Why did Sisko's skin colour matter in Benny Russell's story

It wasn't until he mentioned it in DS9's special features that I ever gave a thought to Sid's skin color. Even with the foreign sounding name, I never thought of him as being any particular ethnicity. Not once. Maybe part of that is because he's about as dark skinned as my dad, whose ethnic background has honestly always been a bit of a mystery to me, but considers himself white, and as far as I know, has seldom been regarded or treated as anything but.

 

My dad graduated High school in 1947.
His high school
Had black kids and white kids.
I just thought I should put that out there as it seems people are unaware that there was not always/ everything segregation.

 

Northern states forbade segregation, while Southern states required it under the Jim Crow laws.

 

My mother graduated from high school in 1964 in California.

She was a gifted student, but found that certain opportunities were denied her. More than once, she overheard through closed doors school administrators discussing how being Hispanic affected her prospects. Her surname was also a coded way by which her ethnicity was judged.

Segregation was not the only discrimination.

 

And still is today. He's Raj's father on The Big Bang Theory and Avasarala's husband on The Expanse.

 

"Subatoi Bashir" isn't exactly a traditional Anglo name, though he seemed to basically be culturally British, reflecting contemporary (and 24th century) diversity.

Kor