Are These Talking Tees Racist?

Source: Author’s Personal Collection

I bought this top for a steal. It was $7.99 at a little one off shop near us in Chicago. It reminded me of the fancy store I sometimes went to in my dancing days. They sold regular street clothes and club clothes. I never bought street clothes there because it was higher end, but always got my club clothes there for work because I knew the sparkles wouldn’t fall off the first time I wore the outfits and the stitching was done well.

There’s a store owned by a Korean woman at the local mall by us, and for the few years I was in the clubs I would go there to buy all my gear. Sometimes I’d roll up there and grab an extra pair of fishnets or some sparkly bikini top, and the sunsaengnim running the shop would always say hi to me and my baby boy. I guess because when we first started going there she saw my son with his curls all mopped up into a pony (“Man Bun” he and my older brother call them, or a “Joaquin pony,” like Joaquin Noah). So, I guess she thought he was a girl.

I would say she’s an Ajumma but I think she looks too good to call her one. She’s literally like a fountain of youth. She is beautiful and I like how she carries herself. She makes bread and she is doing her own thing running that shop.

She and I are the only Koreans beside my son I’ve ever seen up there too. She sells these little purses, fancy, sparkly, beautiful, boutique…