Mindy Kaling is not my representation.

to talk about Mindy Kaling no we don't the issue isn't Mindy Kaling or her taste or her preferences she's been pretty consistent and vocal about it for years and the South Asian Community knew and we did not care you you're becoming very predictable and is becoming very blatantly obvious that you hate yourself and you for some reason don't like being Indian I don't think it's therapy I think representation matters so much and I think in Hollywood has been such a problem so thank you for what you're doing yes and all of her roles are meant to portray a stereotype of a South Asian woman who has trouble with her own culture and her own identity but what ends up happening is her roles are a mockery of that okay so today our topic of discussion is Mindy Kaling no we're not going to do personal attacks here so we're not going to talk about her alleged very sudden ozemptic weight loss nor are we gonna try to drag her brother for posing as African-American to try to get to College although we should now Mindy received a lot of hate when Velma came out and I unfortunately think that it was rightfully so because it was at that point that everything sort of overflowed for her like maybe things were building up but this was when it was just way too much and the criticism really started to pour in so today I want to go into Mindy's body of work and why I think her representation of brown girls in TV has been absolutely problematic and we're gonna go into some criticisms hi guys my name is Israel welcome back to my channel so first let's talk a little bit about Mindy's background because I find that that is always very important so going into a little bit of Wikipedia research I found out that Vera Mindy chokolingum was born in Cambridge Massachusetts to her father and architect and mother and OB GYN kaling's parents are from India and met while working at the same Hospital in Nigeria where her father was overseeing the building of a hospital wing and her mother was working as an OB GYN isn't that super cute anyway the family immigrated to the United States in 1979 the same year Kaling was born Kailyn graduated from Buckingham Brown and Nichols a private school in Cambridge in 1997. the following year she entered Dartmouth College graduating in 2001. now I looked into her private school bbnn just to get a better idea of what the racial demographics and the breakdowns look like for for that school unfortunately I could not find any numbers on it but I did find this statement we acknowledge that historically Independent Schools were not built as inclusive institutions they provided opportunities to members of the community with privileged identities while denying people of historically marginalized identities therefore we are tasked with dismantling the Traditions that Rafi systems that create inequity so we can't say for sure but maybe we can assume that back in the day when Mindy attended the racial demographics or the breakdowns were not very diverse and maybe this was going to lead into some of her experiences and how she projected those into her future work now everybody knows how Mindy Kaling came onto the scene the most iconic character ever Kelly Kapoor do you have a question Kelly yeah I have a lot of questions number one how dare he is now we all know that the office was just as much hilarious as it was offensive but I think it was hilarious and offensive as a whole towards everybody you know universally offensive if you will and I honestly think it was one of the greatest shows greatest comedies of its time and that's important it's time you know you know like the Diwali song like why do we not have a full length cut extended version of that song yet like iconic so for Mindy's per Trail everybody knows that Kelly Kapoor was this Indian girl that grew up in the United States that had little to no knowledge or was not in touch with her Indian roots and that's okay for one single character depiction she doesn't have to be now the show primarily focused on her very toxic relationship with Ryan and throughout the show Kelly is obviously very much obsessed with Ryan her life sort of revolves around him and Ryan likes her too but the thing in the show was that he always expressed it in a very hinted way in a sort of like a like he was sort of like in denial about his feelings towards Kelly like he wanted Kelly to be his like little secret and as such for this particular relationship I definitely did not have any issues with Mindy killing's portrayal of Kelly because you know we've seen a lot of like toxic abusive like crazy relationships on TV this was supposed to be a comedy and again this was one single character depiction and the first one that came from Mindy but back then what I thought was like a funny toxic relationship you know just like one single character portrayal it still had some of those subtle elements that maybe you didn't give them much thought back then but they would be portrayed Amplified highlighted and up front and center in all of Mindy's work to come so while doing research for this video I actually found out that The Mindy Project was actually supposed to be called it's messy and boy was that assigned to come and when this show came out I was actually like really really excited for it I was like you know what finally we have a show that's that a brown girl is like up front and center you know it's gonna revolve around her you know finding love her life you know it's going to be light-hearted a comedy fantastic sign me up but it was on this same show that I really started to see some issues and how they were highlighted and how they were repeating first and foremost just like in the office it really seems like Mindy's white male leads just cannot start off liking her like they all have to hate her up front and then slowly slowly slowly they warm up to her it's almost like they're like oh my gosh no these feelings can't exist these feelings exist for a brown woman how is this possible and again in The Mindy Project just like in the office the relation ship she has with her male lead is very off and on off and on like nothing is stable everything's drama I mean that's fine I guess uh repetitive obviously but you know whatever the off and on part it is what it is but here's the bigger issue right not only at this point are all of her male leads white when she's in the off period with her relationship with her male lead every single guy that Mindy now goes on to date is white they're all white they're all white and I explicitly remember because I watched this show and gave it a proper chance for some time that there was this one episode where she does go on a date with a person of color or an Indian guy and this is what happens you're the first Indian guy I've ever gone on a date with no I'm serious I don't think I can get a coconuts no because you're Brown on the outside and white on the inside now I started watching the sex life of college girls because I'm always on the hunt for shows like sex in the city and insecure both of which are my absolute favorite so I tried the sex lives of college girls I'm just giving Mindy another chance because I'm like you know what why not okay maybe the office has one sort of portrayal she wasn't in control then maybe The Mindy Project she has all her white male leads maybe something else will change maybe maybe we should give this another chance right and once again the Indian girl that is portrayed in this show is like the least likable character on the entire show she's an absolute mess four months ago I was an Indian loser with cystic acne sweaty armpits and glasses she's self-sabotaging again has this off and on relationship with her white male love interest and literally at this point it just felt like if you've seen one Mindy Kaling show you've probably seen all of them her Brown female representation at this point was like solidified for me okay they're all weak and they really really need validation from their white male love interest actually what we need to address is the fact that she never casts a South Asian man as a romantic lead in any one of her shows like it's so unbelievable that any of her characters would find them attractive now wear it all overflowed like I said earlier in the video was actually Velma and I personally will will say that I did not watch Velma because I got around to seeing the criticisms of the show from other creators on Tick Tock before I even was able to give the show a chance so I'm going to show you some of the clips that I saw and I'm gonna let you guys make your own assumptions hey watch where you're going jerk oh hey Fred I have a disease where I can't recognize people who aren't hot I will say this okay as a person who was in extreme Scooby-Doo fan growing up like I used to watch all the episodes all the Mysteries the way that Velma at least I think was portrayed based on these clips is beyond disappointing like Velma was a phenomenal character like she was the brain of the entire gang right if it weren't for her like none of the Scooby-Doo Mysteries would ever get solved and it was just like it was just a massive opportunity and an epic character and here's the thing every single time there's an opportunity for an epic character to be played by a person of color which again because all epic characters up until now are usually white that's fine it's very rare that these opportunities are awarded to people of color anyway and so it becomes a bigger responsibility unfortunately for the team that's portraying the character to do it right when I saw the clips of Velma like it was like a gut punch okay because I was like this is just so disappointing like how the hell do you manage to turn the brain of the Scooby-Doo gang into a weak weak character and Fred the nicest guy in the gang he's supposed to be known as this helper like the friendliest guy ever he's the one that's bullying Velma I mean there's there's a pattern here unfortunately like Ryan was toxic to Kelly and now Fred like the nicest guy on the planet is now bullying Velma even though they're part of the same gang like make it make sense so I think that by the time that Velma was portrayed it was long overdue like we had seen the trends up until now and when Velma happened I think all the criticism that did come from Mindy unfortunately in my opinion yeah Justified so now I want to talk about how in my opinion it should be done and by the way it has been done on how Brown women should be represented in TV and a massive big shout out to Shonda Rhimes my girl for making it happen okay by the way she also went to Dartmouth just like Mindy so she did something right when she represented the brown girlies real nicely in Bridgerton now funny enough season 2 of Bridgerton also starts off with Kate and Anthony like not really liking each other but this time there's a massive difference and in the depiction of this female Brown character Everything Changes now while Mindy has always shown her characters to be very weak bullied um you know almost always trying to seek validation from those around them especially their white male love interests Shonda Rhimes depiction of Kate is absolutely different in every way possible okay Kate is bright she's Fierce she's strong and she does not give a about anybody's opinion when it comes to her and that includes Anthony her love interest she's said to be a spinster she doesn't care right and she speaks her true mind to Anthony and that sort of a depiction is a far cry from anything that Mindy has done in her work and the best part about all of this is that when Shonda Rhimes cast these two female leads you know Edwina and Kate Sharma they are both dark-skinned girls which is just absolutely fantastic because Bridgerton shows these dark-skinned brown girls to be desirable to be beautiful to be fierce to be independent to not care if whether you're a dispenser or not even in a show um where it's literally all about finding love Kate doesn't care and the most important thing is that they are shown to be worthy and equal to everybody else that surrounds them to the point where Edwina Sharma is named The Season's Diamond how nice I mean I don't even care about the details of the show at that point because if you you show Brown women to be all of the above you've done something right already and it's a great first step in a great depiction which we frankly have not seen and we don't see very often at all and this is ignoring the fact that Anthony was like a somewhat toxic character from season one going into season two I am willing to ignore all of that because you portray Kate to be strong and independent and she decides to choose the toxic guy that's her choice you can do what she wants and that's how Shonda Rhimes portrays her that is a huge step forward and something that I frankly have never seen Mindy do in any of her work I will have more on Bridgerton when the new season comes out in May so watch out for that but honestly for now season two the way that Edwina and Kate were depicted in my opinion it was done right now speaking from personal experience as a brown girl that's lived in both Pakistan as well as the United States um I unfortunately or fortunately actually I could never relate to any of the characters that Mindy has ever portrayed in any of her work a lot of the crucial uh growing up years of my life I did spend in Pakistan those were my high school years and that's that's the chunk of my life that I actually did live in Pakistan and I was a nerd a surprise surprise but I have never in my life once felt like a loser for being a nerd I will be upfront and say very proudly that in high school I was the smartest girl in my class and never once did I feel ashamed about that why why like that was a point of Pride for me like why would I ever be ashamed of being a nerd but was one of the reasons that I honestly you know was so self-confident because my transformative years or my growing up years or my very critical years I was surrounded by other people that looked like me but here's the thing the concepts of beauty and colorism and like the cool girl versus the nerdy girl they all still existed in the high school in Pakistan and I really wonder when it comes to Mindy like how much of that was internal for her versus how much of that was environmental or external or caused by the people around her to maybe feel the way she felt to where she needed to portray her characters based on you know her own experiences I haven't grown up in a majority White Community hated my culture it took years I'm a second year in college now to feel like I could speak with members of the Indian Community freely so I want to make a further point which I think is pretty critical and it's on colorism right in my video on pretty privilege I talk about this one dark-skinned brown girl who said that she dated white guys maybe potentially because she was not pursued by brown guys as much as light-skinned girls would be and I wonder if such was the case for Mindy now color is system is prevalent and unfortunately a very deeply ingrained problem within South Asian culture so say if Mindy was only being hit on by white guys instead of brown guys right could that be one of the reasons why all of her male leads in her shows were white but the thing here again is that it is okay to have a preference like if you like white guys okay that's great there's nothing wrong with that but do all of your male leads have to be white all of them and because that's the case could it be a direct product of the colorism that Mindy may have faced while she was growing up as a dark-skinned brown girl in her own Society now if you've grown up primarily in a white Society it would make sense as a person of color that you might not think that you fit in and it would especially be the case if you've been stereotyped or bullied or people have made you feel less than it would absolutely be the case that you would want to feel validated and on top of that if you are a little bit nerdy or you feel like a dork it would make sense that you would want validation from those around you like doesn't everybody want to be the cool girl the pretty cool girl in her class like obviously wanting to fit in is absolutely human now say for example that that's your experience and you want to portray it on a show called never have I ever and you do an actual okay decent-ish job on that right that's great but then why do you have to repeat the same storyline over and over and over again and keep depicting that same Trope of your brown female lead feeling insecure feeling nerdy feeling dorky feeling like she's been bullied feeling like she's been stereotyped and wanting to seek validation consistently from those around her especially the dude that she has a crush on and he's white lo and behold I am confident that this is the case because Mindy writes only from her perspective and if that is the case unfortunately it is incredibly narrow not all brown women across the world have the same experiences a lot of the experiences may be shared but a lot of them aren't and so do all of your shows have to be written from that one perspective that you have a lot of brown women are very strong they're doing fantastic things and they're often silenced and here Mindy has a platform from where she can stand and speak speak and yell and this is the same weak character that we get over and over and over again does anyone else notice moments like this at the Oscars the elephant Whispers one best documentary short film hertiki and the Indian woman stepped up spoke about 43 seconds saying her thank yous talked about coexistence when her producer gunite steps up to say a few words immediately she gets met with that music of Shame telling her to get off the stage [Applause] [Music] ouch right afterwards The Fox and the horse won best animated short film so the filmmakers two white British men except the award Matthew speaks for 42 seconds graciously accepting the award on behalf of his counterparts thanks his family cool right this time Charlie wants to speak too but when he steps up no music embarrassing moments he gets to speak what's the difference this was back to back why is the Indian woman silenced in the white British man gets to say whatever he wants to say does her accent make you feel uncomfortable do you assume people don't want to hear what she has to say it's worth thinking about if she did have a chance you might have heard this tonight is historic this is the first Oscar for any Indian production and two women here won this I just want to say to all of you watching the future is audacious and the future is us and the future is here thank you when you're given the opportunity that your voice is the one that's heard it is important that you say the right thing there is a measly amount of Indian representation in Hollywood and Pakistan just forget about it it's like non-existent right so when you do have a person of color a South Asian that now has a platform and now can portray characters any way they like or at least to some extent right of course there's going to be an expectation from that person and naturally it's gonna be high I don't think that the burden of representation should be on one person's shoulders but you know that you have a platform so you have to be responsible with it right the dollars Michael Ryan David I don't care if Ryan murdered his entire family so I kind of really hate this example because there are a lot of white dads out there in media um so Family Guy doesn't have the burden of uh dispelling stereotypes and all these other things so when you as a brown person get an opportunity to tell a story you have to be mindful of the fact that if you lean on a a certain story type it becomes a negative stereotype if it is a negative story which hating yourself is come on there's no like and ifs or buts about that so for her to lean on this brown girl hating herself Trope so much it's poor writing that's just it and every artist should be able to take a critique like that's just that's how it is you should be able to critique art and at the minimum you should try to diversify the type of content that you create not even for say brown people for example for your own career like don't you want to do different things try different experiments try different characters different story lines I definitely think that with time you have to to change right so like I said the office was a fantastic show for its time I personally think it's still a very good show today but at the same time I'm not sure how it would be received if it were released today right while the rest of us have changed and grown with times Mindy and her work unfortunately happened as such I critique Mindy not to attack her by any means but it's more like a plea to please take this criticism to be constructive Mindy is still working she still has a platform she probably has a very nice decent career in front of us if there aren't any more mistakes in the future right as such she still has an opportunity to make things right diversify your perspective of the brown woman show her in other lights than just being weak and insecure and you know hairy or you know not attractive or whatever else you know like all these things that you have portrayed her as in the past show her to be strong and crazy easy evil Angelic girl boss Homemaker show her to be 50 different things because Brown women across the world are so many different things show us to be glamorous show us to be spinsters show us to be villains I don't know show us to be different things show us to just not be weak and bullied and unattractive and freaking seeking validation from others all the time just for once women of color are so many things and not just one narrow perspective Mindy is currently writing Legally Blonde three and I definitely think she's gonna do justice to that character so please for once do justice to the brown girl representation alright you guys if you like this video give it a thumbs up subscribe uh share your opinions in the comment section below I would love to hear them I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you in the next one

Channel: brownfireball

Views: 156,791

Keywords: mindy kaling is not my representation, the mindy kaling problem, mindy kaling's representation of south asians is problematic, internalized racism, colorism, is mindy kaling obsessed with white guys, criticism of mindy kaling's body of work, is mindy kaling the indian loser

Id: NSS2SQJdX7o

Length: 24min 4sec (1444 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 05 2023