking. The article doesn't say how long the SG (or the concerned customer) observed the family or what this father and the girls were doing, so it's hard to say whether s/he had a real reason to think this guy and those kids did not "fit" other than, "What's that white guy doing with those black kids (I know they are mixed-race, but that probably isn't how the customer and the SG saw it)? I'd need more info before I'm prepared to give the customer, the security guard or Walmart a cookie. People in the comments seem to be assuming the SG and/or the customer are white people (not that anyone has out and out said that, so I guess I'm assuming people assume that). I had an older black woman approach me at the DMV I worked at once to tell me to "keep an eye" on the older white guy who was sitting talking to a young black girl in our waiting area. Turns out the guy was the girl's mother's boyfriend and they were waiting for the mom to finish the test. The nosy older black lady wasn't around to find that out though. And this is gonna sound strange (maybe even creepy), but I have actually thought to myself, "It would be fairly easy for some perv to snatch a kid in a store or mall." Here's my thinking. I imagine most folks are like me and will look away when they see a kid screaming or crying . One almost automatically assumes that kid is having a tantrum and because we don't want to come off as judgmental assholes we will look ANYWHERE ELSE to avoid eye-contact with the parent/guardian/oldersibling/whoever with the little screamer. Unless the kid is articulating, "YOU'RE NOT MY DADDY! STRANGER! CREEP!" to the guy grabbing at his or her arm, we roll our eyes and think, "Spoiled brat" when we hear the kid telling the adult to leave her/him alone. I'm not saying everyone does this, but I think a good chunk of us do and I think (I hope!) a good chunk of the time, the situation is a kid (and a parent) having a bad day. However, it terrifies me to think that I would look away from a situation, only to discover later that the kid I mentally called a brat was actually trying to wriggle away from some creep and I didn't help.