Step’n Dispense It (updated again)
Desi 7-Eleven owners, among others, are being asked to greet their customers with a banner mocking their ethnicity and accent as a promo for the Simpsons movie. Next they’ll be asked to don turbans and bow to customers while lisping.
Is the promo adorable and highly meta? Absolutely. Is it racist? In the extreme. There’s no other character in the Simpsons where a small, relatively new minority is the butt of a crude ethnic joke. It’s like Mamet’s execrable lines in Glengarry Glen Ross, old foreigner exotica that’s now out of date because of the growing number of desi Americans. Apu is such the icon of racist taunts against Indians in America, when Kal Penn takes back the phrase ‘Thank you, come again’ in Harold and Kumar, it’s a key applause point.
… a store that sells all kinds of unhealthy snacks and is run by a man with a thick Indian accent… The proprietor of Kwik-E-Mart is a man named Apu who speaks in a heavy Indian accent. He is based on a manager Groening encountered while shopping at a 7-Eleven in Los Angeles nearly 20 years ago and plays to stereotypes about convenience-store operators and Asian immigrants…
The U.S. locations where a 7-Eleven store was transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart are New York City; Chicago; Dallas; Denver; Burbank, Calif.; Los Angeles; Henderson, Nev.; Orlando, Fla.; Mountain View, Calif.; Seattle; and Bladensburg, Md… [Link]
Malt-O-Meal… will conjure up a recipe for KrustyO’s… 7-Eleven’s own Slurpee will be sold as a Squishee… Other recent examples of reverse product placement include Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans, which spun out of the Harry Potter books and movies, and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurants, which opened after the movie Forrest Gump. [Link]
For the month of July… Squishee is available in Blue Woo Hoo! Vanilla… get there before Apu decides to try chutney flavor again. [Link]
Put-on accents can be racist. What is Apu of The Simpsons but a week-in, week-out stereotype?… [Link]
Some shopkeepers are ignoring the racism to get the dollars. It’s the mark of a true desi:
Many of 7-Eleven’s franchisees are Indian, company officials say, although they say they don’t track exact numbers. Bargerhuff said they were “overwhelmingly positive” after hearing of the Kwik-E-Mart idea, but “it was not a 100 percent endorsement.” “There was definitely a concern of offending people…”
That’s the case for Kumar Assandas, a 28-year-old franchisee… His store in suburban Las Vegas is one of the temporary Kwik-E-Marts. “I’m a big Simpsons fan myself, and maybe subconsciously it even inspired me to become a 7-Eleven owner.” [Link]
Bravo, Kumar. Maybe Aunt Jemima will one day inspire a young black American to become a nanny.
Update: Some 7-Eleven franchisees find the promo offensive:This is an embarrassment. The vast majority of franchisees are immigrants
This is an absolute embarrassment for our company… [7-Eleven and franchisees were] up in arms years ago when Leno was stereotyping 7-Eleven employees and [franchisees], for [7-Eleven] to go and personify that same stereotyping that we all suffer from…
I am not willing… to be compared to Apu… accepting our portrayal of Apu is nothing less [than] accepting the images portrayed years ago in the U.S. of black people with very black faces, big lips and white teeth… that image is considered racist, so does Apu [seem] to me… I cannot imagine any store willing to rebrand to Kwik-E-Mart even for a day. Maybe that franchisee can change his name to Apu for that day too…
I am not bashing the Simpsons, but I am criticizing our company’s involvement in this promotion knowing very well that the vast majority of [franchisees] are immigrants. I am not proud to be part of this promotion. [Link]
Update 2: More photos courtesy of Unsure Shot, Johnnymetro and Justin.
on Sunday, July 1st, 2007, 4:36 pm in Ads, Food, Issues, Simpsons, TV › 
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perhaps conveniently - warren’s lunch buffet was purchased by a gujudesi for 650K. But some things dont change… I just love that the guy published an investment guide called ‘dhandho’… dude — that’s exactly what my local healthfood store owner (guju via Boambey) calls his business.
ok. that’s all folks. Brotha’s off to unplug and detox in the wild. A happy 4th of July to you and be good, hear! Nice knowing y’all.
wow! i mean, i am speechless! only desi owners being asked to do this!!
though the last paragraph tells me that perhaps i am concerned too much, eh?
;)
i meant concerned too much, unnecassarily!
I do not think that only desi owners of 7-11s are being asked to participate
That said - this is one of the most tasteless promotions anyone could have conceived.
And the news article including the quote from the desi shopkeeper Kumar Assandas in the article above , trotted out as the “token Indian ” to give some legitimacy to the charade is beyond tasteless!
We can’t laugh at ourselves? We all know some storekeepers who fit the description. ‘Money begrudgingly returned’ - strikes a well-jangled chord. I think we’re getting oversensitive. This is the Simpsons, not exactly bastion of high taste.
concatenatrix,
they’re laughing at us, not with us.
i don’t think you’re understanding that what’s happening is that real people are being reduced to caricatures…dehumanization…just like the media portrayals of vietnamese manicurists (gossipy ppl who can’t speak english who OF COURSE are ALWAYS talking shit about the white female client when speaking in their native tongue, etc.).
But did you hear about their promo where the dumb, white, midwestern guy walks out of his workplace with the cooling rods? First stop: Three Mile Island!
This might be technically true, but the Simpsons have mocked the Japanese obsession with game shows, the angry lesbian stereotype, the dumb union workers, the narcoleptic and rambling geriatrics (”Five bees for a quarter, we’d say. Now where was I?”), basically everybody is fair game on that show. So, I don’t get too upset about the Apu jokes. Also, Apu is obviously over the top, with his PhD, his dedication to work etc.
Context matters. Many Americans have personal experience with Midwesterners, old people and such, but not with Indian-Americans. This is the extension of a long strain of racism mocking the Indian accent — brownface peons in film, Gunga Din, Peter Sellers.
The character started out as pure ethnic caricature. It was tarted up as a brainiac as the show aged and more desis came to the U.S.
Check out what one franchisee says:
Let me be clear. I don’t find the Simpsons character offensive. The same context that you speak of doesn’t make me thing that Groening has an agenda of pushing racist stereotypes. I don’t think comparing Gunga Din, a rendition of an unabashed colonialist’s novel by 1930’s Hollywood, to the Simpsons, which is extremely self-referential, ironic, absurdist etc. is apt.
I do think that 7-11 is exhibiting poor judgment asking some of its franchisees to do something that they might clearly find insulting.
Same fake accent.
This “context” criticism is why some people trash my own film project, and I don’t think it’s valid. Many Americans do have experience with Indian-Americans, many are Indian-Americans, and in that context the Simpsons holds up pretty well. But why listen to me? I’m just a
gal. From a dumb midwestern town in which reside many desis.
Nina, saying Urbana is representative of the Midwest is like saying Austin is representative of Texas. I don’t see the parallels with your film project, which is original work. Apu is crude ethnic parody of a funny-speaking foreigner who cheats his customers. It uses a fake Indian accent that exists only in the imaginations of Westerners.
I agree the fake accent is a real problem.
i live and work in manhattan. in my experience, beyond my tiny grad-school educated clique (and even then it’s no guarantee) the vast majority of americans still don’t know the difference between hindu and hindi, india and iran, etc. we’re not talking about burundi here. india is a large country with a huge population. let’s not even get started on pakistan and bangladesh. merely interacting with south asians doesn’t magically erase stereotypes. sure, they may recognize i may not talk like “that,” but why is it that i’m always the “exception” in their minds? and like manish said, it’s a FAKE accent.
and many americans are NOT indian-american…we’re like less than one percent of the population.
well, yeah, it is kind of pointless asking white people to speak about racism, isn’t it? it’s like asking men to speak authoritavely about sexism. but why preclude yourself totally from the conversation? sorry, i don’t know who you are and am judging you based on your comments, but it is a major pet peeve of mine when any dominant group (white, male, christian) almost puts on a “no one wants to hear what i have to say, i’m constantly being attacked” attitude. grow up! you strike me as being very defensive.
Insafi, Nina’s got good reason for it as her gorgeous, painstaking Sitayana work has been attacked by wingnuts.
yeah i was poking around her website and noticed that…she has some really nice work there.
but that’s my point with any of these types of conversations - (a) don’t let the extremists get you down and shut you up BUT (b) at the same time, respect what people who are within the “oppressed” group are saying and don’t discount it b/c you have been attacked by those within the group. it’s like, i’m not going to stop advocating for disability rights b/c a few quite extreme disabled rights activists told me that i was a fraud and didn’t know what i’m talking about b/c i’m not disabled (my brother is). i will throw my support around various legislation, etc. that is pro-disabled rights, but on the other hand, i’m not going to discount the words of anyone who is actually disabled and i’ll let them speak for themselves b/c they’re actually living it.
it’s frustrating….like when men tell women that catcalling is harmless, that is so annoying!
C’mon Manish, the same context you talk about applies here! I feel that ignoring the general air of ridiculousness that pervades the Simpsons sort of misses the point.
Also, the “same fake accent” argument is what equates the stupid attempts at humor by the likes of Biden and Hillary to the poisonous remarks by George Allen and Obama (or his team, depending on what you want to believe). I think there is a very fundamental difference between the two, and the latter is something I would definitely get upset about, but not the former. Although good judgment by a politician who wants votes would preclude making such statements.
In any case, I think you and I fundamentally disagree on this, so don’t want to take up more airtime on this issue.
Hmmm.
I vote for the “context” argument. In light of The Simpsons as a whole, I don’t think Apu is a particular standout for foolish behavior/mannerisms but considering the limited visibility of Indian Americans, it sucks. When you say, “My friend is Indian,” the average middle-American is visualizing either a chief at a pow-wow or Apu at Kwik-E-Mart.
Likewise, the film White Chicks has no bearing on the overall view of white American girls whereas each new Dirty South snap music video further erodes the precarious social perception of black America…
Under other circumstances, sans bad accent perhaps, I would think the Apu thing was cute-much like my perception of Aunt Jemima since she got her hair done(!)-but I don’t think it was a very considerate move on the part of 7-11 corp.
what’s all this “fake accent” talk about? i am as indian as 25 kids packed into an autorickshaw, and my dad sounds exactly like Apu! he clicks and makes popping noises a bit more, but overall, i’d say quite an accurate representation.
Where is your dad from?
I’ve never met anyone who talked like Apu/Sellers/Azaria. I’ve heard the rare singsong, but only with an upper-class female Bombay accent.
Peter Sellers is my daddy :-(
my dad sounds exactly like Apu!
This must surely be something of a coincidence unless, of course, your dad is Hank Azaria.
This seems to be a “heads I win, tails you lose” type of situation. If the folks in question protest, then they are a stridently protesting minority satirizable as Ethnic Uncle. If they don’t, then they are the meek minority satirizable as the “Meek Hindoo”.
There is the issue of reinforcing ethnic stereotypes for those who might, in fact, be racist.
How nice to hear this acknowledged! I am Indian and live in New York. I went to graduate school here a couple of years ago. One or two of my American classmates tried the fake accent with me and were met with such a stony glare that they gave up on it.
I know for a fact that I am the first (and maybe only) Indian person they have hung out with, so I assume the only way they could know about the stupid fake accent is from Apu/Sellers etc.
I was quite insulted with the kwik-e-mart segment which aired tonight on CBC (Canadian Broadcast Corporation). Ian Hanomansing, an Indian anchor-man, was giving the lead into a Coquitlam (Suburb of Vancouver, B.C.) 7-11’s transformation into the Simpsons convenience store. They had an image of Apu next to the anchorman as he was describing the tastless promotion (it was clearly done in a humiliating manner). They proceeded to showed the patrons purchasing their donuts, cereal, colas, squisihes, etc., but then a white child, about 6-8 years old, came on air mocking the Indian accent and saying, “Thank you, come again!” I felt extremely agitated. Nobody batted an eye, no one fathomed that this could be considered an insult. I know for damn sure that if it had been a caricature of a stereotypical black person instead of an Indian, every Tom, Dick, and Al Sharpton would be screaming bloody murder. This is sad because Vancouver has a huge Indian community. If we cannot get any sort of respect here, what is the hope for Desis in communities where they have limited visibility and power. Also, trotting out that Babu who claims that Apu motivated him into purchasing a 7-11, and that it’s okay because the Simpsons makes fun of everyone equally, was pathetic. He is the worse than the White and Jew producers of this FOX trash.
ahh yes, the White and Jew producers. Damn them. damn them for the 18 years + a motion picture hell they have forced upon the world.
manish, would apu be better received if say, aasif mandavi were employed from the start to do the voice? then you see it’s not as racist if an actual live indian were doing the accent… kinda like when ajay or kalpen do an immigrant character with an accent….
I am really fixated on the accent. If the audio is off, all is off, I’m sure you’d agree, Sank ;) But it makes no difference if a) the producers ask them to do the racist slice of Americana that is the Apu/Sellers accent, or b) they actually can’t do a decent Indian accent. It’s really not about whether the voice actor is desi.
hmmm… so:
doesnt apply to your objection of the marketing? apu, burnt sienna hued instead of yellow skinned, adorned in 70’s disco clothing that looks suspiciously like my dad in most pix form the 70s… & that undying “work ethnic” …only the accent then?
i think my point on the accent is the Sellers citation keeps getting pulled up.. he was white, doing Hrundi the Hindoo and what not, thus establishing a source of bad accents pulled off by white dudes. ever since. let’s face it, an accent delivered by an indian-american will be way better than one by any white dude… which is why i asked the question…
should the apu character never been made in the first place? if so, what character should have been made when the article on “why there are no indian characters on longtime running simpsons cartoon” went live in the blogsphere?
and finally, what if the store owners in all the sevenhundred-and-elevens asked to participate in the market push were korean… just for shits n giggles.
haha, “work ethnicâ€Â
Someone over at Fringe is begging to be schooled on this…
So your offended? Here is a hint. Grow up and get over it. Life does not promise you that your feelings won’t be hurt. We all have struggles and whiny ass Political Correctness is a sign of weakness. Grow the f*uck up!
I agree……what the f*ck is wrong with people these days?!! Common sense isn’t so common.It’s a freaking parody……….fantasy & reality mix yet again & people cant tell the difference.
Ok. all of you with your hypocritical backs up against the wall. Apu is an over the top character. It is a parody. ultimately, respect is paid to the other cultures that are lampooned in the simpsons (not to mention the domestic whackos that are also satired).
whether or not the promotion itself is in good or bad taste, sure that may be up for some degree of debate, but it’s not inherently racist.
and frankly, when indians start getting all sensitive about racism, it almost makes me laugh. We, as a people are among the MOST racist societies on this earth. That is to say, against other ethnic groups, AND, most distressingly, amongst our own bloody selves. “Oh, she’s such a Faaaaaaaair skinned girl”. Caste system, anyone? Indeed, take the Apu stereotype and look a layer beyond it…”back home” mr. phd with the entitled family and betrothal to some chicky at age 8, would have lived the life… servants, what have you. come to america, and that entitled top of the caste system (assuming this for arguments sake..for all we know he was an untouchable made good) kid comes down a notch or two, and operates a service retail outlet, and works hard like everyone else (cheating or otherwise), has the same problems with workaholism as everyone else, has the same trouble finding a date like the average Joe, Wai, Kwami or Leroy.
So get a clue, take a chill pill, get off your high horse and learn to identify parody as separate from actual racism.
Solid logic. You know, since Indian medical tech isn’t the best, there’s no point advancing it in the U.S. Right?
what does the racism of indians have to do with advancing medical technology globally?
dear canadindian, this is an american thing. I’d recommend you lay off. It really does come down to the respective founding principles. The american declaration of independence calls for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The canadian constitution considers peace, order and good government as the foundation to the country. If there was a summary to explain the respective national trajectories - this would be it.
I have been following these indo-american blogs for about over a year now and that what seems to me as adversarial posturing is simply the American way - and this is exemplified in the american stances at the societal, regional, national, global level. It is the source of the American power which we respect and the american Power we fear and mock.
I’m sure you and I would just be content with chilling out on a canoe dude and having pie. :-) Why meddle in an American thing mang?
An indian in a canoe? ;)
Actually the posturing and so on is pretty prevalent here too. mostly because of an offcial policy of “multiculturalism”, which, while in theory is nice, ultimately foments self-segregation and creates an adverserial dialogue rather than open debate. there’s always exceptions to this, but in general, seems to be true.
i lived in the states for six years before coming back to canada, and there are differences. i suppose you’re right, and frankly, in the US, people at least are overt about their opinions. One knows, mostly, who or what they are dealing with. The need for “peace order and good government” here in the northland leads to people’s less civil opnions being whispered and guarded (true of indians, whites, whomever), promoting the appearance of a ‘polite’ society, which in truth, has within it a very strong and incidious undercurrent of “impoliteness”.
and for the record, as sterotypically “canadian” as it might be, i would surely be content to chill in a canoe and mange on some good ol’ american apple pie.
and to be clear… posturing and so on in canada…on the larger public stage. groups and so on. the incidiousness…more on an individual level..
that’s all.
Precisely. What does racism in India have to do with racism in America?
This article argues the U.S. idea of assimilation + integration over multiculti-and-separate reduced the number of homegrown terrorists.
Manish, I think it is naiive to believe that old country views aren’t held (to varying extents) by the diaspora. I am not saying that it is true of everyone, it certainly isn’t true of my parents or me, but i’ve witnessed it more often than allows me to dismiss it as insignificant.
Even as the “old country” views might evolve and take on a different stance over time in the old country itself, very often, when people leave and come to north america, they come with a snapshot of what the prevailing attitudes were at the time they emigrated. These views can change with exposure to different cultures, and very often from those waves of immigrants that came in 50’s through the 70’s, they probably did, but certainly not always. I’m still shocked when some uncle or another makes some offhand remark that in everyday discourse outside of a ‘function’ wouldn’t be acceptable to make.
more recent immigrants arrive in country that has a built in ethnic support network that gives them the option to exist comfortably within that community, even after the transition period would have been complete (unlike the early waves that had to figre it all out on their own). Again, not all are going to choose to do that, but i feel that many families do essentially opt to exist within the south asian community never being ‘forced’ to integrate fully with the larger community around us. Consequently, it can be easier, then, to uphold whatever views one came to America with, not having liberated themselves of some of their ignorance as it relates to american society.
Anywway, i am generalizing to an extent, and at this point, just relating what i have experienced/observed both in Canada and the US.
i really should get back to work now.
no offense, but people usually start making broad generalizations like this when their own arguments are weak. you know, starting to hate the game instead of actually playing it?
Dude, I play my arguments in my backyard with people whose game I understand. What you do in yours is your game.
But… I am guilty of the generalizations, but it has been my working life to look beyond the trees at the forest - and my comment an extension of the same. To illustrate, I have worked as a management consultant to some corporations and have hd the opportunity to look inside the bellies of some corporate beasts. All those one-line slogans that are set out as ‘executive vision’ and all - ultimately translate to how the business functions at the front lines. So if something is broken, I dont pick up a hammer and wrench - I go talk to people. I took that same reasoning back to the founding principles to our respective nations and made some generalizations at why people behave a certain way. To me, blogs arent as interesting for the individual points that bubble up, as they are for the interactions among the role players.
pardon me for the threadjack. I will cross post to my blog in case you want to talk about this.
“The Sardarji joke, like all ethnic humour, is part of a good-natured Indian tradition and hardly an example of any kind of anti-minority feeling.”
— Vir Sanghvi
What’s good for “good-natured Indian tradition” is good for the Simpsons. I would echo the sentiment that, behind Apu’s accent and antics, there is hardly an attempt by the show or its creators to generate any kind of anti-minority feeling. Regardless, perhaps all of those who are so vehemently attacking this promotion could instead attack the serious racial problems that exist OUTSIDE of North America. Compared to the rest of the planet, North America is currently a bastion of tolerance and acceptance.
No, it’s just lazy comedy.
Compared to Rwanda, America is heaven. So what? We live here, we improve here.