Asians do not have "slanted" eyes.

I have dealt with comments such as this throughout my childhood while growing up in a semi-metropolitan area in Northern N.J., but in my nine years of being in the Bay Area, have never really encountered the sort of comment that my co-worker made the other day that had me quite riled up.

This woman, ordinarily a really nice woman, keeps telling people that she has "slanted eyes like those Asians", b/c Genghis Khan raped her ancestors and so she has Asian blood.

Where to begin my rebuttal/rebuke. . .

First of all, I have asked a bunch of people at work about whether this woman looks "Asian" at all, and there seems to be unanimous consent that she doesn't look the least bit Asian.

Second, I thought Genghis Khan only made it to around Russia, but assuming he or his descendants made it to Switzerland or thereabouts, this was in the 13th century. 800 years ago. Now, perhaps, it's very possible to lose all other Asian features but have this one feature remain over the course of 800 years, but I find it highly suspicious that someone can have "slanted eyes", just because back in 1200, one of their ancestors was raped by Genghis Khan. Sometimes, it is even difficult to discern "Asian" features in someone who is one-eighth Asian.

Third, there are many studies out there that suggest that Genghis Khan may not have been a mongoloid.

And most importantly, we do not have slanted eyes. Back in the early 80s, maybe to some ignoramuses (such as my high school classmates), we had slanted eyes. At the turn of the century, we had slanted eyes, and during World War II, we were yellow and had slanted eyes, but come on lady. This is the 21st century. Actually, we never really had "slanted" eyes in the past either.

Let's be precise here. We have epicanthic folds, and perhaps smaller eyes, hidden eyelids, or "almond-shaped" eyes, but my eyes are neither slanted nor mere slits. They are straight like Caucasian eyes. They are not at an angle, as portrayed by many cartoons, which cause people to think that the proper word to describe our type of eyes as "slanted".

This woman's comment wouldn't piss me off so much if she didn't act like this was a defect. In fact, she said she had eye surgery done to "fix" this, as if this were a problem that needed fixing.

Thanks to the pervasiveness of mentalities such as hers, I've spent most of my childhood and part of my adulthood thinking that these epicanthic folds and my "flat nose" are ugly. I never learned to see Asians as pretty or in the case of men, handsome, probably until these last 10 or 12 years of my life.

Whereas this was unfortunately a ubiquitous attitude in the east coast, thankfully, here in the Bay Area, this attitude is almost non-existent, but every once in a while, I meet people like this and wonder-- damnit, are these people here--underneath their shroud of multiculturalism and tolerance and all that kumbaya stuff--actually no different from people from my home town?

Oh, and btw, on a similar note, I really don't need to be told that so-and-so is black, but is smart. (What do you mean but?) I know that you're saying this to be complimentary and respectful to so-and-so, who is black, but it's really not at all complimentary. Think about it. You would never make qualifying statements like that about caucasian people. Why do people automatically assume that we are going to think that someone isn't smart just because of their race?