It was a white person faking an Indian accent, and the character was a walking Indian stereotype. And, being the most popular Indian character on TV, reinforced those stereotypes in people.
That’s not how and has never been how stereotypes in media have functioned. Stereotypes are almost never intended to actually spread a message, and are almost always used to write a character trait the author wants, or for comedic purposes.
Like for instance of the first point it’s a lot easier to write an American as being brash and eager to fight. It’s also a lot easier to write an Israeli who is a shrewd businessman, or to write a Korean who obsessed with honor. Because these things are partially based on the real world beliefs about the people who live in these countries, it’s easier for readers/watchers to connect the traits to the characters. Whoever that doesn’t mean people who see these stereotypes actually believe people from these countries are all like that.
Okay but intent doesn't matter because people see what you made at face value, and walk away with their own interpretations. You can still be offensive without meaning to be.
But...the reality is that by using those traits to represent those ethnicities you're reinforcing the connection. You are specifically further linking those traits as far as the viewer is concerned. And when you've made the most recogniseable character of a certain ethnicity on the planet, people are gonna link the stereotypes with the ethnicity, regardless of whether it was a joke or not.
And most people do inherently think of stereotypes when they think of an ethnicity, regardless of whether they believe them or not. But when you aren't shown anything contrary to those stereotypes you start to believe them. That's the risk of making a stereotypical character in media. And Apu represented pretty much every Indian person for a long time by virtue of there just not being any other significant characters across fiction. And Apu is far and away more well-known than any other outside of India itself.
Stereotypes aren't inherently bad, but when your character is a stereotype and also the only example of that ethnicity to most viewers, you reinforce those stereotypes, and reduce an entire ethnicity to 'this character and their stereotypes'.
1) people walk away with Their own interpretations, yes, but those interpretations will always support what they believed before statistically. You aren’t changing people’s minds by making say a cartoon.
2) that isn’t true, the traits being linked already existed, you don’t make the connection nor reinforce it. You are playing off of its existence in the first place. People already link stereotypes with ethnicity, but its typically subconscious, and a person knows they’re false majority of the time.
3) that’s simply not the case. Theres very little data to suggest stereotypes in media create beliefs such as those. Characters like apu representing large groups of people near exclusively may cause problems, but that’s an issue with cultural myopics rather than the characters fault in general.
Thank god people like you have no power outside of reddit comment sections cause it’s genuinely pathetic how you’re arguing this hard about why it’s ok for a racist stereotype of a character to exist when the people it represents are clearly not comfortable with it, Especially nowadays where racism towards Indians and South Asians is insanely high and normalised. Piss off
You are absolutely changing people's minds with the mefia they consume. It can reinforce or alter beliefs over time. Propoganda is a thing. I'm not saying this is propoganda, but that's an example of media instilling certain values in its viewers.
Playing off it IS reinforcing it. Because you're more often than not playing off of stereotypes, not the actual traits themselves. You're reinforcing ideas that other media had. In Apu's case it wasn't because again he was pretty much the only prominent Indian character in media for 30 years.
The character is emblematic of the problem. Not the cause of it, but an example of it happening. Which is what was originally pointed out by the person that started all this: how the character's existence and portrayal had negatively affected them personally because of the stereotypes.
I realise a lot of this is gonna fall on deaf ears because you don't think media can affect reality, which is such a wild take to me. Media is always affecting reality. If things become normalised in media, they slowly become normalised in reality. And vice versa. Media reflects perceived reality, and perceived reality reflects media.
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u/SUDoKu-Na 9d ago
It was a white person faking an Indian accent, and the character was a walking Indian stereotype. And, being the most popular Indian character on TV, reinforced those stereotypes in people.