Open Letter To Aziz Ansari and Other Anti-Black People of Color
http://www.blackgirldangerous.org/2015/11/open-letter-to-aziz-ansari-and-other-anti-black-people-of-color/
I heard what you said on Master of None. When I first saw you get dragged on Tumblr for being anti-Black, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I watched the Indians on TV episode for myself, hoping to see if your character’s harmful words had been taken out of context. They weren’t.
Frustrated by the lack of Asian representation in Hollywood, your character Dev lashed out at Black and gay people. He said, “People don’t get that fired up about racist Asian or Indian stuff. I feel like you only risk starting a brouhaha if you say something bad about Black people or gay people.” Not only was this ignorant, but specifically I want to call attention to how it was anti-Black (and homophobic, but that’s for another article).
That entire scene you wrote between Denise, Dev, and Brian Cheng was really telling of how out of touch you are with Blackness, and the ways you perpetuate anti-Blackness as a non-Black person of color. After the brouhaha moment, Dev continued to defend his anti-Black position, “I mean, if Paula Deen had said, ‘I don’t want to serve Indian people,’ no one would really care. They’d just go back to eating the biscuits.”
While the struggles of Black folks are front and center, it doesn’t mean anything is actually getting better. Look at the types of representation Black people have in Hollywood. Think about why the media is still writing and casting dehumanizing anti-Black stereotypes. Think about why the media still uses colorblind language that perpetuates white supremacy.
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