The Guardian

Don't get rid of Apu. He's a hero to many of us | Bhaskar Sunkara

As an Indian-American, I learned to embrace Apu. I hope he stays on The Simpsons
‘Apu was an emotionally developed character, much more so than other Simpsons characters, he cared about his family and worked tirelessly to support them.’ Photograph: Fox/Fox via Getty Images

After progressively diminishing the character, it appears that The Simpsons might be gearing up to drop Kwik-E-Mart clerk and Indian-American icon, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon.

Well, kind of Indian-American. He’s a brown character with an exaggerated Indian accent voiced by a white guy (Hank Azaria).

Apu has gotten a lot of flak lately for being racist depiction of Indian-Americans. One of my favorite comedians, Hari Kondabolu, even released a documentary about it (The Problem with Apu) last year.

But growing up

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from The Guardian

The Guardian4 min read
The Big Idea: Should We Abolish Literary Genres?
In her Reith lecture of 2017, recently published for the first time in a posthumous collection of nonfiction, A Memoir of My Former Self, Hilary Mantel recalled the beginnings of her career as a novelist. It was the 1970s. “In those days historical f
The Guardian8 min read
PinkPantheress: ‘I Don’t Think I’m Very Brandable. I Dress Weird. I’m Shy’
PinkPantheress no longer cares what people think of her. When she released her lo-fi breakout tracks Break it Off and Pain on TikTok in early 2021, aged just 19, she did so anonymously, partly out of fear of being judged. Now, almost three years late
The Guardian3 min readWorld
Historians Come Together To Wrest Ukraine’s Past Out Of Russia’s Shadow
The opening salvo in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year was not a rocket or a missile. Rather, it was an essay. Vladimir Putin’s On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians, published in summer 2021, ranged over 1,00

Related Books & Audiobooks