More Than A Side Character

[Music]

after coming home from middle school

ready to binge watch another show as

usual

i pushed my recliner seat up and i

grabbed my bag of boom chicka pop

i came across jesse a disney channel

show

about a multicultural family and i was

so

excited because i saw a south asian boy

on the cover of the show

named ravi this excitement was so

unfamiliar to me as i had never seen

shows with south asian representation

before

but the more i watched the more i

realized

misrepresentation is just as bad as a

lack of representation

there was a particular episode where

robbie was attending his first day of

school

his character would exaggerate

stereotypes

from awkwardly greeting people by asking

to show them a picture of his lizard

to being called a traffic cone for

wearing a sherwani

a beautiful garment commonly worn in

south asia

to really deliver the final blow that

robbie was uncool

they made him roll on the ground yelling

when the school bell rang

because he apparently had never heard

what a bell is in his many years of life

robbie was seen as embarrassing socially

awkward

and his accent was painfully over

dramatized

with the laugh track constantly playing

in the background

robbie was often the brunt of the joke

my initial excitement slowly chipped

away

episode by episode as the so-called

representation seemed to portray someone

nothing like me

throughout my life i have watched so

many movies and tv shows that my doctors

would

literally gawk at my screen time yet

despite

these screen addictions i never saw

someone who looked like me

in american film and television

especially in the so-called iconic ones

like hannah montana high school musical

and the notebook

the main characters were almost always

white with complex story lines and white

love interests

later on when i would see representation

it was a complete miss

through robbie from jesse baldwin from

phineas and ferb

raj from the big bang theory oppo from

the simpsons the list goes on

all these characters were extremely

similar to one another

with their dramatized accents inability

to find a bow

and most importantly they were side

characters

included for comic relief to assist the

main character

but never the main character

the only representation i was getting

was vastly inaccurate

suddenly felt very self-conscious about

how others perceived me

and whether i was going to be compared

to the south asian characters i saw on

screen

a range of thoughts spiraled through my

mind

do they expect me to be awkward

unathletic or embarrassing

they think i’m exactly like ravi don’t

they

why can’t i be seen as the main

character

i started to feel like a side character

in my own life

so i felt a need to push these

stereotypes

as far away from myself as possible to

prove that i do not fit

into the inaccurate and one-dimensional

modes media created for me

this led to a period of internalized

racism

which sadly many minority groups end up

going through

i stopped from getting lunch from home

stopped listening to bollywood music

and live and people asked if i studied

for the test

to seem nonchalant about school

the worst part about all this is that i

try to abandon my culture

a culture so rich and beautiful

because of how it defined me in the

minds of others

then i hit a turning point which

really made me see how film affects our

perspectives when chatting with one of

my new friends in class

she told me you’re not like other asians

she expected it to be a compliment but i

was

deeply offended isn’t that what i wanted

to distance myself from the stereotype

on screen

yes but her phrasing here is important

she did not say you’re not like the

asians i see on tv

she said you’re not like other asians

she truly believed that all asians fit

into the stereotype

she saw on tv a perspective she

apparently held

for around 60 percent of our world

there are around 4.5 billion asian

people in the world

and she thought we all were the same

awkward character she saw on tv

it doesn’t make sense

i realized by running away from my

culture i was a part of the problem

the less people saw my culture the less

they would learn about it

making them get their only information

from inaccurate

media they would truly believe that

padma and parvati patil’s

awful yule ball outfits from harry

potter

are common traditional indian clothing i

could not let that happen

not embracing my roots was only hurting

myself

and erasing a part of who i am

i started going back to loving my roots

jamming out to the yejiwani haitiwani

soundtrack

bringing the rich appetizing aromas of

my ethnic cuisine back to lunch

and celebrated holi and dandiya with my

friends

after i began to truly understand the

effects that film has in our

perspectives

i wonder why south asian actors would

take on these roles

and wanted to see the experience they

had in hollywood

the acting industry is so tough

especially for people of color that a

majority of the only roles available for

south asians

are ones perpetuating some kind of

stereotype with a thick accent

i came across calpent a popular south

asian actor known for his work

and the namesake he would ask the

casting directors if his character could

not have an accent

and they would ask for more authentic

accents

meaning heavily exaggerated accents

usually used for comedy

even on the rare occasion south asians

are casted into a film most are of

indian descent when in reality

there are seven other rich and diverse

south asian countries who are often

overlooked

and deprived of any representation since

writers choose indian characters to

represent the diverse

and complex range of the south asian

community

on top of that most of the south asian

representations on screen

are not even crafted by south asians

reinforcing the stereotype the usually

white writer believes in

these characters are essentially fit for

the white gays

even when south asians want to go into

film

they’re often forced into a role that

casting directors think the audience

would find funny

and paid to see

so how can we change this we first have

to notice

how film and television affects our

perceptions in real life

how we are all represented on screen

affects how we are seen by the people

around us

can simplify us or treat us as if we are

one-dimensional

this can have harmful effects such as

periods of internalized racism

and some microaggressions but the

audience has the power to change what we

see on film

if the audience stops watching and

showing interest

in a certain stereotype hollywood will

not make them anymore we cannot find

these stereotypes hilarious

and need to understand the detrimental

effects they have on children growing up

we need to be seen as equals not as side

characters or the butt of an offensive

joke

let it be known to showrunners that

these stereotypes hurt

and put pressure on them to hire more

south asian writers

and actors through signing petitions

spreading this information through

social media for example

and even going into film ourselves

even if you are not south asian you

still have a big part to play

so notice and talk about this issue

you can love a show yet still call out

its flaws and representation

encourage more south asians to tell

their stories

listen to positive south asian creators

such as hassan minaj kumail nanjiani

jamila jameel mindy kaling and dave

patel

continue watching and supporting roles

like tahani from the good place

mindy lahiri from the mindy project and

hassan minaj’s netflix special

homecoming king

read articles about south asian’s

viewpoints on the representation in film

such as as the simpsons silences oppu

south asian creatives hope for the

character’s more authentic revival

by shabari durie and why we need more

diversity

in south asian representation by mishma

nixon

so many south asian stories are out

there to be told

and it is up to all of us to tell them

or urge others to speak up

representation is

so important for every single one of us

no matter race or ethnic group it makes

us feel

seen understood and represented in our

own lives

inaccurate portrayals stifle and limit

us

because none of us are one-dimensional

and we

are all so much more than a side

character

an overused stereotype

the next time a young south asian girl

plops herself in front of her tv

and grabs her bag of boom chicka pop to

binge watch another show

i want her to be able to find an

accurate representation of herself

characters not constantly at the brunt

of the joke

characters not defined solely by their

ethnicity

south asian love interests

complex multi-dimensional characters

main characters that empower us

and uplift culture

thank you