Two white couples are sitting together at a restaurant waiting for a third couple (Kevin, a white male and Lyn, a Japanese American female) to join them for dinner.  One the men asks his partner "What time did you tell Kevin and his little lotus blossom to meet us here?" His partner frowns and tells him that the expression he just used is offensive. "You know her name. Why don't you use it?"  He responds: "Oh come on!  I was just being playful.  Do we always have to be PC?"

Commentary to Asian American Vignette #3

In this vignette, the white man is referring to a woman of Asian descent as his friend’s “little lotus blossom”.  Yes, lotus blossom evokes a pleasant image, but the speaker is being disrespectful.  ‘Lotus blossom’ refers to the woman’s Asian ancestry in the same way ‘beaner’ refers to someone of Mexican ancestry.  Such terms tend to reduce the person to a caricature.  The name lotus blossom also speaks to the tendency of white men to exoticize Asian woman.  A common stereotype of Asian women is that they are pretty, delicate, fragile and compliant.