Thursday, July 05, 2007

Soccer Dad: Harshing My Mel

Check out what happened a couple days ago. I took my birthday off and cashed in a spa gift certificate. A nice 2 hour break from thangs. "Treat yourself, don't cheat yourself," as Mac Dre would say. So I'm hanging around the pre-massage "library" area with the granola snacks and pitchers of water when I overhear two older white ladies talking about a childcare facility that lost its license. My ears perk up a bit and I hear one of the women talk about how her daughter is taking one of the kids in temporarily. Then I hear her describe the child:

Woman in Robe: "He looks Hispanic, or um um um (searching for the right word)..."

Me: Cowering naked under my robe, waiting for the "Oriental" bomb to drop

Woman in Robe: "....part Filipino, or Korean..."

Me: Whew! Thank Buddha...

Woman in Robe: "..but he looks like a NORMAL baby."

Me: WTF?? Oh HELLS NO.

What would you have done? I thought it gauche to interrupt an A-B convo to yell at her ("What the hell is 'Normal' you racist, privileged beeatch?!") especially when I'm supposed to be relaxing. I dislike when strangers overhear my convos and feel the need to pipe in. I took it as a good reminder that some people still visualize 'normalcy' as not what your baby looks like.

And that same day, Maceo came down with Roseola. Sometimes ya just can't win.

SD

4 comments:

Braving the Arirang said...

ugh!! omgosh! I am totally with you on this one. I hate when "normalcy" plays out in what a child looks like. It is definitely a racist comment and I have heard it from my parents time and time again. With not just kids either.

One of my closest girlfriends is Mulatto (a term she uses to call herself) and my father said "But she is so beautiful. Classic beauty...you know, she looks...normal and white almost"

What?!?!?! So beauty is based on how white you can look and still be classified as another race? It's ridiculous.

Anonymous said...

Well, they are ignorant or misspoke. The baby does not conform to their norm, which is whiteness.

You could say, "I couldn't help overhearing your conversation, but couldn't an Asian baby look normal?"

none said...

i hate when people say stuff like that. i guess all you could do is ignore it...you were in a spa. but i think it's better not to let racists know they got to you.

Anonymous said...

Just don't forget that not everyone feels like that. I and many others would love an Asian baby and think they are more cute than white babies!(I am a white woman)
Some people don't always say things very well and maybe it was just a poor choice of words. (I hope!)