Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Difference.

Last night Daniel and I were watching Seinfeld. Again. And it was the episode when George's phone line is crossed with "Donna Chang"'s line. Remember? Everyone who speaks to her on the phone thinks she's Chinese. Why? The name for one. Donna Chang. Then she and Jerry plan a date. At her suggestion they go to a Chinese restaurant. She has an acupuncture class. They all expect to meet a Chinese lady. And when George's mom meets her, she says, sounding highly disappointed, "You're not Chinese!" We laughed.

So here's the difference. Or maybe a similarity.

Ruthann, let's say, Jones. I won't use our last name. It's a thing with me and my blog. But if you know my last name, just say it...Ruthann ..... If you talked to her on the phone and she wanted to go get a cheeseburger on a date. If she taught an aerobics class. If she talked about, well, just the things she would normally talk about. Would you expect a white lady? Look at the name again. You wouldn't think, "Hm. I'm excited to meet this really nice Chinese lady." You wouldn't really even say, "Hm. I'm excited to meet this really nice white lady."

I really don't know what the point is. I just look at my beautiful daughter and know she is Ruthann. That's just who she is to me. But I wonder, when others see or hear her name, are they surprised by the face they see when they meet her? I know that those who know her, know that if ever there was a Ruthann, she is her!

Life may get very interesting and perhaps a little amusing as she gets older.

Oh. And she's not allowed to date until she 35. I think that's reasonable.

4 comments:

Kates said...

Hey, she's bilingual!

Single Women Adopting Children said...

I think Ruthann *** is similar to Mila ***. Neither really allow folks to guess what ethnicity they are. That's fine.....our girls will wow folks no matter what their preconceived thoughts are.

Andrea said...

Devin and I have had this same conversation about Maya. With our "lovely" last name, I wonder if people will be surprised when they see her??

Kim said...

I agree. We have a friend who adopted an African American baby and people who we know always refer to him as their black baby. Obviously everyone knows his skin is not the same shade as theirs, but it makes me sad that that's how people describe him.