I was in the car with Sydney, 5, and we found ourselves discussing the Disney princesses. Mulan came up.
“Mulan is a funny name,” said Sydney, wrinkling her nose.
Eeek! My daughter’s a racist! I automatically thought in a split-second. She’s offensive to all Chinese people because she’s dissing Mulan’s name! I need to teach her that Mulan may be an unusual name in English, but that doesn’t make it funny, just different. I hope I’m not too late. This HAS to be a teachable moment…
“Mulan is a funny name, Mommy,” Sydney continued as my mind raced.
“It’s got Moo. Like a cow. Moo.” she said.
“And lawn. Like mow the lawn,” she finished.
“Moo like a cow and Lawn like mow the lawn. That’s funny!”
Ohhhhhhhhh.
Maybe she’s not racist after all!












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