![]() ![]() As Davé writes in East Main Street, South Asian accents on TV reinforce a static notion of “cultural citizenship”: South Asians without the much-maligned accent are American, while those with the accent are foreign. When directors favor actors willing to patank, they force performers to make a tradeoff between integrity and success. Kumail Nanjiani has been asked to patank as well, though he naturally speaks with a Pakistani accent. In Master of None, Aziz Ansari fictionalized his own experiences with casting directors asking him to do the accent. As The Problem With Apu writer and star Hari Kondabolu argues, Apu, voiced by the white actor Hank Azaria, is likely this trend’s most enduring emblem-a “devious, servile, goofy” incarnation of South Asian stereotypes, whose only sin is to be Indian.ĭespite South Asian America’s budding pop-cultural renaissance, patanking’s legacy lingers. More recently, Ashton Kutcher wore brownface to play an eligible bachelor named “Raj” in an infamous 2012 Popchips ad. Fisher Stevens followed suit when playing Ben Jabituya in the 1986 film Short Circuit. In the 1968 film The Party, Peter Sellers wore brownface and spoke in a dubious South Asian accent to play the clueless, bumbling Indian actor Hrundi V. This tradition proved as versatile as it was demeaning. In this racist American comedic tradition, white performers donned blackface makeup and depicted America’s black population as lazy and simple-minded. Due to this long history, South Asian Americans tend to dismiss, dislike, or outright despise when non–South Asians decide to patank.īoth Davé and The Problem With Apu note that patanking echoes, if not embodies, elements of minstrelsy. For decades, racists have weaponized an inaccurate, hyper-exaggerated version of so-called “brown voice” to caricature South Asians. (Of note, recent research from the University of Oregon upends common assumptions of a mere standard Indian accent.)Īs the media-studies professor Shilpa Davé writes in her book Indian Accents, race has a “loud and specific sound.” Trump’s reputed mockery serves as a deafening reminder of mainstream America’s contempt for authentic South Asian accents. It tries to fold thousands of languages and dialects from eight countries into a single accent. For those unfamiliar, patanking is characterized by a retreating tongue, stressed syllables shaken out of order, mixed V’s and W’s, and hammered-out A’s. In the recent documentary The Problem With Apu, which takes to task the convenience-store owner of the same name on The Simpsons, the actress Sakina Jaffrey dubbed this type of common, broad, and ultra-exaggerated South Asian accent patanking. While a rupture between Washington and New Delhi may not be in the cards-both countries’ administrations recognize the value of an alliance as China grows more powerful-the stereotypical accent that Trump reportedly used merits some scrutiny. Disturbingly, this wouldn’t be Trump’s first brush with this very controversy-on the campaign trail in 2016, he entertained his base with an impression of an Indian call-center employee. Soon, several publications began to ask if the alleged incident could chill the leaders’ warm relationship. Last week, The Washington Post reported that President Donald Trump had mimicked the accent of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ![]()
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