Media has come a long way since South Asian characters were solely being portrayed as greedy convenience store owners with exaggerated accents, flimsy nerds who are constantly subject to bullying, or uneducated cab drivers who simply play a supporting role in a white person’s story.
Now, it is becoming more common to find South Asian characters that do a better job of capturing the essence of our culture. With more relatable and nuanced stories, less stereotypical personality traits, and more substance, these characters have become loved and appreciated by audiences.
This growth is a huge leap for South Asians in western countries, including myself.
As a young, impressionable child whose world was turned upside down upon moving to the United States from India, it was difficult to find a safe haven where I could find people to share my culture with and preserve my roots. Especially in a place that was entirely different from what I was used to.
Even if I did not realize it at the time, the lack of good South Asian representation around me led to a huge disconnect between me and my culture. Now why exactly is this so important?
To answer this question, we must first dive deeper into the reality of South Asian representation. According to a 2021 report by Nielsen, South Asians only had 0.5% of screen time on broadcast television, 1.1% on cable, and 1.5% on on-demand television between 2020-2021. Within this small amount of screen time, finding good representation was practically rare.
This is especially harmful since the general perception of South Asians in western countries is already negative. An example of this would be “The Simpsons’’ Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, who is basically just a blend of every possible negative stereotype against South Asians.
Other examples are Ravi Ross from “Jessie” and “Bunk’d”, as well as Baljeet from “Phineas and Ferb.”
Both of these were shows I grew up watching, and from a young age, the stereotype of brown kids being unattractive and nerdy was pressed on to me. While these characters might serve as comic relief to their respective shows, they do not do a good job accurately capturing South Asian culture and tradition.
Harper's Bazaar also states that according to a study conducted by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative in 2021, members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community only made up a meager 5.9% of all speaking characters in top-grossing films between 2017 and 2019, and South Asians only claimed 17.4% of that already small amount. When taking all of these things into consideration, it becomes extremely clear how historically underrepresented South Asians are in the Western media.
So, what does Hollywood have to do to get this whole “inclusion” thing right? What exactly is the good representation that we need?
One obvious answer would be to stop playing into stereotypes and not simply have performative diversity in shows.
This is the biggest mistake that has been made in the past. Simply throwing in one or two South Asian characters on the side does not fulfill the job of representing the South Asian experience.
Once creators move past only showcasing the white perspective, and begin displaying South Asian characters as humans with lives and backgrounds of their own, and with things to say, we will move towards the right direction.
The only way to do this would be to give South Asians a bigger platform. Not just to star in shows and movies, but to also write, produce, and direct them.
Mindy Kaling’s “Never Have I Ever” (NHIE) and Shonda Rhimes’ “Bridgerton” have done just that.
Starring Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Poorna Jagannathan, Richa Moorjani, and Megan Suri, NHIE does a great job creating characters that South Asian teenagers growing up in a western country can relate to.
Similarly, starring Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran, “Bridgerton” depicts London’s regency era with a diverse cast, and it presents the beauty of South Asian culture in a unique and alluring way.
Both of these shows are very mainstream and have a huge following, which is a great step forward for South Asians.
These shows are helping to diminish the stereotypes that have existed against South Asians by featuring South Asians in primary positions, and are giving us the long-awaited appreciation and recognition that we deserve. It is also a great idea to do some research to find more movies and TV shows that have good South Asian representation.
Representation in media is a crucial part of inclusion and acceptance in the real world. In a world where we are surrounded with content, the things we watch, read, and listen to greatly impact our behavior and lives.
Seeing South Asian representation in the media is a big part of quashing racism and microaggressions fueled by stereotypes. It teaches people that South Asians are humans too, beyond the stereotypes we have become so accustomed to.
Unfortunately, when I was younger, I did not see positive South Asian representation around me, and that led to me feeling alienated and divided from a part of me that was so important to my identity.
Seeing more South Asian representation and appreciation as I grew older really helped mend my relationship with my culture. I no longer feel ashamed of bringing Indian food for lunch at school, nor do I shy away from telling people more about my culture, or being open about such a defining part of my identity.
Seeing better South Asian representation in the media will not only make us more accepted by society, but more importantly, it will help us accept and love our culture and identity.
That being said, there is still a great amount of work that needs to be done before we can do terms like “diversity” and “inclusion” justice in the media, especially for us South Asians. And until we reach the point when the South Asian experience is presented in the media through an unbiased and appreciative lens, we must keep advocating for representation and making our voices heard and our identities seen.
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