...a few weeks ago I was watching Transformers in a packed theater with the raucous crowd that was laughing and cheering at every point. Well nothing got them as going as the bit where one of the heroes saving the world from the Decepticon scorpion makes a call and gets stuck with an Indian call center worker who with his Apu-type accent and indecipherable mumblings keeps delaying the hero. The entire crowd exploded at presumably this “subtle bit of racial humor” and I would have also been laughing (being someone who understands “sarcasm”) when a voice rose above the din with a boisterous “Motherf**** dothead”.And then it happened.
As the connection with the call center operator was terminated by the impatient hero, someone to my right laughed out:“Thank you, come again.”Now, I'm inclined to give Matt Groening the benefit of the doubt. Let's assume that he was unaware that this would be the reaction to his caricature. So let's overlook the Computer Science Ph.D. and assume that it's not deliberate stereotyping.
Moving on to the 7-Eleven/Kwik-E-Mart promotion. Given that we know now that this phrase is used in everyday language to ridicule and deride desis, I cannot help but be absolutely repulsed by the fact that 7-Eleven is actually paying Indians to say, "Thank you, come again". The repercussions of this on how the desi community is perceived by American mainstream society will be extremely damaging. It's almost equivalent to paying a member of any minority - be it Black-American, Asian-American or whatever - to have themselves say to a customer "Sir, please call me [insert racial slur here]".
I could just overlook the issue and say that it's just a cartoon, and a satire. And, to be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be wrong. But given that I know all this, and have borne the brunt of it, I feel compelled to write something about it and, if nothing else, at least raise some awareness about it.
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