LogFAQs > #900607002

Funbazooka posted...

It's less about demonizing people and more about controlling them and truthfully in the end it's about the easy bucks and promotion that comes with spear-heading an outrage train, or at least trying to socially engineer one with the help of mainstream media outlets.

Controlling them? What?

Why is it so hard to understand the perspective of someone else?

For 25+ years a white guy mocked an Indian accent on the biggest TV show and this was completely normal. That's basically all he meant by racism being insidious.

This doesn't mean Hank Azaria is a Nazi. Racism can be complicated and nuanced.

Funbazooka posted...

I guess one of his big ones is that Apu is voiced by a white man and that's just a laughable complaint. I can't even take that one seriously. It's a non-complaint.

And at one point blackface was a non-complaint.

This isn't that extreme but the similarities are there. A white guy mocking a minority for laughs. People then using that form of entertainment as the only way to represent a specific minority.

The funniest thing about this is the response and defensiveness around Apu speak way more than the character itself. The guy doesn't call for the character to be banned. He doesn't call the people behind the Simpson's raging racists. Yet people are responding to him like he is.

All he's saying is "Hey Simpsons is great and all but in retrospect wasn't this representation of Indians in media kinda racist? Here's how it impacted my life and my career. Maybe we can do some things differently to improve things for everyone"

That's it. An Apu centric episode written by Indian comedians alone would mean a lot to a lot of people out there. Sorta like how episodes written by women helped flesh out characters like Marge and Lisa.
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Kind Regards,
Darmik