Thanks for the Compliment?

While shopping at Safeway, a white middle-aged woman excitedly ran up to me screaming something about how cute my baby is. "Oh he is the most adorable baby I've ever seen!" she exclaimed. Then this woman continued..."oooooooo, is he AmerAsian??" I looked at her and smiled with a "yes". AmerAsian. Haven't heard that term for awhile. AmerAsian...technically, aren't I AmerAsian because I'm American and Asian? But I don't think she meant me. So I wikipedia'd it, and came up with this:

According to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), an Amerasian is: "[A]n alien who was born in Korea, Vietnam, Laos, Kampuchea, or Thailand after December 31, 1950, and before October 22, 1982, and was fathered by a U.S. citizen."

Excuse me, my son is NOT a war baby. Nor was I some helpless Asian woman in her mother country enraptured by some US white soldier and lost my precious virginity to his American manhood. On the contrary, I met a finance guy at a Chinese Christian wedding, and we had a date at Ella's for brunch.

No harm intended, I'm sure. The Asian American Studies part of me could be a little enraged, but I've softened up over the years and have decided this woman probably meant nothing more than suggesting I had a hapa baby. Meant to be a compliment.

Here are some photos of my nonAmerAsian baby in a recent photo shoot. He's kinda cute shirtless. A little on the skinny side, but cute.