I pack my daughters’ lunches on school days. Yes, they’re teenagers and could do it themselves and no, I’m not spoiling them. I do it because it really is a pleasure for me.
Monday, I packed chicken quesadillas. I used Costco shredded cheese. Literally, it says “Mexican Blend Cheese“:
Ava comes home and says, “The Mexican boys at my table saw my lunch and asked me why you use yellow cheese. I told them that I have a Korean mom.”
!
Tuesday, I packed garlicky pasta. Because I’m so nice and thoughtful, I taped a piece of gum on the thermos:
No comment from the peanut gallery teens.
Wednesday, I packed Korean sticky rice and threw in some dried seaweed. Ava says she wants to be more vegetarian, so I thought this was perfect.
She came home and said, “I got so much teasing over my Asian lunch.”
Thursday, I packed more Korean sticky rice and baked tilapia. But when I looked for small tupperware, I had none. I’ve decided to stop using plastic bags (you know, the ocean and all) and so I had to use the zipper pouches I wrote about before:
Yes, I put fish in a bag.
That afternoon, Ava comes home and sighs.
“Could you please pack lunches that won’t get me beat up*?”
*Obviously, she’s not really getting beat nor bullied.
Kismet 
Ava comes home and says, “The Mexican boys at my table saw my lunch and asked me why you use yellow cheese. I told them that I have a Korean mom.”
Okay, I fell out of my chair. Like you’re Korean and “Mom” is one of those sticky post-it note things that come with beeing a child, (a parent) and totally nothing to do with her. But worse. I fell out over the whole “yellow” thing that was like three or four layers deep in that. Rather than beat you with my explanation, the more things change, in the background they stay the same. From 1932’s “The Hatchet Man”
http://pre-code.com/hatchet-man-1932-review-edward-g-robinson-loretta-young/
I have a female character half Vietnamese and “Dad was a surfer turned aerospace engineer”. She foresakes classical cello to play shred rock guitar and write women’s rights anthems (with a guy nobody can know about or it’ll blow their cover.) Like OMG. You should hear her talk about HER mom.
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