1/I'm thinking about the end of Apu in the context of the national debates on immigration and diversity.https://twitter.com/NME/status/1055902086796316672 …
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6/As the children and grandchildren of each wave of immigrants become fully incorporated into American society, being conflated with their immigrant ancestors can lead to persistent racial divisions...which is probably why the character began to upset people as the years went on.
7/ At the same time, the advent of Trumpism, and the capture of the GOP by anti-immigrant, anti-diversity forces, will significantly curtail the immigration that defined the America I grew up in.
8/Whether this will speed the integration/assimilation of the descendants of recent immigrants, or lead to permanent racial divisions, remains to be seen.
9/But both the Trumpians and the opponents of permanent-foreigner stereotypes seem to agree on one thing: the America of the 1990s and 2000s must end.
10/The end of Apu symbolizes the end of that ephemeral, transitory, beautiful, immigrant-defined America. Where we go from now - toward full and equal incorporation of the descendants of immigrants, or toward exclusionary white supremacy - remains to be seen. (end)
This is actually untrue. Apu actually did change and evolve. What makes The Simpsons unique is that it's long duration has allowed multiple characters to change... Something you rarely see in Hollywood.
One other point... Indians as a group are different. We have a large American born population... But we also have a huge growing Foreign born component, because of continuing immigration. New 'Apu' immigration will continue for as for as the eye can see.
This in a good intellectualization, but problem with apu was just that it was a caricature (Kwik-e-mart, slurpees). I understand it was never different than groundskeeper willie, but man every Indian-American kid in the 80s took a lot of abuse based on Apu
also, Apu was voiced by a white man with an indian accent which isn't right.
They could have hired an indian person to voice Apu and a lot of criticism would be gone
It wasn't even a real Indian accent, but what white people imagine to be one.
It’s a shame they didn’t decide to let Apu change.
The simple answer is to let the Simpsons grow up. Let all the characters grow as they would in real life. Show their assimilation either through their narratives or their children's. This could be done in a comedic way helping show empathy along the way. @TheSimpsons
1/If 600 episodes of Apu are not enough for you then you are insatiable; 2/in the show's zombie phase the supporting cast has been reduced to bit players anyway; 3/ if it took 30 years for someone to complain it must not have been that offensive in the first place.
Or perhaps it simply took 30 years for the 2nd-gen Indo-American community to appear. That’s the point Noah is making.
The Indo-American community must marry late, then. It would follow from that the first generation wasn't offended. My working theory was that South Asian viewers assumed it was aimed another kind of South Asian.
I'm sorry, I didn't read this before I responded. No, you're wrong. It was a stereotype back then. I was there from the beginning. At the time I was rather surprised you could still get away with it, actually. Voice characterization clearly owes something to Peter Sellers.
This is absurd. Apu character went through a lot of changes on the show.
Simpsons characters *do* change. Apu got married and had children.
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