While shopping with my husband, a Caucasian saleswoman in her mid-fifties began chatting with us about our family.
She made a comment about how our kids must be so cute because they are half Chinese and half white. Then she mentioned her granddaughter was half Filipina and half white, and that before her granddaughter's birth, she prayed that her granddaughter would be born with a "nice nose," and not "one of those flat Asian noses" (while using her finger to smash her own nose into her face as a demonstration). She pointed out that my nose was “luckily a nice, normal, non-flattened nose.” Then she said that she also prayed that her granddaughter would not be cursed with "slanty Asian eyes," (again gesturing by pulling her eyes out into slits with her fingers). She told us that thankfully, her prayers were answered. This woman told us all of this with the ease of close friends sharing an inside joke together, as if we could totally relate to her concerns.
My husband and I, perplexed and shocked, just nodded speechlessly and moved on. Sometimes, as one wise friend says, it’s best to not even go there.
She made a comment about how our kids must be so cute because they are half Chinese and half white. Then she mentioned her granddaughter was half Filipina and half white, and that before her granddaughter's birth, she prayed that her granddaughter would be born with a "nice nose," and not "one of those flat Asian noses" (while using her finger to smash her own nose into her face as a demonstration). She pointed out that my nose was “luckily a nice, normal, non-flattened nose.” Then she said that she also prayed that her granddaughter would not be cursed with "slanty Asian eyes," (again gesturing by pulling her eyes out into slits with her fingers). She told us that thankfully, her prayers were answered. This woman told us all of this with the ease of close friends sharing an inside joke together, as if we could totally relate to her concerns.
My husband and I, perplexed and shocked, just nodded speechlessly and moved on. Sometimes, as one wise friend says, it’s best to not even go there.
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