A rare, serious post

i try as much as possible to keep this blog lighthearted, but this has been bugging me for a few weeks now, and i can't seem to get it out of my head. i'll also preface this by saying that i don't think i'm normally as sensitive to these types of things as this post may sound, but you, my loyal fans, can be the judge of that.  

when i was in san diego for my cousin's wedding i had some down time one evening and decided to go shopping.  two little girls, maybe six or seven years old, were in the dressing room with their mom at the same time.  one of the little girls put on a blue patterned dress, stepped back to look at herself in the mirror, and stated with almost shocking confidence "this makes me look too much like a china girl."  her sister replied "yeah, if you had smaller eyes and put your hair in a bun, you'd look just like a china girl."  when i looked over at their mother, she shot me a visibly uncomfortable half-smile, as if to say "oh, kids.  always saying the darndest things."

part of their mother's reaction resonated with me -- kids, especially young ones, do sometimes say the darndest things.  most of the time, even if a kid says something that would be considered inappropriate coming from an adult, we let it roll off our backs because a child may be too young to realize that the words are insensitive.

but at the same time, the fact they were so young is part of why this continues to bother me.  to be honest, i'm not even sure what i would expect a parent to do in that situation.  i imagine that almost any form of verbal apology would be incredibly awkward for both parties.  i'm also pretty sure that the dressing room of a department store is not the best place to give your kids their first lesson on racial stereotyping. but maybe if she'd said something like "i don't think it makes you look chinese, but maybe we should keep looking for other dresses," at least i would know that this woman accepted some level of responsibility. it shouldn't matter to me, but i wonder where these girls learned what a "china girl" looks like, and i also wonder how their perception of  chinese people or asian people will continue to be shaped by this image later in life.

alright.  i'll return to my normal, frivilous posting soon.  i already have a topic in mind, so it shouldn't be too long.