O, Apu, You've Done It Again

     A few weeks back, I was at a birthday party for one of my relatives when I was approached by another family member with the question, “So what's this about them trying to kill off Apu on The Simpsons?”  The political leanings of this relative are so far to the right that I'm not sure how he doesn't walk in circles so the chances of this thing going south, rapidly, were very high.  Engaging in a political conversation that involves race and a cartoon character was not the way I would have preferred to spend an evening with the family.

     I was fully aware that explaining something outside of his worldview would be the same as breakdancing on a landmine covered in dog shit, regardless of how delicately I handled it.  No matter how it turned out, it was going to be messy.  I took the path of least resistance and tried to explain the situation objectively and without taking a position in order to convey the information.  In hindsight, that was clearly a mistake.  I should have responded by sharing a story about a fictional growth on my ass.

     I started out by relating Hari Kondabolu's documentary The Problem With Apu and the very valid points that Hari made throughout.  Unfortunately, it had been a few months since I had seen the documentary so the information wasn't as readily available in my brain as I would have liked it.  But I'm fairly certain that if I had a Power Point presentation and note cards at my disposal while Hari Kondabolu was standing next to me, I still wouldn't have been able to get through.

     I tried to frame the argument in terms of school bullying because we were both picked on at school when we were kids.  I thought maybe he'd be sympathetic to the fact that ever since Apu first appeared on The Simpsons, a poor imitation of the character’s fake Indian accent has been used to demean anyone that remotely looks like they're from that part of the world.

     I made the fatal mistake of moving too quickly with the information after he seemed receptive to the idea of people getting fucked with because of the color of their skin when they're only trying to get through their day.  Concepts of representation or the lack thereof don't really go over that well with someone that thinks inclusion is another way of pushing Whitey to the back of the room and all of these “other” people didn't do anything but complain and ask for handouts to get to the front when it's actually a lack of empathy on his part.

     Having to stop to explain who Amos and Andy were, when I equated Hank Azaria stepping into a voiceover booth to blackface, was when the conversation started veering toward a phone pole.  Then I stepped on the gas and headed straight for it when I started mapping out the scope and depth of the history of white world supremacy.  Going back to the Crusades, then through European colonization and slavery up to Jim Crow laws.  The look on his face was as if I had jumped up on the breakfast table and shit in his cereal.  I forgot that I was dealing with someone whose idea of white supremacy is pointy hats and bed sheets and who is also not really open to big ideas.

     He tried countering with how offensive Looney Tunes cartoons were and maybe people should get over it.  My pointing out that Warner Bros. now has a disclaimer at the front of Looney Tunes that says, “The cartoons you are about to see are products of their time.  They may depict some of the ethnic and racial prejudices that were commonplace in American society.  These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today.  While the following does not represent the Warner Bros. view of today's society, these cartoons are being presented as they were originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed,” didn't sit too well.

     The next thing I knew, I was getting yelled at about how Cletus The Slack Jawed Yokel is portrayed as poor white trash and Apu is a successful business owner and nobody sticks up for Cletus.  Luckily, this conversation was interrupted and I was able to escape without shouting, “Shut the fuck up, you fucking racist!!!”

     Just because I have been a fan of The Simpsons since I was in 6^th grade doesn't mean that I would side with a television show over other human beings.  I don't know what kind of affirmation of his opinions he was looking for by trying to engage me but I hope I didn't give it to him.  I still want to know when the last time he watched an entire episode of the show was but not badly enough to ask him.  What kind of bearing Apu and The Simpsons has on his life can't be all that much so I don't know why a TV show is such a bug up his ass.

     I have seen practically every episode of The Simpsons, which has been on television for nearly thirty years.  Maybe it's time the producers of the show updated their mental software from the early 90s to a more current version.  But they probably won't because they're trying to run out the clock until the plug is pulled on the show.

     It's not about political correctness overtaking our culture.  It's about not wanting to be an asshole toward my fellow humans.  Everybody's day to day is hard enough as it is.  Why should we make it more difficult for someone else solely because we want to hold on to an old idea?  Especially when that old idea is a cartoon character.

I know I've posted this video before but it's still applicable so here it is again: