We used to be SO un-PC.

Isabelle came home from school today and told me how "a lot of people" think that when you say Asian, you're referring to a Chinese person. I then asked her if she had taken a poll, since "a lot" of people felt that way. Of course she hadn't. She talked further about her Asian (presumably) bus driver who called out a student's name, only to hear another bus rider respond with "Ching Chang Chung!"

"Because that's what people think of when they think of Chinese people," she said.

This is my child, right? I am raising her, right? Maybe not raising her "right," but I digress. Again with the poll question. A lot of people, huh? Not me. I'm one of the minority. I've never seen the guy, so I'm not one to even guess at his ethnicity.

The dear, sweet child and I had a discussion about how un-PC my age (and previous ages) used to be. In 9th grade, we used to do a cheer at the JV football games called "Boom Chicka Boom." So, you go through the whole cheer like this:
I said a Boom Chicka Boom (repeat)
I said a Boom Chicka Boom (repeat)
I said a Boom Chicka Rocka, Chicka Rocka, Chicka Boom (repeat)
All Right (repeat)
Okay (repeat)
One more time (repeat)
The [insert racially insensitive 80s label] way
In this case (and this particular life lesson for Isabelle), I told her how we used to say "The Chinese Way!" And then followed it up with the cheer done in a whole Charlie Chan-ish, Chinese-mocking way (hands in the Buddha-prayer formation and our best imitation of a Chinese accent). <--As if we knew.

How many people did we offend? I remember that one of the girls on the squad was of Asian descent. Um, sensitivity anyone? It just flabbergasts me now that we did that and got away with it. We even had the crowd doing it with us. How many of them were quietly, inwardly retching at the scene we put on?

And then, within the same 30 minutes, Isabelle declared to me that she "wished she had been born in Korea." Huh? I kept thinking of the "Eagle's Nest" where military wives had to go to deliver their babies in Korea. I'd heard it wasn't any fun, you had to go there 2 weeks before your due date (could have totally been an urban legend), and God forbid you go into labor BEFORE you got there and had to try to negotiate Seoul traffic while breathing through your contractions. So, yeah, I'm standing there thinking about how I was so glad that I DIDN'T get pregnant or deliver in Korea when she busts out with, "Did you live there before it split?"

Oh no, she didn't. DISCLAIMER: I don't sugar-coat anything for my children, much less the Joe on the street.

"How the HELL old do you think I am?" burst out of my mouth.

Sometimes I wish I had a filter - sometimes. You know, the kind (like a dreamcatcher, if you need a visual) that weeds out all the PG-13 language between the brain and mouth connection. I am lacking, sorely, as I think I may have been born without an internal dialogue filter. Oh well.

In case you were wondering, though. Korea was split at the 38th parallel in 1945. Did I live there before it split? Ridiculous.