Finally, here’s the full CNN clip on the Simpsons / 7-Eleven promotion in a high-quality version. You’ve already seen the beginning, so jump straight to the panel discussion at 3:10. The mainstream framing of the issue is pretty dismissive.

The Simpsons movie comes this Friday and has resorted to all kinds of innovative guerrilla promotions (the Simpsons redone as Paris fashion plates) because of its slowly declining fan base:

… more than a decade ago… the quality arguably started to decline… The Simpsons followers are unlike any others in the realm of television, with a mind-set that’s closer to a baseball fan for a losing team… it’s an 18-year-old show that can’t even beat Two and a Half Men in the Nielsen ratings. [Link]

Here’s a clip from the show where Apu shows the Simpsons a Bollywood phillum. They do a marvelous job of poking fun at reflexive xenophobia. Sadly, this clip was never broadcast in a regular show (thanks, Blue):

If only other Apu clips were as insightful, sans brain-dead exoticism, crude stereotypes and conflation of the Middle East with India. Some 7-Eleven franchise owners say the stereotypes put their employees in harm’s way:

… Indian Americans who have members of their families killed just because they wore turbans and were mistaken for radical Muslims or Arab Americans, who have had their livelihood threatened, might have difficult time lightening up… stereotyping is fun as long as your ass is not on the line and you don’t have employees or family members in harms way… [Link]

You said that “the American public can make that distinction” [between the show and real life]. I am sorry to tell you that some of them do NOT… Some of my employees were told to go back to f— Afghanistan for no reason whatsoever. Some were asked “Where is your red dot?” and so on… if you are a new American that came to this country a little later, then you can realize what some of us go through. [Link]

I asked this Indian lady employed at one 7/11 in Boston if that store… would be turned into a Kwik-E-Mart for the promotion… She looked at me kind of angrily and said, “not in here, no.” I only realized just now that she probably thought I was asking to mock her being indian and working in a convience store… [Link - registration required]

It’s not that surprising. Apu is used as a basis for a lot of playground racism (”thank you come again” in particular) so a lot of people of subcontinental descent have negative connotations… [Link - registration required]