Stereotypes and Racism in Kung Fu aka 'Is your master chinese?'

There are many times I have been asked by different people about Kung-Fu and their questions are usually the same. There martial arts knowledge is filled with stereotypes that they see on Television. They are usually disappointed when you or your answers don't fit their preconceived notion of a martial artist looks or acts like.

The questions I usually get are:
Person: Can you do a back flip?
Me: No I can't do a back flip. They only do back flips in the movies. You wouldn't want to do a back flip before you got in a real fight.
Person: Oh. (The disappointment in their voice and on their face is palpable)
Person: Show me a move.
Me: Sorry I can't. ( I know they are expecting me to perform some super-secret death strike. )
Person:Is your instructor/master Chinese?
To which I reply , "My instructor is not Chinese, he is Caucasian. My grand master is Chinese."

The person will usually look at me with a skeptical look and say, "It can't really be real if your Instructor isn't Chinese". My first thought is, "I bet if I kicked you in the groin, or did a crushing fist strike from Xingyi, your pain would seem pretty real". Unfortunately, I wouldn't be much of a martial artist if I committed random acts of violence on people who didn't know any better. I usually tell the person that skill is not usually dependent on race, only time and effort. You wouldn't question the credentials of an English teacher if they were not from England. All that would matter was their depth of knowledge in the subject matter that they were teaching. There are people from a wide variety of ethnic backgrounds at my school and other martial arts schools who are skilled practitioners of their respective arts. My instructor happens to be an extremely skilled martial artist. The skill he possesses were hard earned and are not any less valid because he isn't Chinese.

The beauty of Kung-Fu is that at its heart it is egalitarian. Time, Effort, Sincerity and Humility are all that are required to succeed. I am an African-American who studies Chinese martial arts. Somewhere on the other side of the world, there is a Chinese rapper who knows more about hip-hop than I do. The beauty of it is that ideas and beliefs can spread far beyond the countries that gave birth to them and become universal. We must always respect the origins, cultural context and history of whatever we study but not let ignorance and cultural bias deter us from seeking our path to true knowledge.