This isn’t going to be a long, profound post about Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Ring‘s important impact on the AAPI community. It’s merely an observation piece, albeit a brief one, that had me seething last night.

In fact, it made me so angry I decided to write this post. And this is why.

In King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, a movie with an expected predominantly White cast there is an Asian character named George. In a sequence where Arthur and his buddies are telling a very convoluted story to a ranked soldier they mention George in a very derogatory fashion, calling him “Kung Fu George.”

My sister and I gasped. Mind you, this is a movie that came out just four years ago and yet the writers elected to treat its only Asian character in a demeaning way. So what he ended up becoming one of the Knights of the Round Table. They still slipped in an unnecessary form of racism.

Fast forward to now and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is dominating the box-office and is the highest-rated superhero movie among audiences on Rotten Tomatoes with a 98% score. A movie with a predominantly Asian cast and a story that never shrinks from highlighting the vibrant and fascinating cultures of the AAPI community.

I’ve read so many posts about why Shang-Chi is so important. And when you think about films like 2017’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword or 2016’s The Great Wall–a movie starring Matt Damon that portrayed him as the savior of China–you realize that yes, we have a long way to go in terms of inclusivity but it’s nice knowing that Shang-Chi and all of the accompanying characters in that film exist to wash away the stereotypes.

I thank you for reading and I hope you have a lovely day.