If you’re looking for a new show on Netflix and haven’t seen Master of None yet, give it a shot. Aziz Ansari takes on tough topics like sexism, diversity and aging with funny, poignant stories that ring true. The show has been renewed for a second season, filming now, which unfortunately won’t be out until next year. As part of his promotion for the show last year, Ansari talked about the issues he covers stereotypes, sexual harassment and lighter topics like dating and romance. Ansari was at a New York Times symposium last week, where he said Hollywood still had a long way to go towards more diversity in film:
Aziz Ansari, speaking Friday night at The New York Times’ TimesTalks in New York City, had a one-word assessment of Hollywood’s progress on diversity.
“When people like ask me, ‘Do you think like the diversity stuff is getting better?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ ”
For example? Nicholas Sparks movies.
“There’s a poster right outside our writer’s room, it’s one of those Nicholas Sparks books where it’s just two white people just staring at each other,” the Master of None creator and star said. “It’s like, there’s been 20 of those movies – not once is it a black woman staring into a guy’s eyes.”
“You know, everyone has romance in their lives,” Ansari said. “It’s strange that every time it’s two white people falling in love.”
TV isn’t immune to this problem, either: “I looked at some lineup of like new shows and it’s like, MacGyver, Training Day with a white guy – what are we doing?”
Writer’s rooms can be the same, he said. “You have a writer’s room and someone’s like, ‘Well let’s hire one black guy or one woman to be in this writer’s room.’ And it’s like, no you should hire a couple.”
The bottom line, according to Ansari (who has tackled racial subjects before): “There’s not enough protagonists that look different.”
“Excuses get so tiresome and I think everyone’s seen through the bulls—,” Ansari said. “‘There’s just no stars that look like that.’ Well how come you find the white guy stars? You make it happen for people that look a certain way … And the people that are part of the system, they know how to make someone famous, they just don’t do it for people who [don’t] look a certain way.”
What Ansari said he has seen a lot of is “window-dressing diversity” – “where someone looks at the cast and they’re like, ‘Damn that’s a lot white people, ummm, what if Ludacris is the friend? What if we just get an Indian guy and throw him in there?’ And that doesn’t really solve the problem.
“Make the main person someone that looks different then the person that’s always a main person,” Ansari said.
Ansari tackled this issue of the minority best friend/sidekick on Master of None, in the episode Indians on TV. (FYI: You don’t have to watch every episode of this show in order as most of them are capsule episodes.) Indian (and Asian) characters are still sometimes played by white people in brownface (or yellowface), which is ridiculous. This should not be happening. When an Indian actor gets screen time, they’re often relegated to a secondary role. This extends to other minorities, and as Ansari pointed out it’s rare to see romcoms with minority leads. It’s always about white people.
In that episode of Master of None, Aziz and an an actor friend were in competition for a role because the show only called for one Indian castmember. Ansari was told that they both wouldn’t fit because the audience would assume it was an “Indian show” with two Indian guys on it. He countered that “Every show has two white people. People don’t watch ‘True Detective’ and go ‘oh, there’s that white detective show!” It’s the same for romcoms. Wouldn’t it be nice to just see a mixed race or minority couple star in a romcom and not have the movie deal extensively with race? That’s just the reality and Hollywood needs to catch up.
photos credit: WENN.com and Getty
He nailed it completely.
He can do a documentary about he and his girlfriend and see if people would go and see it. If he made money it would be in his pocket and he could see how a movie executive feels.
I am guessing your point is that people don’t want to see a movie with non-white people. Hitch and Think Like a Man made BANK. The Fast/Furious series is printing money.
Separately, if white people are going to say that they won’t see a movie with non-white people, y’all can’t get pissy when the rest of us call white people racist.
Could you elaborate on what you’re saying here?
WTF!? Are you really saying what I think you’re saying? Great, a ragey start to my day…..grrrrrrrr………
…ok cause POCs never make movies that make money.
Yawn, this tired old debunked argument again. Please scoot.
one I am pretty sure his girlfriend in real life (if this is what you are referring to) is white not that it matters.
And two, as a white person I constantly go to movies and watch TV shows that star minorities. I have zero desire to watch a show or film that doesn’t have a cast that reflect real society.
wasn’t like Straight Outta Compton a big success?
Agree except there have been black Romcoms. Like love and basketball or love jones or something new. Just not many …
Definitely not enough. Gina Prince-Bythewood wrote and directed Love and Basketball, Secret Life of Bees, and Beyond the Lights. She is insanely talented and intelligent and wonderful. We need more filmmakers like that and fewer Michael Bay’s.
Yes. There aren’t nearly enough romcons that feature diverse casting.
Completely unrelated, but I just found out through a mutual friend that Aziz’s co-writer on the show (Alan Yang, pictured above) is the same Alan that I went to high school with and was my mentor as a pretrial attorney in mock trial. Graduated as a sophomore in high school and scored a perfect 1600 on the SATS. Which is a long way of saying it’s an intelligently written and wry comedy that I highly recommend.
Isn’t it weird when you see people on tv or whatever that you knew before. I almost spit out my drink the other day when looper or some random youtube channel referenced a guy I went to University with… in small town Nova Scotia. When I googled him it brought up a ton of stuff like “Top 10 bloggers right now” or random things like that. I couldn’t believe it.
Wow. How very cool. And sounds like Yang is even more impressive than I realized. I really enjoy the show and completely agree with your description.
Cool! I think he was also a writer on Parks & Rec, which I loved so much.
I saw a uni friend of my on Jon Stewart hawking a political book and it made me inordinently excited! I felt that the snogging we’d done in the past had somehow contributed to his success!
Anniefannie thank you for such a charmingly funny comment!
Only 2 white people falling in love? Except in the highest rated show Scandal where a white President and a black leading woman fall in love. Or the black/white couple on Happy Endings, or the white man/hispanic woman on Modern Family, or the Indian star of The Mindy Project,…etc. This argument is tired.
TV is not movies. And all movies are not studio movies. Defensiveness over a white status quo is tired.
perfectly said greenieweenie
What he also said on show was if you put two out of 3 friends to be black then ppl assume its a ‘black’ show
Because it IS!
But when you have an all-white cast it’s just “a show”, right?
Why can’t their race just be inconsequential?
Why does it have to be considered a “black” show? I would hazard a guess that most of us have friends of different races, creeds, and colors. That’s life. It’s neither black nor white nor whatever. it’s life.
Wow that is just sad and what do you mean when you say it is a “black” show? Does that mean I can’t watch it? Because have to tell you I love Blackish and I don’t want to have to stop because of racists on the internet.
RME
What about new girl, when coach was still on that show half the main cast was POC. And it was great to see that kind of diversity and mixing of couples. Cece is indian but it’s not an issue in her relationship with Schmitt it just is. That show has gone completely off the rails, but on integrating diverse characters in a completely organic and engaging way, they get an A++.
He’s right, I always enjoy his thoughts on diversity. There’s usually that one token black person in movies and if we’re lucky, you’ll see an Asian character. That’s how diverse Hollywood is in 2016.
And that Asian character is usually played by someone who’s mixed race in an attempt to placate viewers of colour, but also make sure that the white people don’t feel uncomfortable. Because heaven forbid we white folk relate to a character whose features are a little different than ours! I mean, I can relate to movie characters who are lions, aliens, robots, fish, and even monsters, but as soon as a black or Asian HUMAN character appears on my screen, I just don’t know what to do!
I hope the sarcasm in that response is crystal clear. 😉
I just love him. And master of none is amazing. I love the chemistry him and him girlfriend on the show had, they were so sweet.
I love all of this, especially the part about window-dressing. I always use the Fantastic Four reboot as an example of that. How about instead of altering the source material by making Human Torch and Susan Storm “adopted siblings” — why not just hire a black actress for Susan Storm too? But Hollywood would NEVER make a movie’s sole female protagonist a black woman. Or half the main cast non-white.
So instead you get vague slivers of ‘diversity’, which usually means tossing a black actor into a supporting role and claiming you’re forward-thinking or whatever.
Also Master of None is fabulous, everyone should watch it.
Hell yeah aziz! So well put. And I’m so happy he’s speaking out about this. He’s so brave because hollywood could turn around and just stop hiring him, but don’t worry, social media has your back aziz!
This was posted yesterday but then vanished? Anyway, his assessment is spot on. I’m waiting for someone in Hollywood to acknowledge he’s right, say they’re working on it, then let the buzz die down and return to the status quo.
–TheRealPinky
Agreed, and diversity has to happen right from the start. I’m working on a novel right now, and I am being bery careful about names and description of chatacters to really try and avoid the hollywood default: the world is so diverse, it’s so sad that we still limit ourselves so much with such a narrow worldview.
He is completely on point about all of this. I highly recommend his show, I thought it was excellent.
I do think diversity has improved somewhat on television, though it still is a long way to go, but at least it’s better than the mainstream film industry.
I’m noticing it in commercials of all places. I’ve seen mixed race couples, gay couples, minority couples, etc. for more recently than I’ve ever seen before. I also think Netflix is doing a great job with a lot of their original programming because they make it seamless. Shonda Rimes stuff seems to have a lot more diversity. It’s improving. We aren’t there yet. There is still a long way to go and Aziz makes some excellent points to be sure. But the landscape is much different from 20-30 years ago.
I notice it in commercials too. Unfortunately there’s always some bigoted group who gets their panties in a bunch over it, but I’m glad companies haven’t relented and are trying to better represent the general public.
Yes and Hollywood needs to take notes from these commercials and understand that in order to cast for example black actors you don’t actually need to make a movie about slavery or civil rights. You can cast black people in everything! Tv is better at colourblind casting.
When commercials are mirroring real life better than television or movies, then someone needs to sit up and take notice.
Hutu is doing a pretty good job with this on “The Path.” There are characters of all different backgrounds, yet they are simply characters, with no mention of their color. They just ARE. Like in life. Yeah, the main leads are all white, but at least it’s more balanced with regard to the supporting cast than a lot of other shows.
Maybe we will see a mixed race couple in the next Star Wars movie?
There is a new Asian (Filipina) lead. So there’s that.
–TheRealPinky
Babysteps I guess
Isn’t “Tran” a Vietnamese name?
@Posh You are so right! She is Vietnamese. My stupid mistake!
…and Kanye will take credit for it.
I enjoy him and I love his Netflix show Master of None, however I find his statements a little perplexing. I am black so I am hyper aware of all of this. He has a platform with his own show and still chose a white girl as his love interest. Her character did not need to be white, but his circle of friends include an Asian guy and black lesbian. It just goes to show, no matter how diverse you get, white people have to get thrown a bone as the predominant viewership. Maybe next season this will change.
His statements still hold true, it’s just disappointing that when it comes down to it, he still had to play the game.
I don’t know if this excuses it, but in real life his girlfriend is white. I have only seen clips of the show, but I think it is supposed to be loosely based on his life.
its not unusual for men of color to get angry at women of color dating white men but they rarely have problems dating white women. usually when they make it big they’ll have a white woman on their arm.
Yes but that’s who is real GF was and the show is a mirror about his life. And its still a mixed race relationship which you RARELY see.
I’m really glad he got a show and wrote it with a diverse cast. That is is a good thing. I agree with you Ali about the white love interest. I notice him and recently Mindy Kaling, both of whom prefer to show their characters with white love interests seem to curtail criticism of this by presenting a token poc love interest who is written as really annoying. In Master of None, the only poc love interest, an Asian woman, was quite predatory and using him for his money.
Recently, on the Mindy Project, she dated a Black man who is presented as pretentious and empty. I find this to be an incredibly problematic representation. First of all, the characters generally only have relationships with white people and when they decide to throw poc a dating bone, the characters are drawn as completely unlikeable and dysfunctional thereby justifying why they can only date white people. Now we have a white romantic love interest who is fully human and complex and poc love interests who are undesireable and dysfunctional.
But if they are having multiple white dates, I assume that all of these whites are not written as perfect, either, because if they were, why wouldn’t the main character keep dating them?
Can you refresh my memory about the gold digging character? I’m wondering if we missed that episode! What “kind of” Asian was she? Name? Appearance? Anything? Episode name?
SloaneY, the problem is that the pool of potential romantic partners is overwhelmingly white with one token poc thrown in who is portrayed as dysfunctional. It feels like a cynical ploy to placate critiques of having only white characters as potential mates. It rings false. It’s too early to tell if Aziz will include a poc love interest in his show. As for Mindy Kaling’s character, she has had multiple relationships and all of them were with white men. In a recent episode, she dates a Black man but quickly rejects him. It’s clear that her next relationship will be with her white male colleague.
To think about it another way, imagine a tv show where the white male lead never dates a white woman, but only Asian women. Imagine every single love interest and dates depicted are with Asian women. I’m sure that viewers would take note.
As for the gold digging character, she was south east asian by appearance.
I am sorry but both the men of color that Mindy dated on The Mindy Project weren’t portrayed as shallow. In fact the Indian American man she dated REJECTED HER because she wasn’t in touch with her culture/heritage enough and made her think about that and examine her heritage.
And the guy from last episode Marcus was shown to be fun a hipster also smart and into the arts, he didn’t like hanging out at home. He wasn’t shallow he just didn’t have the same interests as Mindy or at the same place.
Also I would venture a guess that parts for POC are so limited that sometimes if they can get a character that would more traditionally be a “blonde” like the gold digger they want to because they are actors and it is fun to play. So he probably wrote the “gold digger” part Asian to prove a point.
In fact I am pretty sure that is what Mindy, Aziz, Michael B Jordan, Jessica Williams and countless others have said that they want to get to play roles that Reese or Chris Pratt would play but don’t get considered for.
Well, I agree that the Indian character was not written as shallow but I will disagree with your opinion about the Black character. He was a shallow hipster who rambled on an on about the best this or that. Mindy’s character ends the relationship because she doesn’t know who he is, in other words, he has no substance. So great, she briefly dates two men of colour, but wait, they are both totally unsuitable and we will see her fall into the arms of a white southern gentleman who seems like quite the womanizer. This is my problem…he is flawed, yet written as lovable. He is given much more complexity than the two men of colour.
As for MoN, of course the Asian actress was probably thrilled to get any kind of role. The issue is not the actors, it’s the show runners of colour who know what it’s like to be shut out and yet do very little to change this. I think Aziz does a much, much better job of creating a diverse cast than MIndy. Yet, Aziz, as an Indian American man, has no Indian females on his show besides his mother, despite all is awareness and analysis. I’m curious as to what that blind spot is about.
Do “diversity” to you means no white people allowed?
I was watching the first season of House of Cards and several episodes of season 2 and couldn’t believe the lack of diversity as far as the main characters and the main supporting characters, especially as far as women of color and men of color also. Lots of white women in excellent supporting roles with good dialogue and lots of white men in strong supporting roles. Remy is the only one, really, that isn’t white. And the guy that runs the barbecue joint gets some lines every show, but he doesn’t have a storyline really. I found it odd with such a huge cast.
Sounds a lot like D.C. (the government, not the city demographics) to me.
–TheRealPinky
Keep watching. Reg E. Cathey more than holds his own with spacey. The man is phenomenal.
The Presiden’t cheif of staff is hispanic.
That character was perplexing. The character is Hispanic; while the actress is Indian. It’s interesting to me that the character wasn’t just written as Indian.
Preach!
re the comment: Wouldn’t it be nice to just see a mixed race or minority couple star in a romcom and not have the movie deal extensively with race?
I read an interview last year with a black actress, I think, and she said that sort of thing annoys her because what she brings to the role and what is one of the advantages of casting her, is that she is a black woman, with all of her life experiences, why would she not want to bring that to the role?
Which I had never thought about before.
I haven’t seen too many examples of that being balanced naturally. While The Office wasn’t perfect, and the leading love stories were mostly white, I felt like the supporting characters were black, gay, etc. in an organic way. They weren’t just generic characters played by a black actor, but they also weren’t a stereotypical black or gay character either. Having Mindy Kaling in the writers room probably helped.
Yes I was actually thinking about that the last time I watched a rerun. Oscar is gay and Hispanic and a three dimensional character with good and bad qualities. Stanley is not defined by being black, nor is Mindy defined by being Indian American. Are these traits sometimes involved in plot points or a character struggle? Yeah, sure. But they aren’t the only stories they’re given and they don’t drive every single action and interaction.
I think the comedies that have come from Greg Daniels and Mike Schur (Office, Parks, Brooklyn 99) are fairly good at having diverse casts and couples.
Brooklyn 99 ftw on diverse casting. Two Latina women and two African American men in the regular ensemble cast.
What I like about British tv shows is that there are often bi-racial couples whose storylines have nothing to do with race. That’s how it should be done in Hollywood!
I notice that too, I mean, there’s also a lot of problemas in uk tv (as i have read), but it seems that even with that they come ahead with diversity. Also remember the london olympic games, the closing sequence? The story was portrayed with a mixed race family.
Well this is an issue IMO showing that POC can only be paired with White love interest. But I guess from a White person point of view it seen as progress and good lol
Love him. Love Master of None. Love his standup.
The points he makes are completely valid, but Master of none is horrendous and so heavy handed in its message it’s practically didactic.
His terrible acting worked in Parks and Rec but I really don’t think he can carry a show. All my opinion of course.
See, I personally love the show. It kind of is what it is. It’s him obviously poking fun at stuff, but it’s not overly silly either. I like watching it because it’s smart enough but clever enough to keep interest really easily. But that being said – I like Aziz to begin with.
I liked it a lot. Every second episode or so would have a scene or two that I did feel was heavy-handed or just didn’t work. Some of was better as stand-up, it didn’t work as it was for a TV format. Overall though I thought it was a great show that picked up steam about halfway through.
I love that these types of discussions are being given attention and focus because they are 100% true and I think he has it every bit right when he says minority individuals have heard all the excuses and know the bullshit perfectly by now.
There is something genuinely wrong with a society when during a movie I have to marvel at the number of different and unique black characters on screen (Captain America Civil War). Not just one token and his girlfriend but three unique black individuals with different personalities, identities, and back stories.
That’s shocking and yet somehow some people still don’t comprehend how diversity and representation matters.
I really hate say this, but I wish more white people in Hollywood would talk about diversity issues because it seems like that’s the only way this issue is taken seriously. I feel like minorities in Hollywood already know there’s a problem, but how can any changes come about if their white colleagues don’t see it? And it needs to be addressed at every level of the system, from studios heads to the actors on screen.
It’s awful, but it’s true. It’s the same as He for She. We need the help of men to achieve true equality.
I think once there is more diversity at the top executive level, then maybe we’ll see more diversity in films. But the people who are green-lighting films are mostly white men.
Yeah, and it certainly doesn’t help when Matt Damon is saying that diversity only matters onscreen and not in the writers’ room.
Interesting that he dates a white woman. He talks the talk but doesn’t walk the walk.
The bigger question is: do blacks want to see south Asian leads and visa versa. And do blacks and south Asians have a lot of marriages of mixed race. Not to white people but to each other.
This black woman would love to see an interracial rom com with a black woman and any man or woman of another race. And there can even be a sassy white friend side-kick too.
And yes, there are black women and men who are married to or date people of Asian descent. Is it as prevalent as white and insert whatever minority you want here, no. But these types of couples do exist.
The best part about Flashforward was John Cho and Gabrielle Union relationship. Gabrielle even mentioned on twitter the other day that John should be on Being Mary Jane as her love interest. This would probably get me to watch that hot mess of a show again.
I really like narratives where the interracial couples are both from minority backgrounds. I remember on of the first pairing I saw was Aliyah and Jet Li in Romeo Must Die.
Gabrielle Union + John Cho is something I’m 100% down for.
All I have to add is John Cho is so hot.
Um yes, I’m curious as to why you would think we’d have problems seeing other ethnicities get representation? But to answer your strange question absolutely I’d love to see those things on screen. There are more interracial relationships happening on the real world than the screen would reveal. That needs to be rectified.
Just wondering how it would be accepted. I honestly think that a black woman with a south Asian man in a movie would not be a hit. As well I think that you would find that whites are a lot more tolerant of mixed races marrying (example white with black / white with Asian then black with south Asian) . I feel that there is a lot of racism within different cultures that is never addressed. I think that many races have huge issues with interracial marriages example blacks with south Asian but don’t want to address it in public but in private they are very against it. I think that no film maker would ever mix races on film except white with a minority not another minority with another minority as the backlash would be to grant.
@Susan, have you seen Mississippi Masala. It addresses anti-black racism among South Asians. I’m black and have dated a South Asian man but he was adopted by a white family, so it wasn’t necessarily the same experience. However, this was when I was an exchange student in England. It didn’t seem uncommon to see black-South Asian couples there. But even in America, I’ve had some South Asian guys flirt, appear interested in me.
@Susan There was a short lived show called Twisted on Freeform/ aka ABC Family channel. The main romantic couple was played by two biracial actors; the actress being half black/white and the actor being half Indian/white. The show was successful until the people who ran the show broke up that couple up to get that actor’s character in a relationship with one of the white female characters, which is what some of the fandom wanted because they didn’t think he should have been with the black girl. But more of the fandom bailed on the show once they broke up the original coupling, ultimately killing the show and getting it cancelled. That’s just one example of people being okay with Asian man/ black female pairings in entertainment. I wish I could give more examples, but unfortunately Asian characters aren’t really represented in entertainment.
So as a POC he is only allowed to date other POCs? If you’ve heard his standup, he’s talked about trying to hit on M.I.A. and her completely shutting him down. You are part of the problem. Why is it wrong for him to date a white girl? It is that same kind of mentality that says white people should only date white people.
it is absolutely not the same thing. you are ignoring the social and historical context.
South Asian and Black unions are actually quite common in certain parts of the Caribbean.
Yes, isn’t Nicki Minaj black and South Asian from a Trini family? One of my college roommates was this exact combo as well, and now that I think about it, I’ve known a couple of other black-South Asian kids, so I don’t think this is quite so rare. It’s just not depicted on television or in pop culture.
Common but for a long time and even now, Black/South Asian relationships are still frowned upon by some in Trinidad and Tobago.
And yes, Nicki Minaj is dougla.
@ mazzie
I always wondered if Nicki had some Indian in her…she shows some Indian features.
Hello Mazzie! As soon as I read Dougla I thought of my father haha. My family is also from the Carribean and my mom is mixed with South Asian and a lot of other things that I grew up all the time hearing people call her by that term.
@me I want to say her dad is probably South Asian since her last name is Maraj?
@Lauren Right? Got to love the Caribbean, just mixing it up and calling it things. ‘Red’ is a favourite of mine – biracial black/white.
That’s just not even true and actually, that’s a demographic that has gotten very popular in social media vlogging platforms. Go to youtube and type in mixed race or interracial marriages. You’ll see what I mean.
Master of None is a great show. Beyond diversity, it’s also really authentic. It’s not whiney or indulgent. The characters are easily relatable.
I really enjoy the dialogue and the timing of it. The pauses and stumbles are natural. It’s so refreshing to not have the exhausting spit fire back and forth perfect answers that Sorkin made popular.
I don’t like Sorkin’s style, everyone’s dialogue so unnaturally sleek and witty.
Oh good it’s not just me. I cannot stand his style. I love that MoN is so much more realistic in their dialogue and reactions than other shows.
I don’t love all things Sorkin, but I do love West Wing. That’s not a show about urban hipsters lookin’ for love, though. And let’s face it, the entertainment market place is currently flooded with hipster love themes. Most of which are trite, whiney, and often steeped in middle-class white privilege. Master of None manages to take a premise no one still needs and turn it into a truly great show.
I LOVE Master of None, it is awesome. My favorite show on Netflix.
Is he friends with mindy kaling ? Anyone know? I am surprised they haven’t worked together
They are friends and they’ve got a lot of friends in common. Alan Yang the co-creator of Master of None was a writer on The Office and then Parks and Rec. Mike Schur, executive producer on Master of None was a writer and producef for The Office then he co-created and was the showrunner of Parks and Rec.
GO OFF TOM HAVERFORD BOO OF MY DREAMS!! Tell It like it is so I can scan the post and not locate the lie in any way shape or form!
his show is great and it is sad to have to wait soooo long for it to start up again.
yes, more diversity please, it is long overdue.
I love him. I’m white but I find lack of diversity in casting to be a huge distraction. It’s not what the world looks like. I’ve stopped watching several tv shows because of it. Also I completely agree about the failure to nurture diverse talent. Why did it take the Leftovers to give Regina King a major role in her 40s? She’s incredible. Meanwhile Hollywood can’t stop giving Ryan Reynolds and Ben affleck chances, and both of them are bland as oatmeal. I could name numerous other examples but there is no doubt that diverse talent is not given opportunities and some of the old white guys in Hollywood have flat out admitted that they don’t think they can sell movies with diverse leads, especially overseas, which I think is completely false and a cop out.
One of the reasons I find most of television and movies boring is because it focuses exclusively on the lives of white people. I devoured these stories in the 70’s and 80’s while I was growing up and by now we have seen every configuration of white culture, it’s just on repeat. The US is so diverse and there are many untapped cultural creators from these communities who have their own stories to tell. I want those stories! And telling these stories does not have to exclude white people, it just shouldn’t be solely about white people.
Some examples that come to mind is Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae. The main character is a dark skinned Black woman and her best bud is an Indian American woman (South Asian origin). Her workplace is really diverse and she is in a love triangle with a white guy and black guy.
I also like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt although it’s not without it’s controversies related to a Native American plot line. The show is about a white woman who is in love with a Vietnamese undocumented immigrant man and also focuses on the life of her room mate, a gay black man.
Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt is fantastic. The Native American storylines have always made Jacquelyn (or Jackie Lynn) the butt of the joke for her ignorance (I want my MTV!) And this season she had a kind of awakening and they went after the Redskins name. But I’m white, so it’s not my place to say it wasn’t offensive or insensitive, just my take.
I loved the redskins story line too. I’m not Native American but I think if there is practically zero representation of a marginalized community on television and when a show creator finally decides to tell this story, casting a white person is problematic.
On the one hand, I think Tina Fey actually addresses issues of race, racism and diversity but then she has these kinds of fails. I still love the show.
I find most network television boring because it’s mostly cop/lawyer/doctor procedurals, but aside from that, I want diversity in casting and storytelling too.
Kimmy Schmidt is really good – I do understand the criticisms, but I have mixed feelings on some of it.
Have any of you watched Crazy Ex-Girlfriend? The lead’s love interest/obsession is Filipino, and they cast an entire family for him too.
Fd is so right about Regina King. I remember watching her on 227 back in the day (yes, TV execs, a white kid from the suburbs loved that show, as well as several others with mostly or all black casts) and then have been so impressed with her since Southland.
And John Cho needs to be in everything. He’s always great, and is there anyone who doesn’t like him?
Agree with everything! And I love all these recs for shows I haven’t watched yet!
Lucy2, agree 100 % about the cop/lawyer/doctor trinity. I’ll have to check out Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.
Aziz Ansari has hit a nail on the head when it comes to lack of diversity in Hollywood. I don’t know about the rest of the world or USA by itself, but most of us ( and that includes myself) are sick and tired of same romantic comedies and dramas (especially very boring period dramas a.k.a I am sorry The Danish Girl bore me to tears) that is about a white woman and a white man. That is why their movies are not doing well in box offices. Whitewashing Asian Characters are a grave insult back then ( Mickey Rooney in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s) and it is grave insult now ( Emma Stone in “Aloha) and also for the love of God, why do these Hollywood Studio idiots think that putting African people from all over the globe as TOKENS in their movies, to prove that they are not prejudice? That is just as bad as saying ” Why would I be racist when I have black friends?”
Which is why, anyone who will hate my guts for saying this and I don’t care. But as much as I love Michael Fassbender, I REFUSE TO WATCH LIGHTS BETWEEN OCEANS. This just proves my point with Hollywood and casting. I said this is because they are praise oh so sweet Alicia Vikander as the next it girl and she is getting the roles that they can give her but Lupita N’yongo gets two are three films coming out and she is not as popular.
Anyone has a problem, SUE ME.
I agree. They are boring us all to tears with their inability to think outside the box. Also, it makes no sense that there is some global audience that only wants to see movies about white people. That global audience is not all white either!
Sparks appeals to the lowest common denominator. He’s sappy, formulaic, and yes, super-white bread. He’s not a good writer and not even the biggest Hollywood productions can make his work palatable.
I’m white and I’m tired of seeing the same bullshit, too. It’s not interesting or entertaining — mildly, if anything, but the lack of diversity shows.
“Excuses get so tiresome and I think everyone’s seen through the bulls” – Amen to that. Also, can we also agree that it doesn’t reflect the real world. In today’s generation, most people have a circle that is very diversity. Most people work at a place that is very diverse,people date from different races and culture.
I like AA and agree with a lot of what he said. I can also see why people find him and Mindy Kaling hypocritical because they cast people who are white as their love interests which kind of feeds into the “self centered nature of a predominantly white Hollywood” there’s no pun intended a black and white answer to this. You aren’t going to please everyone.
I like to see more diversity but I also don’t want them to be tokens or stereotypical characters either.
I mean Fresh off the Boat has a predominantly Asian cast and its refreshing to see something that’s new and different. They aren’t tokens.
I also liked Kalinda on The Good Wife because it was nice to see another Indian woman on screen and she wasn’t a token/stereotype her character could’ve been any race but she just happened to be mine.
But Mindy has said in her books that she likes white guys. Aziz exclusively dates white women.
See while I personally don’t care if an Indian man or woman dates/marries outside their race(I have friends who are in interracial marriages) I can see why people won’t take him seriously either about this topic. How can you say this and yet live differently?
Perfectly said. It’s 2016- why is this stupidity still rampant? And stop with the minority characters always speaking in an urban way. Stop with the “oh, we have a black person here so it’s diverse” thinking. It trickles all the way down to teen programing, tweens’ programs, and kids as well. I can’t believe how far we have NOT come.
This happens in the real world as well. I went for a job interview once and I was asked what my ethnicity was (which is actually illegal to do), but I answered because I was desperate for a job. I said I was Indian. The interviewer then pointed to one of the staff members in the office and said “oh we already have an Indian girl working here, do you know her?”. Pissed me off.
They asked if you knew her?! What?! Illegal and ignorant.
Yes, very ! But when you’re straight out of University and desperate for a job, you have to put up with sh*t you don’t want to.
Wow.
It’s NOT illegal to ask about race or national origin during a job interview (common misconception). It’s only illegal to discriminate on that basis, as set forth in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Any interviewer with a lick of sense would not ask that question because it can be harmful in a law suit. Obviously this interviewer was stupid/ignorant given s/he assumed you must know the other employee.
You assume I’m from America. I’m not. Where I am from it is ILLEGAL to ask an interviewee about race/religion/marital status, to name a few.
Yes, I assumed you were writing about America. In my defense, you did write that your “ethnicity” is Indian, which is a very American thing to do. Europeans get irritated when Americans describe themselves as X nationality (e.g., Irish). Maybe you are Canadian? Google tells me that in at least some parts of Canada, interview questions can be illegal. No American state or city could successfully criminalize questions due to the 1st Amendment. Nevertheless, this is a common misconception about American law, and hence my comment. Sorry for the incorrect assumption.
Not to dismiss his point, but it goes even further than that. I was actually thinking about it just the other day: it’s not just 2 white people staring at each other, it’s 2 very good-looking, thin (even when they’re old) white people. I think it’s not just minorities who struggle with that. I’m a white woman, but I’m no beauty queen, and I just realized that I never believed myself to be “worthy” of a super-romantic proposal, for example. Like that is reserved for super-good-looking people only. Because that’s what movies taught me. If ever we get a slightly overweight (say, size 8 instead of 0-2) actress, it’s almost inevitably a comedy, and the whole premise is “wow, that hot successful guy REALLY feel for her???”, which still don’t instill a whole lot of confidence.
beauty is certainly one of the biggest privileges you can have in our society, even more so in the entertainment industry. its not like good looking people are conicidentally the best singers and actors, too.
i’ve always wondered why there is no big movement, the discrimination of ugly people goes as far as lower salaries to longer jail sentences. we obviously dont have to bring up the love life, while most of the media is obesses with one night stands and polyarmory lots of people die without any kind of love or intimacy just because they are not conventionally good looking.
i think the attraction to good looking people is something so primal it will be almost impossible to get rid of. even if business settings people tend to favour the ones who they would like to sleep with.
I’m interested in how there would be a movement though. I mean…do people really want to be saying they don’t find themselves attractive or think others do either? I’ve also found this interesting and problematic on film with actors being stereotyped into the friend, nerd, chubby, weird or ugly roles. I really loved “Girl Walks Into a Bar” because I thought Rachel Dratch was absolutely right that she is NOT a troll by normal people standards and yet she couldn’t get cast as an ordinary person.
I don’t know how a movement would start, but I also thought about 2 things:
1. There sort of already is a lot of change, or is it just me? I admit I’m not a huge fan of old movies, but old movie stars all seemed very classically beautiful and, to some degree, to a non-fan, even interchangeable. But, again, I could be wrong and it could be due to my lack of exposure. I feel like today, movie stars are already more diverse. I feel like drop-dead gorgeous actresses are comparatively rare. I’d say Angelina Jolie is one, for example. But I don’t think that, say, JLaw is a beauty. She is cute and has an awesome body, but I feel like if she were a friend of yours, she wouldn’t be one of those people who you’d look at and think “how are you a teacher/clerk/doctor and not a movie star???”. I also don’t find Hadid sisters or Kara particularly beauitiful, or Lily Rose Depp. Although, I guess, based on the list I made, the “movement” came from above: it seems that money trumps beauty, lol.
2. I feel that Brits do a great job casting actresses that can be “prettied up” or left alone to be more “average”. And honestly, being more exposed to American movies, I admit that the first few minutes I think “wow, it’s amazing how average she looks”, but then I forget all about it and start enjoying a realistic-looking woman, rather than a police department full of model-thin women with perfect make-up, long hair that they NEVER put up, even when they’re chasing a murderer. Oh, and high heels, of course. I feel like ultimately, having an “average” woman draws me in more, whereas having this picture-perfect police woman/doctor/whatever ends up creating this constant wall of separation and serves as a reminder that this is all fiction.
He is so right and he’s got to keep fighting the good fight! My kids in their Wisconsin elementary school have more diverse friends/classes than Hollywood ever shows. And even women I like, like Tina Fey, perpetuate the myth that they have to use a white guy to play a different ethnicity because they just couldn’t find anyone else (in her recent movie). It’s so sad.
so he’s complaining about diversity, but when he had the chance to cast his love interest as a woman of color he chose to cast her as white? people like him and mindy kaling love to talk about diversity, but at the end of the say all diversity means to them is that they can be shown with white people. if you care so much about diversity then make it really diverse. a mixed race couple doesnt have to include a white person. far more rare statistically and on tv to see two people of color together than it is to see a white person white someone of a different race.
Mindy added an Indian love interest this season on her show. I don’t know if it had to do with people pressuring her or if it was something she actually wanted to do.
I wondered the same though I thought it did a good job of exploring the perspective of second generation Indians.
@ sanders
I agree it did a great job of showing that us Indians are just like everyone else ! We like to eat varying foods, we like varying music, we go watch movies ! We do it all just like everyone else.
I would love to see a whole series about the group of South Asians at that dinner party.
Knowing Mindy I bet she was pressured into it.
So on this thread today I’ve learned that a lot of WOC believe that according to their projected definition, diversity = no white women ever
This may seem like a weird recommendation but I tell everyone who is looking for more diversity in TV to watch Hawaii Five-0. It is a predominantly Asian American cast and there is also one older African American man and one 40-ish Latino man in the main cast. You could say, “Oh sure it’s mostly Asian American, it has to be b/c it’s set in Hawaii,” but I feel it still could have been majority white and no one would have said anything. Yes most of the Asian Americans on the show are not native Hawaiians and two of them play are playing at least half-native Hawaiians so that may be a problem, but I think they pay great homage to native Hawaiian language and culture. And frankly just seeing so many non-white faces in every episode makes my heart glad. Also, most of the guest stars are people of color — so it’s not just that it’s a majority Asian Am cast and then we get a handful of white actors guesting every week. Nope, many of the villains, love interests, and secondary characters are ethnic minorities, too. It is not “quality TV” but it is a fun, action-heavy cop show with the requisite banter between all the main characters, and I enjoy it. Give it a try if you are looking for a show where race is treated very, very differently!!!!
He is right.
I stopped watching rom-coms more than a decade ago. Predictable, white-bread repetition.
I get what Aziz is saying about there being too many movies were the protagonist are white. But even if you have an Indian man and a white girlfriend doesn’t make the set up any better. Biracial romance consist of one of the mates to be white. This is only confirming that a white character must be always in lead regardless. Imagine if its an Indian guy and a young black women as love interest. Or a young East or South Eastern Asian male and a black female love interest. Or just have each partner be the same nonwhite race. Why can’t a movie or show be successful with an Indian couple or a black couple without losing its appeal to the masses? Just because you make it interracial doesn’t mean you are creating a different dialog if one of them is still white.
It’s such a slippery slope topic and one that has so many opinions and no clear intentions.