MUCH ADO ABOUT APU – Just as Kanye West remains unapologetic about not toeing the cultural-industrial complex’s political line, and just as Keziah Daum remains unapologetic about wearing a Chinese dress to a prom, so does the “Simpsons” creator Matt Groening remains unapologetic about the Indian character Apu, recently much castigated as a racist stereotype:
In an interview with USA Today, Groening had little to say about the brewing backlash on Apu, the show’s convenience-store owner known for his Indian thick accent.
“I’m proud of what we do on the show,” Groening said when asked about the Apu controversy. “And I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended.”
The creator’s comment comes after the character was recently criticized when a documentary called “The Problem with Apu” detailed the hurtful stereotypes Apu portrayed about the South Asian community.
Unlike the libertarian “South Park”, “Simpsons” have always had its heart on the soft left, but without too much shoving down the viewers’ throats, so it’s interesting to see it coping backlash from its own side. Because you can never be woke enough, the left tends to eat itself.
In reality, of course, pretty much every character on “Simpsons” is a stereotype of some sort, whether ethnic (including now just Apu but also the Scottish school groundsman) or otherwise (Flanders the fundamentalist Christian). This could possibly have something to do with it being a cartoon show.
P.S. It’s encouraging to see more and more people, from private citizens thrown into the spotlight to celebrities, standing up for themselves and refusing to kow-tow (sorry for the cultural appropriation) to the perpetual outrage mob. Apologies and appeasement don’t work, merely encourage further demands.
