Breakfast on the Orient

"Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these!" girls used to sing in loud chorus on the playground.  I wonder if they still do. The thought makes me shudder. This and countless other jokes, gestures and rhymes filled my childhood, as they may have yours.  It's strange to think that some of the most horrendous or offensive things we may ever say we utter long before we know better.  I sang this song, and I had classmates of Asian descent that I considered friends.  I never imagined that I was being party to racism.  If I had, I would have been mortified.  The very thought of all my cultural faux pas' of my youth make me cringe, but they have no lingering evidence, aside from my memories and those who remembered my words.  This makes me wonder about artists, whose work reflects the implicit racism of their time, long after times have changed.  For instance, I've always admired Audrey Hepburn, and loved "Breakfast at Tiffany's", until I tried to watch it recently.  I couldn't take it.  I was shocked, as if I was seeing for the first time the racist attempts at humor.  Did people really ever think that was okay?  They must have.  Heck, I must have, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to stomach the movie, let alone love it.  And that was in the 90's.  The 1990's.  Shame on me.  Shame on us.