A few weeks later, I woke up to a slew of texts from people in town asking if I was OK. They’d seen my name in the paper regarding a police run-in. I figured it was another name mix-up, so I Googled “Davon Clark Penn State” and found a few articles. I learned that the other Davon Clark was facing multiple charges after a wild night in which he allegedly ripped off a tablet from an Uber driver, stole items from a car, and threatened and scuffled with a friend’s former roommates.

It wasn’t the first time an acquaintance of mine had had legal troubles, and it damn sure wasn’t the first time I’d been mistakenly accused of being involved, but my anxiety was still surging. Nothing had been more ingrained in me as a black man than the mandate to do whatever I had to in order to avoid being seen as a problem to society. Now it felt like I had failed that simply by having the wrong name. It felt like the plot of a sitcom and a nightmare rolled into one.

Read more:

Clark, D. (2020, March 9). My Name-Twin Was Arrested for Robbery…and Everyone Thought It Was Me. Narratively. https://narratively.com/my-name-twin-was-arrested-for-robbery-and-everyone-thought-it-was-me/