As an Indian Guyanese American girl, I have grown up with a changing generation of media diversity. Eighty percent of my favorite actresses and actors were white when I was a child. The other ten percent were Bollywood stars that I grew up watching. Now, as a 20-year-old in 2016, my favorite celebrities have changed as more people of color have appeared in the media. Aziz Ansari, Priyanka Chopra, Lilly Singh, Inquisitive, and Deepica Mutyala are just a few names of some very famous and popular stars of media.
From movie actors to YouTubers to fashion stylists, these people of color have become role models for the younger generation who will never really know what it’s like to not see their color on the screens. For me and my fellow millennials, it’s awesome to see people just like us making a name for themselves. However, some of the roles they receive are still criminal or marginal characters. This is changing slowly though, thanks to stars such Aziz Ansari.
Aziz Ansari’s character Dev from "Master of None" stated the roles Indian actors usually get, “Cab driver, scientist, IT guy.” This is what America sees Indians as. They are super smart people with the thick funny accent — however, the intelligence is forgotten because “funny accent” takes precedence. Dev asks, “Why can’t there be a Pradeep just once who’s like, an architect, or he designs mittens, or does one of the jobs Bradley Cooper’s characters do in movies?” His friend agrees, but as a struggling brown actor in New York City says, “I got to work.” This is a conversation that I can only imagine has happened between so many and upcoming brown actors because of the harsh reality that is “Hollywood.” Directors and producers want to make money and don’t want to take a chance on a POC having a lead role. Unless, of course, they want a terrorist. Terrorist now equals brown.
In Quantico, Indian actress and lead star Priyanka Chopra begins the first episode as a recent FBI graduate who is now being framed as a terrorist. Even as the lead, the whole season revolves around her being marked as a terrorist. Stereotyping shines the brightest however in an immensely popular show called "The Big Bang." Raj Koothrappali, played by Kunal Nayyar, is your “typical” nerd who cannot speak to women without freezing as well as your genius Indian who has a funny accent and says phrases such as, “I swear to cow.” He is Hindu and the cow is sacred in such religion. My friend, who is Muslim, loves the show and says that the stereotype doesn’t bother him personally, but he does see how stereotypical the Indian character is. There is no denying it.
There is hope, however, in the slow rise of Indian representation in media today. Deepika Padukone, a Bollywood actress, has been cast in "Fast and Furious 8." Lilly Singh, aka IISuperwomanII, is a Canadian YouTuber, vlogger, comedian, rapper and actress. She has billboards promoting her YouTube account around NYC. Deepica Mutyala is a Beauty Expert and YouTuber as well as a regular on-air beauty expert for the TODAY Show. Amandeep Singh aka Inquisitive is a graphic Illustrator from London that I had the pleasure of meeting at one of his showings on Roosevelt Island. It is great to see Indians doing something other than medical, engineers or IT careers.
Indians are not the snake charmers with the funny accents, who smell like curry (well, most of the time, curry requires very strong spices, but it’s absolutely delicious) that America likes to describe us as. We are more than that and deserve to show our widespread talents just like white Americans. Diversity is needed desperately in American media and Indian Diversity is just one slice of that pie.
