Simu Liu, the poster boy of the upcoming Marvel movie based on the character Shang-Chi, has voiced his support for the campaign to defund the police. The campaign is one of several rallying cries to come out of the civil rights protests that swept across the nation in response to the death of George Floyd, an African American victim of racially-motivated police brutality.
In his post, which was uploaded early in June, Liu stated that, over the span of a few days, he “went from emphatic and sad to just plain angry. Defund it.” Defunding the police force, the actor went on to say, would be the first step towards creating a new system of law enforcement that “doesn’t prey on the lives of the underprivileged.”
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“THE BAR IS SET TOO GODDAMN LOW,” Liu wrote in another Tweet, this one uploaded on June 5th. The comment refers to the measures police chiefs use to punish their subordinates for use of excessive and/or racially-motivated violence. “They should be disciplined,” Liu continues, “for the SLIGHTEST abuse of force and power.”
In recent weeks, many American celebrities have expressed their sympathies for the Black Lives Matter movement. Some, like John Cusack, Kendrick Sampson, Sophie Turner and Ariana Grande, have joined protesters in their hometowns. Others, like Beyoncé, Oprah Winfrey and Jimmy Kimmel, have supported the cause from the comforts of their own homes, relying on tools like social media to urge their fans to voice their solidarity.
As the upcoming face of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Simu Liu will be playing an important part in the battle to make Hollywood a more inclusive place. Similar to Black Panther, which etched itself a place in the history books for being the first major black superhero blockbuster of all time, this film will see the MCU make its first movie by, for and about Asians.
