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Hands Off My Kung Fu!

Growing up in the Roxbury section of Boston, my friends thought I knew kung fu. I knew about baseball but not kung fu. But in the few times when I was threatened and took the kung fu stand, that defused the conflict.

While Hollywood loves kung fu, it wasn’t brave enough to cast Bruce Lee for the 1972 Kung Fu TV series or an Asian actor for the 2016 The Great Wall set in 11th century China. America loves the fast, action packed kung fu moves but it would rather disassociate the martial arts from the people who created it.

What little that I learned about kung fu is that it’s a discipline or skill achieved through hard work and practice. Kung fu is unarmed and sometimes uses trickery to overcome one’s opponent. It’s a form of self-defense rather than offense. It’s offering your other cheek (Luke 6:29)

When the 45th calls the coronavirus that causes Covid-19, the “kung flu,” he diminishes the history of this martial arts, makes hilarity of those who have died and suffered from this pandemic and scapegoats Asians and Asian Americans. To get a laugh, he denigrates and stigmatizes Asians and Asian Americans that may lead to xenophobic hate attacks. If he really knows kung fu, I wish that he would be more disciplined and works harder in what he says.

Most Asian Americans growing up would like to be a Bruce Lee or the affable Jackie Chan. But I’m okay just giving the impression that I know kung fu as long as the 45th keeps his hands off it.

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