Let’s face it, for many of us who grew up in America, television and movies represented integral teaching devices.
My TV taught me about the simple truths in life. For example, I learned that liberal hippie parents can actually produce Republican offspring, that alien life forms actually had normal human names and that a rich white guy adopting two orphaned kids from Harlem is just really, really funny because it would probably never happen.
But, you know, while TV and movies taught me a lot about other people, they didn’t always teach me about myself.
At least, not the part of myself that had parents that believed that children who didn’t agree with them were inherently evil and had no respect for “their elders” because said children were too “Americanized.” Or that being a doctor, lawyer or engineer was not part of a cultural identity, it was the only cultural identity you had.
What I mean to say is that Asian Americans, particularly those from the subcontinent, were few and far between in movies and TV.
So, when I did see that occasional brown face on the tube or silver screen, my immature little mind clawed at a deeper truth. Surely, these characters could teach me about myself, the way Alex P. Keaton taught me that Republicans, too, can be kind of hot in a money grubbing, if not completely self absorbed, way.
Here’s some of the stuff I learned:
If you walk around India in a white sheet and get a lot accomplished, maybe you will be lucky enough to have a very talented white actor play your role in fifty years.
Religious tolerance is critically important in America. Do not offer people’s gods peanuts.
If someone says you have an “exotic” look, retain your humility and think about how they mean it.
Fake Indian accents are about as funny as Steve Guttenberg. Which is to say that they are not. At all.
On a side note, all of these characters were Indian in their origin. Even on that level, I had to compromise because I’m actually Pakistani-American. I would’ve posted a few people hijacking airplanes, but it would have been too depressing.
Be assured, I have a very good sense of humor about these things (or is it that I have simply given up?), so this wasn’t some subtle diatribe about how racist American TV was when I was growing up.
I get that I wasn’t a big priority in terms of advertising revenue in the 80s. I also appreciate the evolution represented in my own daughter’s favorite TV shows which are about a little Chinese-American girl and a little Hispanic boy. (Where, exactly, does Diego come from?)
I’m curious about what other people thought of these characters and others like them, and how TV and movies might have affected the general perception about other cultures.
So, tell me how did television or movies affect your perception of cultures, whether that of your own or others?
Days of Humility are the days where people have every right to treat me like a jerk for compelling reasons, but instead they opt to show, through small and random acts of kindness, that the world is a good place with nice people in it.
The ability of a human being to return rage, ignorance and stupidity with love, understanding and patience is truly a superpower. Why don’t they have an X-Man For that? They could call him MahaXma. Lame, I know
Interestingly enough, when we lapse sporadically into ignorant, stupid and rage filled behavior we can truly appreciate the superheroes in our life.
Uber Day of Deep Humility
My Carelessness rewarded with Patience and Understanding.
I got ready for my 10:30a.m. hair appointment which is on its third reschedule only to be called by the salon receptionist asking me why I missed my 9:30a.m. appointment.
She asked me to come in anyway, told me not to worry about it because they’ll just call the next client and see if she can come in a little later.
When I walked in they said, very sincerely, that they were glad I could finally make it.
Impatience rewarded with Patience. Sort Of.
Had to fax papers for my husband at Kinko’s.
I kept trying the stupid fax number over and over (and over) again on the Kinko’s fax machine, but to no avail.
After a serious rant at my husband, I discovered that I had been dialing the main office number and not the one labeled FAX TO.
I was lucky enough to get away with a slightly disgusted eye roll.
Impatience rewarded with Love
A few minutes later, I found out my husband scheduled a massage for me for 4p.m. even though he has a terrible fever and would have to watch my three year old daughter who has also been sick.
Don’t forget my scowling over the wrong fax number.
The man was a SAINT today.
Stupidity Rewarded with Kindness and Protection.
Went back to Kinko’s to fax the document and realized that I had left my Check Card in their machine the last time I was there.
Shuffled to the desk, tried not to act like the idiot I felt like and asked if anyone had turned it in. Someone did, in fact, turn it in.
The guy at the desk told me not to feel bad, it happens more often than I think. (This point will be disqualified if my check card turns out having charges for a Wii Fit and liposuction within the next week or so).
Carelessness Rewarded With Kindness.
Stopped to get groceries on the way home, was fumbling with my iPhone and dropped an extra large container of Yogurt that went splat all over the floor in WD, right in front of the guy who was restocking that section.
He smiled politely and very pleasantly said, “don’t worry about it.” And he looked like he meant it.
Cynics might suggest that the secondary characters mentioned in these humbling moments were just doing their jobs, which is true. But they didn’t have to be so nice. No one was there to see if the smiles they gave were fake other than me. Given the fact that I knew I didn’t deserve a smile in many of these cases, I would’ve picked up on the proverbial SEG.
People, when they had a choice, chose to be nice, and, in many cases, to a relative stranger.
I’m humbled by that today.
Tomorrow, I will resume being a stuck up suburbanite with a German car.
From the monthly archives: August 2008
