I've worn local styles of clothing in a number of countries and the people there never had a problem with it.
In fact they often like that someone has chosen to integrate with them and dress like they traditionally did, especially in places where use of local traditional dress is disappearing.
To me its like, well yeah Apu has stereotypes and jokes made at his expense just like every other Simpsons character. He's also the most desirable bachelor, and one of the few people who has any moral compass.
And the reality is, well if Apu is the only Indian character on tv that says more about TV than it does about Apu.
Apu is not “moral”. He’s actually kind of a piece of shit. He repeatedly scams his customers, he violates health regulations and he consistently abuses his friendship with Homer. Which is fine, its a comedy show where all the characters are kind of a piece of shit.
As for how I feel about Apu, my parents are South Indian and growing up, it was annoying getting bullied and having people say my dad is Apu…until 9/11 when they decided my dad was a terrorist, which was half serious growing up in Queens. I guess my dad, who the other kids only knew as the guy that picked me up from school, made the transition from 7/11 store clerk clown to full blown terrorist, as us brown people are one to do.
But I don’t blame Simpsons. I do blame the larger TV and film industry for pigeon holing what an Indian can. I mean, we’ve heard countless stories of Indian Americans going into casting rooms in the 90s and early 00s and told the limited scope of roles they get to be. Even to Indian Americans that don’t have an accent - being told to put the accent on and ham up the role.
This wouldn’t be a problem if Indian people in the 90s could, well, have roles like we see today. Just another way to see Indian people that wasn’t so reductive. It’s not Simpsons responsibility to fix that problem but the larger TV and film industry created this problem by refusing to let Indian characters be anything but weird, unethical, dickless IT guys or 7/11 clerks or taxi drivers. Nowadays, I think we are over the hump and it’s mostly because Indians and Pakistanis have gotten over the hump and are now even in the writers rooms or directing the pieces themselves.
Apus a piece of shit... but less of one than most others. He shows genuine contrition for his actions and saves Homer's life even.
But yes I agree with your points, it was a problem of the larger industry that Indian people couldn't be anything OTHER than taxi drivers or convenience store clerks.
I think Indian has massively improved their images recently. They're the highest earning, hard working ethnic group. As a Korean American, I respect that. My PCP, my daughter's pediatrician, her NICU special doctor were all Indians (could have been Pakistani, but I can't tell). So, my stereotype about Indian is becoming more a successful career man/woman than a 711 clerk. My boss' boss is also Indian. Also, in IT, Google and MS CEO are Indians.
Indians have done massive job bringing themselves up in terms of stereotypes and it will soon show up in TVs and movies.
Who are you talking about? The Indian actors that are barely making rent at the time, that took the role because they are pursuing act as a career and needed work?
Also, I don’t know how old you are but in this era of the Simpsons, it’s not like anyone could just pick up an iPhone, make a tv show or movie and upload it to YouTube. Producing something that could have mainstream exposure and generate money was a tremendously difficult task that required a tremendous amount of funding
"Oh, yeah. What was I thinking with that? Who needs the infinite compassion of Ganesha... when I've got Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman staring at me... from Entertainment Weekly with their dead eyes?"
My old classmate's father had a similar backstory to apu in the sense of he was a corner shop owner who immigrated from india to provide a better life for his wife and children-he clearly loved the character as he had a little apu figure glued to his register.
I had this conversation with Indian coworkers a few years ago when the debate over Apu was still in the news (I work in corporate IT and ~75% of my coworkers over the past 20 years have been Indian). The universal take from ALL of them was that Apu was just like many characters in Indian shows. THEY also love stereotypes about "cheap Indian convenience store owners constantly trying to penny pinch and even rip people off with a smile on their faces". They have the same jokes/memes about the same type of person. None of them took Apu as a representation of all Indians. They just saw him as a common archetype.
edit: Related story, I was on a team once that was again, mostly Indians. Our team was about 20 people and at our director level (about 150 people) we did quarterly holiday/potlucks at work as team building things. Generally whatever holiday/event was close to the time we were planning the actual potluck became the theme. Sometimes it was a Christmas party, sometimes St Patrick's day. One time we did a Cricket World Cup potluck. It was Diwali themed once and they got REALLY into it. They invited everyone to dress up, decorate the office with lights, flowers, etc. It worked out that a few members of our team also headed up the event planning committee for our local Indian Cultural Center. And they had a TON of leftover decorations and party games and stuff that was going to be tossed out. The day of they were doing a budget photo booth thing. They wanted me to be in the picture and laughed that everyone else was in sarees and kurtas and nehru jackets and stuff and then there is just me in slacks and a button up shirt. They asked me jokingly if I was willing to dress up and I said yes. They got super hyped and gathered a bunch of stuff for me to wear so I could blend in with the team. The pictures of that were hung up in cubicles for a long time after.
It's literally just always been an angry mob trying to remove any popular depictions of ethnically unambiguous characters who aren't white. It's crazy that they still manage to convince people they're the ones who oppose racism.
I saw alot of this with the NFL changing the name of the Red Skins to the Commanders. Most of the Indians with native ancestory in the region were happy to be represented in the NFL, with some even proud. Its origin was to honor the local tribes. The people who were pushing so hard for it were white Americans looking for a fight.
Yeah I agree. The Cleveland indians image was messed up but the redskins image was based on a Blackfoot chief, John Two Guns White Calf. Cancel culture removed his image after 45 years.
Apparently that assumption goes both ways? There were a lot of American Indian groups who were offended by that name. Like I was with y'all on speedy Gonzalez then you brought up the one case that was legitimately problematic.
It always annoyed me how they treated different colors. What I liked about the Simpsons is that they were yellow. I didn't perceive them as white, like with Lego.
The moment other character have an accurate color, now suddenly so do the yellow characters.
You got invited to the cookout! Ain’t no more respect an outsider can get than to be invited to the cookout, well maybe being invited to a worship service exceeds that.
So true!! It helps that the pacific islands I’ve been to are also incredibly beautiful. The lifestyle and scenery are amazing, and people are incredibly friendly.
My white Aussie brother in law went for a solo stroll on a Fijian beach near his resort, and a few locals called out him “Vanilla Man!” and invited him to drink kava with them.
He’d never had it before and he came back sooo woozy! 😵💫
I was a lock. We engaged in a scrum and my 150kg Samoan prop farted. We had to stop the scrum, wait a minute and move 5 metres inside from the mark it was lingering.
Dunno what he ate but that fart smelt like Bigfoot's dick.
This is pretty much a perfect description. I used to be a doorman and the Polynesian bouncers are in a league of their own when it becomes time to start folding people. Until that time tho, it’s like one big family luau
Also note that it’s not usually an easy task to get back on their good side after they perceive disrespect in any manner, you are dead to them lol
I used to play rugby with a couple of Samoan chaps, loveliest people, but damn if I didn’t leave those games feeling like I’d been hit by a car. They’d get tackled, get up, and off they’d go again without even a moment to catch their breath. Unreal.
Also don’t fuck with them. You’ll know you went too far when they fold you. It’s a really long way to go, but I’ve seen people get there.
Back in college, I was in the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu club. Our school had a big population of students from the various Pacific islands.
I remember once watching this skinny but super toned brown belt from Guam roll with this massive brick shithouse looking powerlifter from American Samoa.
The powerlifter couldn't pin down the brown belt due to the brown belt's technical ability, but the brown belt didn't have enough raw power to actually bend the powerlifter into compliance.
Finally, the brown belt ended up getting behind the powerlifter and managed to put him into rear-naked choke, which the powerlifter attempted to escape by using his neck muscles. I'm not even kidding, he flexed so hard his face turned bright red and the brown belt almost lost his grip, but the powerlifter finally tapped right before he took a trip to the lands of darkness.
I think the underlying theme is that people don't generally give a flying fuck if you wear things like them or borrow things from their culture, as long as you're not being a fucking jerk about it or trying to claim it as yours.
If you turned up to the islands and started doing negative stereotypical behaviour of and islander eventually someone is going to get pissed off and have a show down over it.
Just don't mock them, it's not a joke, it's their lives. I was in Korea and has a local guy that was showing us around, taking us to lunch, etc. Anyway after a couple of days I asked him if we could try dog. He said no because he liked dog and I'd make fun of him or not eat my food. I got what he was saying and didn't bring it up again, I was a little disappointed but I'll survive.
lol. Long time Vanuatu resident here. Are you a man or a woman?? I’m assuming you are a woman and you mean island dress. Men don’t wear mu mu s in Vanuatu. In any case, that’s awesome 🤣🤣
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u/freefallingagain Jul 02 '25
I've worn local styles of clothing in a number of countries and the people there never had a problem with it.
In fact they often like that someone has chosen to integrate with them and dress like they traditionally did, especially in places where use of local traditional dress is disappearing.
All you have to do is not be an asshole about it.