I Love You, APU

by Ankit Shukla, Joel Diehl (Editor)

Stereotypes exist is our society amongst all groups. Most of them do exist for areason and hold much truth. Some are certainly unfair, untrue or blown out ofproportion. As a person of East Indian descent, I have come head on with stereotypesmy entire life. The biggest one being the character portrayed by Apu from theSimpsons. Apu is a typical East Indian, who immigrated to the United States and nowowns his own convenience store. He also speaks with a typical Indian Accent. Anyonewho has walked into enough convenience stores around the country knows that a largenumber of them are run by people of Indian Descent. There is nothing wrong withnoticing that. However, even though it seems to be a common stereotype, some peoplehave a problem with it. One of them being Hari Kondabolu, who expresses hisfrustrations with the Character in his documentary, “The Problem With Apu”.In “I Love You, Apu”, I challenge what Hari says and provide a rebuttal to what hediscusses in his Documentary. I give my own opinion as to why I believe that Apu isnot only an accurate stereotype, but a positive one as well. There needs to be adiffering viewpoint given by someone with a similar background and I am here to dothat with this very book. You may agree with me or with Hari. What matters most isthat we share our opinions and have open dialogue. While Hari challenges thestereotype, I am here to defend it. Enjoy the different viewpoints.

26 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 23, 2018