i wasn’t going to talk about #NeverHaveIEver beyond the thread i made 2 weeks ago but i’ve seen a LOT of discourse on the tl about this show these past 2 weeks and i feel like some criticisms need to be emphasized bc people aren’t understanding why exactly it’s so problematic-

what really frustrates me about this show is that we are not just talking about race or caste. this is an indian-american show and that has created an entire clusterfuck of problems where race & caste & religion all intersect.

the main problem is the same, tired stereotypes. all the main brown actors are nris, with devi, it (obviously) makes sense. but her parents? kamala? prashant? it was obvious while watching and after looking up the actors i wasn’t surprised to see that i was right.

this seems like a small issue but diaspora has a very stereotypical idea of what indian accents sound like and it’s really no different from the accents that white people have been using in their shows for years. why is it so hard to cast indian actors from india??

the light-skin cousin with the eurocentric features that is pursuing a phd is the most beautiful and perfect one in the family. i think this is self-explanatory.

devi doesn’t interact with any brown people outside of her family, there’s clearly quite a few brown people in her area so why would she not have at least a few brown friends at school? it’s entirely possible to give her nbr friends and brown friends at the same time.

this show was written to be digestible for white people. devi’s family that’s FROM INDIA speaks close to 0 tamil, when “indian culture” is depicted, it’s very watered down. mindy does come across as one that really pushes the entire bollywood, hindi=indian culture, but really?

mindy has said that this show is based on her life which is fine and i understand that but if you’re going to package this show as representation why not commit to it instead reinforcing the same stereotypes we’ve seen before?

devi herself doesn’t have to be cultured, i know a lot of nri kids aren’t but the show should at least be? particularly since the creator is an indian woman herself. i’m tired of this whole let’s-cater-to-the-white-gaze-and-call-it-representation thing.

and this practice of having one light-skin, biracial/racially ambiguous character & calling it representation & diversity is tiring. it’s not. it’s tokenism. the actress that plays fabiola is gorgeous but why not fully commit and have a monoracial, dark-skin black girl?

there are SO MANY harmful stereotypes that dark-skin black girls have to deal with. why not undo these eurocentric beauty standards and have a black character who is very clearly black? @AsToldByKenya breaks it down very well in this video

same issue with paxton, he’s supposed to be part japanese but the actor is white-passing. again, there is nothing wrong with being mixed, but using biracial characters to represent poc communities every single time is not representation. it’s catering and it’s tiring.

this show is also horrifyingly casteist & anti-muslim. in a super problematic scene, a woman that has been ostracized by the community for marrying a muslim man and then divorcing him laments about it and says that she wishes she had married someone of her parents’ wish??

muslims are currently being targeted in india, this didnt once seem like a bad idea? in other scenes, devi makes a tone-deaf comment about being an indentured servant & tells a jewish classmate that she wishes nazis would kill him. how did any of this feel like a good idea???

in another scene, kamala breaks up with her bf to see if things can go anywhere with the boy that her parents picked for her. arranged marriage and casteism have been talked about extensively, but in the show, the issue of caste endogamy is completely disregarded-

& and i don’t believe that it will ever be brought up. there is zero caste analysis in this show. this article that a mutual shared earlier talks about the show’s caste issues &other issues way better https://wearyourvoicemag.com/never-have-i-ever-seen-a-show-so-casteist-and-racist/

to conclude, you’re allowed to like what you like but don’t shut down valid criticisms in the name of “representation”? it’s ugly and it’s literally the same thing as white feminists shutting down criticisms about intersectionality because “but feminism!!”

and bc this is an american show, there is an american audience, some of which is not brown/south asian. if you are not indian/south asian, please stop telling people to stop finding this show problematic, there are problematic elements that are not race related.