South Asians on the U.S. Screen

Bhoomi K. Thakore is visiting assistant professor and director of the sociology program at Elmhurst College.

• Foreword: The Browning of American Media and the Whitewashing of Inequality, Matthew W. HugheyPreface: Just Like No One ElseIntroduction: South Asians in 21st Century U.S. Television and FilmChapter 1: Seeing is Believing: A Brief History of Non-Whites Representation in U.S. Television and Film Chapter 2: A Snapshot of South Asian Characters in U.S. Media (2010)Chapter 3: Three Degrees of Ethnicity: Racialized Representations of South Asians Chapter 4: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: Representations of Gender, Ethnicity, and Nationality Chapter 5: What’s the Matter with Outsourced? Conclusion: The Future of South Asians on the U.S. ScreenAppendix A: Research Methods and Data Appendix B: Survey QuestionsAppendix C: Interview Questions

Thakore (Elmhurst College) is a sociologist, and in this book she is concerned with cultural appropriation (a term recently made current by novelist Lionel Schriver) and cultural misappropriation. Many scholars have accepted the inevitability of globalization, but others have pitched a culture war against appropriation. Thakore is on the side of the latter. First, she argues, South Asians are underrepresented. Then, when they are represented, they are stereotyped (as in the case of Slumdog Millionaire). In addition to being stereotyped, these characters are rarely three dimensional. Though Thakore comes down hard, she does not overlook work that achieves limited success. Kal Penn’s character in the television series House committed suicide but that was to free Penn up to take a job with the Obama administration. In the end, Thakore contends, in presenting South Asian characters the screen offers them not as multidimensional but as assimilated white Americans—"just like everyone else"—the current trend toward globalization notwithstanding. Thakore uses graphs and survey reports to illustrate her argument. Of interest for those interested in sociology as well as film studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.