Dot, not feather, and they're
everywhere. And I don't mean running away from the Saudi authorities,
but on the little screen.
As the old 'Goodness Gracious Me' joke
goes: Hannah Simone who plays Cece on 'New Girl'? Indian. Noureen
DeWulf who plays Lacey on 'Anger Management'? Indian. Less
surprisingly, Sarita Choudhury who plays Mira on 'Homeland'? Indian.
And of course Kunal Nayyar on the 'Big Bang', Mindy Kaling for 'The
Mindy Project', 'Navi Rawat' in 'Numbers' and Maulik Pancholy in
'Whitney' (who's also Out, thus killing two requirements in one fell
swoop; it's been mandatory for years to appease the gay community by
representing them as well, you see).
The Indians are not just coming,
either, they've been. The frontrunners from Kal Penn ('House') and
Naveen Andrews ('Lost') to Rhona Mitra ('Boston Legal') and Indira
Verma ('Luther') paved the way for the public acceptance of brown
faces on the telly, something Anil Kapoor on '24' must have been most
thankful for.
The thing is, though, that when you
cast black, brown, Korean and gay because they are black, brown,
Korean and gay, it's just as racist and homophobic as Indians looking
down their noses at Nigerians or telling your parents you're really
Bi. Lady Gaga has been trying to tell us for ages that we are born
this way, why haven't we learned the lesson and moved on?
Not that the actors are complaining,
and neither am I, and who knows maybe the above have not made inroads
in Hollywood because one of Cable's biggest markets is Asia, but it's
important to be aware of hidden currents before they pull you under.
When you cast an actor for their
fitness in a role, that's when you show an evolution in species. I
think it's safe to say we're not quite there yet.
But isn't it fascinating to think of
('Burn Notice') Gabrielle Anwar's father being Tariq Anwar, and so
on? Putting borders on the world and on people is just the silliest
thing.
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