There’s something about being able to see someone like yourself on television. South Asian Americans, like so many Asian Americans, grew up in the 90s not seeing a whole lot of people resembling them on television.
Manori Ravindran wrote in Maisonneuve, “My heart skipped a beat whenever South Asians showed up on ABC’s TGIF, but, instead of regular kids who liked cartoons and make-believe, they were often stereotyped poindexters hell-bent on academic annihilation.”
Recent years have brought quite a few Indian Americans on television, but none of them were cast in lead roles until Mindy Kaling in the Mindy Project. According to Rayindran, Kaling is the first woman of color to both create and star in her own series since Wanda Sykes in 2003 with Wanda at Large.
That show lasted two years. The Mindy Project is coming back for a second and hopefully more.
My Mindy Kaling moment was seeing Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon. Watching an Asian American in a lead role speaking good English and beating up on bad guys was pretty cool.
Today Mindy Kaling is kicking down stereotypes in her own way. You can read a lot more of what Kaling means to South Asians today in Maisonneuve.
