I am not a Communist. I never thought I’d have to say those words in Lexington.

I am not a communist.

In my 48 years of life, 40 of them spent living in the United States, I never thought I had to utter these words. But now, as a candidate for Lexington Urban County Council at Large, I find myself in the surreal, frustrating, though perhaps not wholly unexpected position of defending myself against a charge as absurd as it is desperate.

Not long after my stronger-than-expected finish in May’s primary, someone dug through almost 10 years of my public Facebook photos and found two to use in a whisper campaign. The first is a picture of me from seven years ago in a military surplus store standing in front of the flag of the former Soviet Union. I was wearing a t-shirt featuring a cat saying “Lying,” from one of my favorite graphics novels, Saga. I had never seen a Soviet flag in real life and the juxtaposition of the flag with my shirt was just the ironic combination I wanted for a silly picture.

The second is from nine years ago. I’m wearing a shirt called Video Game Revolution, an illustrated fist made up of lots of video game controllers. The picture being circulated was also cropped. What did they crop out? My legs attempting to walk on stilts. The whole picture is ridiculous and silly and the people who cropped it knew it.

But apparently two pictures was evidence enough for some that I was indeed a communist.

On the face of it, these accusations are laughable at best. But beneath it lies a virulent strain of racism and xenophobia, however subtle or subconscious. My family and I immigrated from China in the 1980s, when I was just a kid. We came to the United States to escape Communism and make a better life for ourselves here. It’s the quintessential American story. To be accused of being a Communist is downright offensive to me and my family.

This is meant to be a distraction, an attempt to reframe me, an American citizen of Chinese descent and a small business owner, as the ultimate “other,” a cold war villain. I don’t have time for this nonsense and neither do the voters of Lexington. Every day as I’m knocking on doors and talking to constituents, people want to talk about issues that really matter to them — public safety, tree canopies, bike lanes, housing, etc. Lexingtonians don’t want slander, they want substance. I have faith that our community will reject partisanship, division, and underhanded mudslinging and make the right choice on Nov. 8.

Dan Wu is a candidate for an at-large seat on the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Council.

This story was originally published September 21, 2022 at 11:15 AM.