Whose Stories Are They?
February 8th, 2008
One of us might be around here somewhere…
[Blogger: S.I.] Being an aspiring multi-hyphenate in Hollywood and the entertainment industry (and not a corporate suit), I naturally feel for the writers’ plight and support the WGA strike. Maybe not every stance, but on the whole, absolutely.
To this end, I grabbed a sign and joined the scribes for a picketing session at the Fox lot. A strong contingent showed up at 8am, marching around the various entrances, garnering honks of support from passing cars and those entering the lot. For anyone planning on picketing, a public safety message: most of the honks came from the talent entrance, as that’s where actors and current or future SAG members (SAG is aligned with the WGA) drive on to the lot. The employee entrance, on the other hand, was more like a hit-and-run waiting to happen. You’ve been warned.
How often have you wondered why there are so few shows that deal with stories of minorities? People in positions like us (or even close to us)? Or why the few Indians seem to be such cardboard cutouts? Or why you’re shocked when you see a brown character at all, let alone a desi who is an interesting person?
I can answer this: because the vast, vast majority of Hollywood writers are… bet you didn’t see this one coming… tabla roll, please…
As this official report (.pdf) will show you, that’s the biggest Hollywood cliché of all.
My friend Walter and I comprised the darkest pair of WGA groupies, as I’m brown and he’s black. But that in no way unnerved us, as we expected there would be fewer persons of color at a rally such as this.
We were not, however, prepared for how on-the-nose (to steal a popular Hollywood term) this strike episode broke down.
As the picketers marched back and forth across the entrance, it was apparent that whoever wrote this plot wasn’t original. He never deviated from the formula. Nearly every demonstrator was a white male over 30 years old. The story started and ended with white males, both Jewish and non-Jewish. And they sandwiched more white male plot points. You could see that coming a mile away.
Once in a while, a woman crossed our paths. But that was to keep the female demographic engaged. I did see a handful of black males other than Walter. The producers knew the story had to feel “fresh” and different from all the other strike scripts floating out there. Hey, the urban market is growing every day. There were even a couple of Asians (literally, two), probably to bolster international appeal.
And, out of these dozens of writers, there actually was one Indian. And it wasn’t me.
Right away, I had a 1-in-3 chance of correctly guessing his identity. That’s because there are only three male Indian writers in Hollywood who I can confirm exist. Naren Shankar (television writer for CSI), Sunil Nayar (TV writer for CSI: Miami), and Jay Chandrasekhar (feature film writer and director from the Broken Lizard comedy troupe). And me, aspiring to be the fourth. Fifth technically, if you count M. Night Shyamalan. But he doesn’t live in LA and wouldn’t come out here for this, and I’m only counting the LA metro area.
I can comment only on the racial and gender diversity, as I couldn’t tell who was gay or straight, and I didn’t see anyone with any noticeable handicap. But I trust the WGA’s diversity assessment more than ever, as the demographics of the picketers were formulaic and right off the page, just like every other hackneyed Hollywood story.
This is why you never hear stories that really remind you of your life. Why you might have laughed at “Friends” while noticing something was amiss (maybe it’s because they found the one part of New York City that had no racial minorities). Why “Apu” is not only the most famous, but also most well-rounded Indian character on TV (within the context of “The Simpsons,” anyway).
Yes, things are changing. We have more Indian writers than ever before, with scribe-actress-producer Mindy Kaling (Chokalingam) of “The Office” among them. There are more desi characters on TV–rather, there are more characters who happen to be desi (don’t get me started on “Lost” and our Iraqi brown brother). You can check out our earlier review of “Aliens in America” to find out more. Hey, we’re a small portion of the US population, so I don’t expect us to be all over the place. A few portrayals would be a strong start.
But while “Grey’s Anatomy” has every color doctor but brown as a main character, and the only Indian doctors on TV are extras or Parminder Nagra (can’t even be an Indo American doctor), and the fact that I’m limited to talking about Indians as doctors on TV because that and “terrorist” are our two main choices…
If you want things to change, and if you want reasonable and realistic portrayals, whether good guys or bad guys, male or female, hot or ugly, smart or stupid–we’ll have to encourage some of our people to seek employment somewhere other than medicine, money, or material science. For now, I’ll do my best.
Meanwhile, to answer the first question and title of this post: depends on who’s telling them.
Tags: Assimilation Issues, Film, Jay Chandrasekhar, Los Angeles Life, M. Night Shyamalan, Mindy Kaling, Naren Shankar, Parminder Nagra, SAG, Sunil Nayar, TV, WGA
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February 8th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
excellent points, simple but often overlooked. why would anyone represent us accurately? it in no way benefits them (the potential uptick in a south asian audience would have no discernible effect on their ratings or bottom line). the onus of social responsibility to show south asians in a more real light is only on us.
February 9th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
would be nice to see an Indo badass who was NOT a terrorist.
February 12th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
strike is over. back to the same old shows that have nothing to do with us. unless they renew aliens in america.
April 7th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
“I can answer this: because the vast, vast majority of Hollywood writers are… bet you didn’t see this one coming… tabla roll, please…
White males.”
You mean white jewish males, to be exact.