Actor Ralph Macchio is in the middle of a book tour for his new autobiography, Waxing On: The Karate Kid and Me. As you can imagine, the native of Long Island (the most magical place on Earth, shout out to MJF) gets a lot of questions about The Karate Kid since it's the movie Macchio is most known for. What you may be surprised to hear, or maybe not, is that the thirty-eight-year-old movie is under fire for being too, and I quote, "white."

Everyone is biting off of the same Australian newspaper that's behind a paywall. It's unclear if the reporter asked Macchio specifically about the Karate Kid's noticeable whiteness or if Macchio volunteered the info on his own. But according to Stellar Magazine according to the New York Post, the actor had this to say:

People have said it’s a very white cast..that it didn’t dive into the Asian story...but I always say this: the film was ahead of its time because it was a popcorn movie that talked about Japanese internment camps during World War 2. Pat always said the scene [in which it’s revealed Mr. Miyagi lost his wife and child in the camps] earned him his Oscar nomination.

He has somewhat of a point. We were never taught in school that Democrat president and progressive icon Frankin Delano Roosevelt put American citizens in internment camps. It's a stain on American history. Democrat president and progressive icon Frankin Delano Roosevelt should be canceled for it.

But as for the issue at hand, what people are criticizing the thirty-eight-year-old movie for having a very white cast? Who are these people? And do they amount to anything more than the proverbial three idiots on Twitter with the same dumb opinion?

The Karate Kid wasn't about Asian culture. It was about a Kid who used Karate to fight his bullies and find meaning in his life. If you felt the movie needed to delve into Asian culture more, you only needed to wait two years for Karate Kid 2... WHICH TOOK PLACE IN JAPAN! Though I venture to guess the "people" criticizing the first movie's whiteness will also be upset that whitey saved the day in the sequel.

For the love of George Burns, let's leave the 80s alone. Today it's Karate Kid. Tomorrow, people are going to notice the amount of mayonnaise in The Goonies and demand each actor apologize for it. Except for Ke Huy Quan, who will be asked why he wasn't in The Karate Kid.

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Brodigan is Grand Poobah of this here website and when he isn't writing words about things enjoys day drinking, pro-wrestling, and country music. You can find him on the Twitter too.

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