I think it’s you’re imagination and you’re overlooking how much progress South Asians have made in Hollywood, especially in comparison to other groups. The past 5 years have been great for us and we’re seeing more brown faces on the big screen and primetime than ever. I have worked with a Southern California based Asian-American Film/Media Foundation as a staff and board member for the past 9 years. I was President of the Asian Student organization at my university and your blog reminds me of how reactive I was and how my org used to get all “Ra-Ra-Sis-Boom-Ba” anytime the media misrepresented Asians. Sometimes our reactions would get flat out ridiculous. Koreans would bicker about Parry Chen, a Chinese-American actor playing a Korean, etc… and I would even read blog rants about White guy playing a Brown guy etc…

I also severed as the only South Asian board member for two city-wide non-profits that focused on the advancement of Asian-American affairs, so I feel I’m qualified to make this next opinion. It might come across brash and jaded, but Karen Narasaki claiming that the efforts of organization’s like hers and MANAA reminds me of the crime rate story from Freakanomics. Where Giuliani and other politicians claimed their efforts dropped crime, when abortion was the ugly truth. There are so many hidden factors to why South Asian’s are rising in Hollywood and from an Asian-American activist’s point-of-view I don’t think, “the rise in primetime Asians is also the result of advocacy.” In fact, I’ve learned that all the advocacy our yellow brothers and sisters do is counter productive and makes networks overly sensitive and feel like they have to walk on egg shells to cast Asians. Why? Because XYZ Casting Director/Writer remembers the “last time” they created an “Asian” role for that one “show,” and made him do that one “thing” the writer’s thought would be “funny,” but instead it got a bunch of angry Asian people holding up signs in the parking lot and spreading hate messages and complaints on the web.

I might come across too bold in this next claim, but my theory is the rise of South Asians in Hollywood is primarily the result of 2 factors: South Asian-American apathy and South Asian’s prevalence/relevance in modern America. Our lack of involvement in media empowerment and South Asian viewers passively consuming content without making a fuss has allowed South Asian actors to take on years of stereotypical roles in stride (we paid our dues). Without having a bunch angry brown faces criticizing their work (Outsourced) & rallying up every time a hindu cow joke is cracked has made us a less riskier and annoying group to work with. Of course, I’m not discounting other factors like a domino effect (one project’s success leads to another) and sociological factors like the position and mysticism of India in the minds of the west (Vijay Prashad – Karma of Brown Folk).

For the 2nd factor, I completely agree with Nina Shen’s point in the Slate article, “More Indians in the fabric of American life means we’re more likely to be a source of inspiration for non-Indian writers, like the two Jewish guys from suburban New Jersey who wrote Harold and Kumar—” South Asians have become more prevalent in modern America and have in some way shape or form have had interactions and influenced people who make Hollywood go round. We were either in their writing classes, dorm roomies at Columbia, Harvard etc… hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs, supervisors, network administrators, etc… And for whatever historical, socio-political, cultural & immigration reasons that made the cosmos align, we have penetrated White America more than any other minority group. My organization hosted a discussion panel with the writers of Harold and Kumar, and their idea came simply from having two stoner room mates like Harold and Kumar.

I think it’s you’re imagination and you’re overlooking how much progress South Asians have made in Hollywood, especially in comparison to other groups. The past 5 years have been great for us and we’re seeing more brown faces on the big screen and primetime than ever. I have worked with a Southern California based Asian-American Film/Media Foundation as a staff and board member for the past 9 years. I was President of the Asian Student organization at my university and your blog reminds me of how reactive I was and how my org used to get all “Ra-Ra-Sis-Boom-Ba” anytime the media misrepresented Asians. Sometimes our reactions would get flat out ridiculous. Koreans would bicker about Parry Chen, a Chinese-American actor playing a Korean, etc… and I would even read blog rants about White guy playing a Brown guy etc…

I also severed as the only South Asian board member for two city-wide non-profits that focused on the advancement of Asian-American affairs, so I feel I’m qualified to make this next opinion. It might come across brash and jaded, but Karen Narasaki claiming that the efforts of organization’s like hers and MANAA reminds me of the crime rate story from Freakanomics. Where Giuliani and other politicians claimed their efforts dropped crime, when abortion was the ugly truth. There are so many hidden factors to why South Asian’s are rising in Hollywood and from an Asian-American activist’s point-of-view I don’t think, “the rise in primetime Asians is also the result of advocacy.” In fact, I’ve learned that all the advocacy our yellow brothers and sisters do is counter productive and makes networks overly sensitive and feel like they have to walk on egg shells to cast Asians. Why? Because XYZ Casting Director/Writer remembers the “last time” they created an “Asian” role for that one “show,” and made him do that one “thing” the writer’s thought would be “funny,” but instead it got a bunch of angry Asian people holding up signs in the parking lot and spreading hate messages and complaints on the web.

I might come across too bold in this next claim, but my theory is the rise of South Asians in Hollywood is primarily the result of 2 factors: South Asian-American apathy and South Asian’s prevalence/relevance in modern America. Our lack of involvement in media empowerment and South Asian viewers passively consuming content without making a fuss has allowed South Asian actors to take on years of stereotypical roles in stride (we paid our dues). Without having a bunch angry brown faces criticizing their work (Outsourced) & rallying up every time a hindu cow joke is cracked has made us a less riskier and annoying group to work with. Of course, I’m not discounting other factors like a domino effect (one project’s success leads to another) and sociological factors like the position and mysticism of India in the minds of the west (Vijay Prashad – Karma of Brown Folk).

For the 2nd factor, I completely agree with Nina Shen’s point in the Slate article, “More Indians in the fabric of American life means we’re more likely to be a source of inspiration for non-Indian writers, like the two Jewish guys from suburban New Jersey who wrote Harold and Kumar—” South Asians have become more prevalent in modern America and have in some way shape or form have had interactions and influenced people who make Hollywood go round. We were either in their writing classes, dorm roomies at Columbia, Harvard etc… hedge fund managers, entrepreneurs, supervisors, network administrators, etc… And for whatever historical, socio-political, cultural & immigration reasons that made the cosmos align, we have penetrated White America more than any other minority group. My organization hosted a discussion panel with the writers of Harold and Kumar, and their idea came simply from having two stoner room mates like Harold and Kumar.

Technically, the equivalent for negroid and mongoloid is caucasoid. While your complaint against caucasian usage is legit, negroid and mongoloid weren’t used in the past as simple identification, they were used disparagingly, and hence that’s why they aren’t used now currently. Caucasian has no such negative component to it.

Secondly, I wonder if you throw a hissy-fit every time the word “anti-Semitic” is used to describe anti-jewish thinking, as we all know, Semitic is a language stock, referring to a language class inclusive of Arabic, among others, of course the word itself derives from the Biblical city of “Shem” This is a clear misuse of the word then, if we use it to refer to anti-Jewish thinking, any self-professed historical, anthropological language maven like yourself would surely ascend to the highest soapbox and throw a hoot-n-nanny every time such drivel was uttered.

So it’s used for a purpose, in any context (where it’s the pseudoscience of Census methods of ‘describing’ or whether it’s for any other reason). If someone uses it to illustrate that all of these labels originate from the racist system of categorization that Razib alluded to above, I can deal with that. If someone uses it to express disdain towards White people, I don’t think that would be okay, because I think it’s just an inappropriate way of speaking about race – and it’s hard enough as it is for us as nonWhite people without confusing matters further!

Is the C* word only to be used in a medical setting and research and inappropriate outside of it? So many medical researchers still use that term. Does the c word have the status of the words v**a and p****s? (Or are many medical researchers insensitive to whites? Which is highly doubtful.)

I’ve never used the word Caucasian to describe someone and have never heard it used by anyone.

I dunno…I heard they used a Bong to write it.

Ha ha, very funny.