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