A Part but Apart: South Asian Image in Mass Media
- In this article, Shilpa Dave explains how brown voice, as displayed by the character Apu from the Simpsons, has been used to distinguish South Asians from the Asian American experience, sometimes to their benefit and sometimes to keep them from every advancing as a cultural group.
- To support their thesis, Dave cites the episode Much Apu about Nothing in which he uses stereotypical American iconography to attempt to prove his right to citizenship in the town. Dave points out that this episode is only humorous because the audience watching this character attempting to become what he pictures as American, can never be a true cultural citizen. They also explain how brown voice inherently separates Indian Americans not only as a ‘model minority’ but as a ‘privileged minority’ as Indian English is relatively easy to understand and more socially accepted. However, this privilege has frozen South Asians in their place, and has created an identity so distinctive that it has been difficult for them to advance mass media’s perception beyond the stereotype. They explain, “The constant performance of brown voice therefore establishes one sound and one image for South Asians in the cultural imagination and hence freezes the perception of the group in a static definition” (p.318)
- The beginning of the article centers around the concept of a “brown voice”, especially as it is portrayed by the white actor who voices the character of Apu. Dave states that this distinctive voice is used to identify “a specific racializing trait among South Asians which simultaneously connotes foreignness and class and cultural privilege” (p.314). They continue to say that this voice is used to group and generalize an entire group of people, and forces their image to remain stagnant, regardless of cultural progress. As stated about, they also use the term “cultural citizenship” to describe the desire for immigrants to be culturally accepted and seen as truly ‘American’. However, this goal is something pushed on them by American society and can affect their rights beyond culture should they choose to not follow.
- The phenomenon Dave described of Indian Americans not fitting into any one racial category during times of segregation reminded me of The Forbidden City film we watched where the performers challenged racial lines when they travelled through the South. It proves the ridiculous notion of segregation that people from India or China can both be classified as ‘Asian’ however in a court case Indian Americans were determined to be ‘colored’ while the Chinese American performers said they were frequently able to use the white facilities without being questioned too much.
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