I went down to WNYC, the NPR affiliate in New York City, this morning for the most sympathetic airing of the Simpsons / 7-Eleven issue to date. It was the Brian Lehrer show; Jen Chung of Gothamist was on right before me. After the Ultra psychoanalysis of Apu and his Kwik-E-Mart, several desis who dislike […]

ABC, Australia’s version of the Beeb, ran a segment on youth radio today about the Simpsons controversy. The Land Down Under does have 7-Elevens, but they didn’t get the full Kwik-E-Mart makeover.
Again, it’s a meaty discussion of the kind you only seem to have on radio and podcast. I mentioned that Apu feeds the kind […]

Carmen Van Kerckhove of Addicted to Race, a sister blog to Racialicious, did a half-hour podcast on the Simpsons issue. She kindly let me shoot my mouth off about the Rudyard Kipling - Peter Sellers connection to Apu despite having a face made for radio and a voice fit for mime. The ‘Gunga Din’ bit […]

BBC Asian talk show host Nihal had me on, in both senses, in a radio interview at the ungodly hour of 4 am Eastern. The ‘Big Debate’ program focused on Apu rather than the 7-Eleven promotion. Butting heads in real time was energizing — what a riot!
Update: Here’s part 1 with my interview:

Part 2:

Here’s the […]

KCBS AM radio in San Francisco recently ran a radio segment on the Simpsons / 7-Eleven promotion issue:
… the promotion has sparked some debate over whether the Indian store owner is an offensive stereotype. One Indian American in San Jose told KCBS he disagreed with the publicity stunt. “I think it’s wrong, sending a wrong […]