I was shocked by the line

Sometimes I forget to factor in the Asian.

Not so much because a fictional adoptive father could have racial prejudices about his Asian daughter, but because the show’s writers had veered way out of the way to make a young character adhere to that racial stereotype.

Which is, of course, false. Not all Asians are driven to succeed by genetics, as the writers of Modern Family suggest.

Asia is a pretty big place filled with diversity and the same gamut of winners, losers, and control freaks as everywhere else.

They owe little Lily an apology.

But the affront of racism in an American sitcom pales in comparison to racism at large.

Recently an Asian American man was savagely beaten by bikers in New York city. No one has yet to be arrested.

Which reminds me…I know how to get spray paint off a fence.

A caustic, thankless process.

Years ago a prominent Indian family in our community was targeted by vandals. Their fence was effaced by obscenities.

My husband and I scrubbed the words off the fence. Justice would have pursued making the vandals scrub the fence.

Sometimes justice feels pretty sparse.

And as a white woman in America, I admit I am prejudiced…nothing scares me more than a bunch of white dudes.

You just never know what they are capable of doing.