Why we need better portrayals of people of colour on television
The controversy surrounding The Simpsons’ Apu is not a case of taking offence at a benign joke, but speaks to a broader issue which exists in Australia too, explains Sukhmani Khorana in this crossposting from The Conversation.
While giving a talk at a community arts organisation in Parramatta on why the stories of diverse areas like Western Sydney are not seen on mainstream screens, I was introduced to a screenwriter who had formerly worked for one of Australia’s longest-running soaps, Home and Away.
His take was that having studied post-colonial theory as a white person in the 1990s, he was hesitant to write stories based on experiences and cultures other than his own. Another prominent producer on the panel declared that he never thought about diversity when deciding what stories to invest in.
These perspectives – avoidance for fear of offending and a colour-blind disregard for diversity, respectively – are emblematic of our faltering progress on the issue of media diversity. Most recently, the issue has been in the spotlight due to reports that the controversial character of Apu is going to be written out of the iconic animated sitcom, The Simpsons.
As an Australian of south Asian descent I always love it when I get characterised as a “person of colour”. All for diversity and better representation in media but this article has so much wrong with it. No. We are just bleeping people like everyone else not a “person of colour”. All this attitude does is to further marginalise and characterise being ethnic as being different. Apu is a satirical character, get over it. I’m sure the writer isnt losing sleep over the portrayal of Homer.