Gupta’s Hit and Manmeet’s Missus
One version of how the alleged hit went down. Credit: tvrage.com
Synopsis (adapted from NBC’s official synopsis):
Todd (Ben Rappaport) must intervene when Gupta (Parvesh Cheena) accuses Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) of hitting him; Manmeet (Sacha Dhawan)seeks to impress Ashlynn via video.
My review/analysis:
Firstly, it feels weird to be critiquing these episodes after the series got cancelled. But I guess now that the show is no more, these critiques can stand as a record as to where I think the show went wrong.
This episode is number 18 in a series of 22 episodes. But this one doesn’t have the amount of growth I came accustomed to in “Mama Sutra”. Even their official synopsis had an error in it (it originally states Gupta accuses Manmeet of hitting him, not Rajiv). In this episode, I got a stronger whiff of “The natives are children and the Westerners are the adults” vibe. Granted, a little of that is in every episode, but it was much stronger in this one. One example being when Manmeet and Charlie were working on the video for Manmeet’s girlfriend (more on Manmeet’s girlfriend later), Manmeet asked for Todd’s opinion and Todd gave it as if he was a second-grade teacher giving encouragement to one of his students.
Todd looking at the video Manmeet and Charlie made to send to Manmeet’s girlfriend. Credit: tvguide.com
In fact, most of the issues I have with the show surround Manmeet’s relationship with Todd. It seems less like an actual friendship and more like Todd befriended Manmeet because Manmeet’s the closest to being a Westerner in the office, and Manmeet befriended Todd just because Todd is a Westerner and Manmeet admires Western culture. Now, I’m not saying that one catalyst for being a friend to someone of another culture doesn’t deal with curiosity, so I’m not knocking Manmeet for being friends with Todd. But what I am knocking, however, is the reason Todd became friends with Manmeet and his general favoritism toward him, neither of which have to do with curiosity of another culture but more in staying rooted in his own.
Manmeet, as portrayed by Sacha Dhawan. Credit: NBC
Let’s look at the character of Manmeet for a second. 1) He loves American culture. 2) He feels a bit held back being in India and its so-called “rigidity”, as it were (well, how India is portrayed in the show, in any case). 3) He wants to find an American girlfriend. 4) He dresses in Western clothes all of the time. Compare Manmeet to someone like Gupta or even Rajiv, two male characters who do dress in Western clothes, but retain more traditional Indian qualities. Also compare Manmeet to characters like Madhuri, Pinky or Ajeet (the Sikh guy who never talks played by Guru Singh)–both characters dress more traditionally (Madhuri and Pinky in salwar kameez; Ajeet, although wearing Western clothes, wears a turban, the importance of which can be explained more here). Just by clothing styles alone, Todd would have experienced a severe culture shock and want to gravitate to the people who wore the most Western clothes and had the most Western attitudes, chief among those being Manmeet.
However, his gravitation toward Manmeet should have caused a rift between him and the other workers and that rift should have been explained more in the show, as it’s apparent that Todd does stuff with Manmeet simply because he’s more Western than everyone else. You’d never see Todd hang out with someone like Gupta, Ajeet or Prakash (the dark-skinned guy played by Srinivasa Kapavarapu). You hardly ever see Todd willingly talk to someone outside of work unless it’s Manmeet or occasionally Asha, who also dresses pretty Western. Most of the other instances when he’s talking to the other workers, save for Asha, are either in the scope of work or in the scope of some big goal they all have to accomplish. Basically, what I’m saying is, Todd doesn’t go out of his comfort zone when trying to befriend the other members of his team; he focuses primarily on who is the most Western and sticks with that person. I’m not saying that sticking with what you know is always a bad thing, but in general, that type of strategy will never make one equipped to getting accustomed to life in another country.
While Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) sits alone brooding over Gupta-gate, his solitude is also a reflection of the fact that he has no relationship with his boss, Todd. Credit: tvguide.com/NBC
While I’m on the subject of Manmeet, let’s talk about his American girlfriend. Before I get into what I’m about to write, just know this: I don’t have a problem with him dating an American Caucasian woman. I want to get that clear. I’d be stupid to be like “Manmeet can’t date a Caucasian!” So, again, my problem isn’t that he’s dating a white woman. I will say this, though–Manmeet’s dating a Caucasian woman could be used to bring up one of the many dark sides colonialism brought to India, which is the glorification of light skin.
Manmeet looking at his American girlfriend Ashlynn’s video. Credit: tvrage.com
I have a friend whose parents are from India, and over the years I’ve known him, I’ve asked him a lot about Indian culture. He brought up the point that in India, it’s fairly common to see ads for skin-lightening creams and skin bleaches. Also, many of India’s Bollywood stars are of fair or light-colored skin. Basically, there’s the idea that being lighter means you’re more beautiful or desirable. This idea can be traced back to when India was colonized by Britain, as described in this paper. (In fact, all of Outsourced can be seen as an allegory of colonialism. Term paper idea!)
This type of “colorism”, as described in the paper I linked to, can be found in the African-American community and several other Asian communities as well. Since I’m African-American, I’ll talk about that exclusively; the “fair skin” myth is not only embedded in some black women’s minds, but also in some black men’s minds–some black men won’t even date a black woman because of the stereotypes imbued on us by others, one of which being the skin issue. For some black men, dating a white woman is equivalent to winning a trophy, something neither person in the relationship should be proud of. Similarly, this type of dating discrimination is sometimes true of other “fair skin=beauty”-affected people.
Am I saying Manmeet is one of those who thinks fair skin is more desirable? No, not in the least. His characterization isn’t that deep to say he’d be thinking those sorts of things, to be honest. He’s less of a character and more of an archetypal character. But what I am saying is that his relationship presents a good discussion point and something that could have been analyzed in Outsourced, a show that was supposed to be about finding the humor in Indian and American cultures as well as discussing their darker sides. Also, if he’s dating her just because she’s exotic to him, that’s not cool either. Ditto for her.
One other thing about Manmeet’s relationship–it’s expected, really. American media has made it so that we as Americans expect mixed-race relationships to only be ones dealing in either Caucasian/African-American or Caucasian/minority. There are possibly a lot of sociological/societal arguments that can be made as to why that is, one of which is made by this article from About.com:
The reason intermarriage involving two people of color hasn’t garnered much attention is because historically, in the U.S., racial discussions have employed a white-black paradigm. Due to slavery and its legacy, race in America has typically focused on whites as the proponents of racism and blacks as its targets. Thus, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans and other groups have frequently found their experiences excluded from discussions of race. Accordingly, when interracial marriage is the topic at hand, not much focus will be placed on Asians who marry Latinos or even blacks who marry, say, Arabs because each of these pairings lies outside of the country’s traditional black-white racial narrative. That said, times are definitely changing, as indicated by popular culture. Slang terms such as “blaxican” and “blasian,” the child of a black person and a Mexican person or the child of a black person and an Asian person, respectively, are widely recognized in racially diverse states such as California. Moreover, movies and television shows increasingly feature interracial couples of color.
Since we’re in the 21st century now, you would think that the American media would have gotten past the race barrier. There aren’t many shows that feature mixed-race couples in the first place. To whittle it down even more, out of the shows that do have mixed-race couples, there are but a few that feature black/Asian couples (the two that spring to mind being FlashFoward and Grey’s Anatomy). An even smaller amount of programming, if any, show black/Latino, Asian/Latino, black/Native American, Native American/Asian, etc. couples. What I’m trying to explain is that the American media, coupled with our nation’s history and the white-black paradigm discussed in the article, has made us as a country comfortable with the idea of a mixed-race couple as long as it is a mixed-race couple we’re used to seeing, aka a black/white couple or a white/minority couple. The media has yet to be comfortable with the idea of a mixed-race couple that is composed of two minorities. Please don’t get the impression that I don’t like Caucasian/black and Caucasian/minority couples–Caucasian/black and Caucasian/minority couples are valid and they are just as beautiful as other mixed races. My argument is that the media has to catch up with a constantly mixing society.
A smattering of interracial couples. Top to bottom– Zoey Andata (Gabrielle Union) and Demetri Noh (John Cho) from FlashForward, Crosby Braverman (Dax Shepard) and Jasmine Trussell (Joy Bryant) from Parenthood, Waka Mani (Jay Tavare) and Cleola (Tembi Locke) from UnBowed, Naomi Wheeler (Keri Russell) and Chief Prairie Fire (Jay Tavare) from the tv miniseries Into the West. Credit: Google and Youtube
Probably part of this reserve the media has with covering issues dealing with two-minority mixed-raced couples has something to do with the stereotypes every cultural community not only has inflicted on themselves, but also the ones they’ve heard about other minority communities. Because a lot of people are wrapped up in their stereotypes about other sets of people, they begin to fear those people. For instance, as many people on the black/Indian online community the Blindian Network have said, both Indians and black people have grown up with negative perceptions of the other race, which can result in prejudice. This makes it hard for those who are in love with someone outside of their race, because many times, their parents are wary of their significant other. Perhaps if the media took the lead, then the American culture will follow. However, it’s also the American culture that has to want to make the change.
Okay, I got a little off topic, but now we’re back on topic to issues dealing with hard facts about the show, one of which being the character of Todd. I really don’t like Todd. I’ll just make that clear. I actually find Charlie to be a much better character than Todd all the way around, which is funny, because I thought I WASN’T SUPPOSED TO LIKE HIM! But in this episode, like the other ones, he’s got the best lines out of any Western character, he’s acquired the best outlook on his life in India (he adapts whereas Todd is still floundering), and even though he’s a bit squicky as a character, he doesn’t seem like such a bad guy. They should’ve just made the show about Charlie and made Todd the sidekick. I’ve said echoes of this in other reviews, but I’m just saying for the record that I’m not a fan of how Todd was written.
I’m not a fan of Todd’s characterization. Credit: tvrage.com
I think that’s all. Overall, the show was mildly funny, the funniest parts involving Charlie, but everything else was “meh”. The Indian characters seemed to have taken a back seat in this one, which was a shame; they were depicted as second-banana characters to Todd, which is a bit of a travesty. And since when did Madhuri become the office gossip? I thought she was supposed to be someone who hated talking, not to mention talking loudly. I will say, however, that the cameo by WWE wrestler Dalip Singh Rana, aka the Great Khali, was surprising and awesome.
The Great Khali as Gupta’s mental picture of Rajiv during the “attack”. Credit: Sony Pictures Columbia
If you’re interested in some of the mixed-race couple talk I was engaging in a couple of paragraphs ago, here are some links to some articles and pictures:
The Full Wiki–Multiracial American (with map)
Voices of Utah–Native American mixed-race relationships in Utah
Diary of a White Indian Housewife–”Do Indian Men Generally Like White Women”
Blindian Network (an online community about black/Indian relationships)
Blindian Love (a blog about a black woman in a relationship with an Indian man)
Racialicious’ list of articles on interracial marriage
About.com–Interracial Couples of Color
GOOD–Infographic on changing attitudes about interracial marriages
The Urban Daily: True Blood actress speaks out on interracial marriage
Desiblitz–Do Interracial Marriages Work?
CNN–Interracial marriages at an all time high, study says
Washington Post–Interracial marriages eroding borders
Loving You–thread on Asian/Latino relationships
Loving You–Interracial Relationship support groups (Most interracial pairings represented!)
