"What are you?"

I know what this question implies. They're not asking if I'm human.

No one does.

I tell them, "I'm American."

"Yeah, but what are you really?"

Then the guessing game begins.

Chinese? Japanese? Korean?

"Yes, Korean. That's the one. But I'm also German, and Irish, and Scottish."

The second portion is always ignored.

"Wait...are you North Korean?"

"If I was North Korean do you think I'd be here right now?"

"I guess not."

 

"Do you know karate?"

"Well, kinda. I do Kempo."

"So taekwondo?"

"No, Kempo is an Okinawan mixed martial art."

This usually is followed by an obnoxious amount of questions involving my rank, ability to fight despite my "cutie" exterior. I'll answer your questions now and put them to rest; yes, I am a black belt, and yes, can kick your ass any day of the week, so don't tempt me.

 

"So do you speak Chinese?"

"No I already told you that I'm PARTIALLY Korean and that I'm 100% American. I don't speak anything other than English."

"Yeah I mean all Asian languages sound the same anyway."

 

Yeah. They do.

They all start with the same consonants cringing and flinching away from stereotypes.

They finish with the vowels of high pitched karate-kid sound effects.

In the empty caesura between the questions about last night's math homework you can hear the quiet clangs of chink, chink, chink.

I can't tell if it's a racial slur or the sound of metal on metal. The sound of almond eyed orientals hammering away on the railroads used to transport their brothers to internment camps.

 

Have I mentioned I'm German? My grandmother's maiden name is Schorndorf. Doesn't get much more Deutsch than that. I think of tall and lean blondes with shining blue eyes when I hear my grandmother's name.

 

My last name is Murray. My family name comes from the Isles of Murray in Scotland. I can only picture a clan of pale redheads standing on a cliffside when I think of my last name.

 

"Oh yeah I can tell you're Irish. You have freckles!"

Gee, thanks. I'm glad that my Irishness can be determined by some dots on my face that apparently make me ever-increasingly adorable. Damn it! Why am I so tiny and cute??

 

Ask me about my first name- Sarah. It means princess in Hebrew. I've never thought of myself as a princess, but once upon a time in ancient Korea, a young lady ruled the country- Sondok. She was a teenager when her parents died and she took over. She wasn't a princess in a fairy tale. She was a KOREAN princess. A strong princess. A squasher of gender roles, a destroyer of stereotypes, a battle cry that doesn’t sound like an insult.

 

Ask me about my middle name- Song. In English, it can only be defined as the true connection between all humans- music. In Korean, it means castle. My mother's name before she was adopted was Song-Hee. Song, meaning castle, and Hee meaning girl. Castle girl. Princess.

 

Sarah. Princess.

Song. Castle.

Murray. Of the Isle of Murray.

 

"So, what are you?"

"The Princess of Scotland."