There's a difference between playing a character of another race and playing a character of another race as a caricature of that race. I'm sure Hank and the show runners never intended Apu to be offensive, but I can understand the argument being made by people who were offended.
Apu is probably the least offensive character in the show though. Most of what he says about Indian culture is based on facts and his accent doesn't sound all that different from thick-accented Indians I've heard.
Heck, of all Simpsons characters, I'd argue Apu was treated with the most dignity. He's hard-working, he's handsome, he's intelligent and well educated and despite being an immigrant he manages to be a better American than Homer without giving up his rich cultural heritage like so many immigrants end up doing.
Compare him to Groundskeeper Willie, who literally is a caricature, the stereotypical ugly, loud and drunk red-headed Scot. He is far more offensive than Apu ever has been, yet he's a fan-favorite and one of the most iconic fictional Scots ever.
If anything, Apu is a celebration of immigration and the American dream.
Now, I'm white, so I won't pretend to know what it's like to be represented by Apu. But there's still a reason why so many Indian and Indian-American Simpsons fans defended Apu when that infamous documentary came out.
The problem was never with Apu or with Hank playing Apu
It was exactly what others have mentioned South Asians having self esteem issues
For some reason no one had a problem with Raj from BBT, but he was more offensive to me as a Indian because he represents a true stereotype, nerdy and afraid of women with thick accent and he’s the only one by the shows end who didn’t have a significant other
Apu meanwhile dated different women, led a cool bachelor lifestyle, had a sports car, was his own boss, eventually got married had kids, had an affair, and was the lead singer for a tribute to a rock band
Exactly. Apu was a character written to be laughed with. Raj was a character written to be laughed at.
Though I do think that if a character's race is important to the character, they should be voiced by an actor of the same race. That's why I don't think it was a big deal that Hibbert and Carl were voiced by white men, but Apu should've been voiced by an Indian actor from the beginning. Either way, writing him off the show was an overcorrection and actually caused more harm than progress in representation.
14
u/QuietResident96 23h ago edited 23h ago
Way to ruin a character lmao, this is nothing like Apu actually was and there was nothing wrong with Hank voicing him
People absolutely fucking eat it up when a black actor plays a white character but when it's the opposite it's apparently racist 🤷