National Post (National Edition)
Thechatter Shame difference A missed Apu-tunity
The story of #IceCreamGate begins innocently enough: a vegan buys an ice cream for a crying child. But in what is surely a sign of our times, no random act of kindness can go for too long without devolving into vegan mansplaining and attempted online shaming. Zara (a.k.a. @itsallzara), a 22-year-old vegan blogger, came across a tearful child on her driveway. After enquiring about her wellbeing, she learned that the little girl didn’t have enough money for ice cream. Zara gave her £5 and all was well – she even got her “very sticky” change back. But then Zara tweeted about the exchange, and that’s when a fellow vegan stepped in. Anthony Dagher (a 25-year-old “spiritual but completely non-religious vegan”) took issue with the fact that Zara may have enabled the purchase of non-vegan ice cream. He messaged the do-gooder to confirm his assumption, and his selfrighteous tone went viral. Dissatisfied with Zara’s responses, he tweeted their screen-capped correspondence. Since she had since blocked him, he encouraged his followers to send her private messages, saying: “I do not want her to be attacked. I just want her to see she was wrong, which I hope enough vegans talking with her will accomplish.” Zara posted on her blog that despite his attempt “to humiliate and hassle” her, the tweet had the opposite effect. She has received “a TON of support.” At the time of writing, Dagher’s tweet has 11,000 comments, with the lion’s share calling him out on his vegan mansplaining. “So just because you’re vegan means you can’t make a kids (sic) day? One ice cream cone isn’t gonna make the world spontaneously combust. Get a grip Anthony,” VeganGenesis commented. Meanwhile, foxxyfay also condemned the act for supporting the dairy industry: “I’m disappointed that @itsallzara paid for dairy ice cream. I admired her for her activism & positivity, but her actions in private show a different side of her. Knowingly contributing to the dairy industry IS ‘that deep’”. On her blog, Zara summed up what it was like to be at the heart of #IceCreamGate: “I made a kid smile and gave her something to eat. No I didn’t abandon my Vegan morals and will still eat, shop and live as Vegan friendly as possible, if people want to hold it against me that I gave money to one small child for a treat then go right ahead, but I find that very petty.” With its 636th episode this past weekend, The Simpsons became the longest-running scripted primetime television series in history. But just weeks before it celebrated this impressive achievement, the show found itself in hot water for continuing to feature a character riddled with stereotypes relating to race. From his profession (owner of the KwikE-Mart) to his accent (he’s voiced by white actor Hank Azaria), Apu represents an extremely racialized portrayal of a South Asian. In November, comedian Hari Kondabolu addressed the issue with his documentary The Problem With Apu, launching a long overdue conversation on the character and just why it has been offensive to generations of South Asians. Instead of acknowledging the uproar or acting on the criticism that the documentary prompted, The Simpsons dismissed the issue rather callously last month with a scene poking fun at it. During the 15th episode of the 29th season, Lisa discovers that one of Marge’s favourite books from her childhood is full of racist caricatures. In response, Lisa says, “Something that started decades ago and was applauded and inoffensive is now politically incorrect. What can you do?” The shot then pans over to a picture of Apu on her nightstand with the phrase “Don’t have a cow” scrawled on it. Last week, during an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Azaria addressed the criticism more elegantly, saying he had watched the documentary and hopes the show will respond better in future. Azaria said, “My eyes have been opened and I think the most important thing is we have to listen to South Asian people, Indian people in this country when they talk about what they feel and how they think about this character and what their American experience of it has been. As you know, in television terms ‘listening to voices’ means inclusion in the writers’ room. I really want to see Indian, South Asian writers in the room, not in a token way, but genuinely informing whatever new direction the character takes, including how it is voiced or not voiced.” He even offered to “step aside or help transition (Apu) into something new,” because change “not only makes sense, but it just seems like the right thing to do to me.” When it comes to the show’s actual creatives, the response hasn’t been quite so understanding. After Kondabolu’s documentary aired, showrunner Al Jean went on a Twitter storm, retweeting all those who felt the comedian was being overemotional. When he was criticized for his own reaction, Jean eventually tweeted that the show would “try to find an answer that is popular and more important.” This week, in an interview with USA Today, creator Matt Groening finally spoke about the conflict, saying, “I’m proud of what we do on the show. And I think it’s a time in our culture where people love to pretend they’re offended.” However, in an interview with The Guardian about the documentary, Kondabolu recalled, “When you sit in high school, which is, I think for most of us, the lowest point in our lives, you realize (Apu) was a tool for kids to go after you. And this was perfect, right? A caricature with this ridiculous accent that nobody has. And even though I grew up in Queens, I still had the same vulnerabilities, and my parents were accented. I thought: how are they going to view my parents, how are they going to view me?” It’s a sentiment echoed by the wide selection of actors Kondabolu interviewed, including Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling, Kal Penn, Aparna Nancherla and Hasan Minhaj, who discussed growing up with the racialized character of Apu, and having the words “thank you, come again” hurled at them in a cartoonish Indian accent throughout their schooling. Asked whether the series will ever attempt to address the problem with Apu again, Groening concluded, “We’ll let the show speak for itself.”