I think it is totally reasonable to say that the best training in a particular martial art is likely to be in the country of its origin or with a native of that country. That has nothing to do with racism. It's not impossible for someone outside of that country to understand and teach a martial art, of course, but the preconceptions of culture will limit the degree to which the art can be understood.
Especially when we're talking, as martialartstutor was, about, say, 1970. Nearly half a century ago, would we perhaps expect the best TKD instructors to be largely, though not entirely in Korea?
Would it perhaps, not be unreasonable to think that perhaps a higher percentage of highly knowledgeable Karate practitioners to be in Okinawa, rather than in the US, where many instructors were ex-military with a year or two of off and on training with a language barrier?
45 years ago, if a guy from California and a guy from Fujian came up to me and both offered to teach me Bagua Zhang, do you think it might not be
slightly more likely that the Chinese guy might have been practicing from a young age, with qualified instruction, or do you think that the 1970's quality of Bagua was identical in San Diego, when compared to all of China?
Now, if a Japanese guy and a Filipino guy both claimed to have ancestry steeped in Kali, and opened schools next door to each other, I might trust the quality of the guy from the Philippines slightly more. Why? I think you know, and I think you'd make the same decision. Fun fact: I know three Filipino knife-art instructors. Two are from the US, one is FIlipino. One of the guys fromt he US is pretty good, as far as I can tell, one is very impressive, and can dice me with a training knife about thirty times before I notice. The Filipino guy is kind of terrifying, and both other instructors know this and hold him in the highest esteem.
If a guy who grew up in Bankok in the 70's opened a Boxing next door to a guy from London or New York, do you think it would be unreasonable to guess that the Londoner or New Yorker might have had a chance to have access to better training, to have been around more world class boxers, to have been more part of a community that fostered and had a deep, knowledgable, and skilled lineage of high quality boxing? Now flip that, do you think London or Bankok probably has a more lively Muy Thai scene?
It's not racist, it's acknowledging that culture is not yet fully homogenized across the world, and that when the presence of a martial art is stronger and more deeply rooted in a specific area, people from that area are more likely to have access to better quality training and a wider pool of practitioners from whom to learn and with whom to train. And yes, people from different parts of the world often have different physical features from those from other parts of the world. Again, not racist, just acknowledging peoples' differences in culture and background.
Again, you claim this is a joke, not to be taken seriously. Here's the thing about good humour. It either has to be bizarre and shocking, or have an element of truth that you can poke fun at. Either way, it works best when you start with an actual understanding of the subject matter...
In this case, it might be helpful to understand the difference between the terms "race," "culture," and "nationality of birth."
