The Morning Show has a Diversity Whitewashing problem
In the second season of Apple TV’s The Morning show,
Hassan Minhaj’s character is called “Eric”
Janina Gavankar’s character is called “Allison”
Theo Iyer’s character is called “Kyle”
Mindy Kaling’s character is called “Audra”
Do you see a trend here ??
As a Indian , when I observed this trend I wondered, whether it would have really meant any material difference to the show’s storyline if their names had been Aakash or Rajiv or Farzaan or Aliya or Faiza ( aka Brown face =Brown name)
What is the point of casting “diverse” actors and then whitewashing their on-screen presence with “Americanized names”, as though to compensate and apologize for casting them in the first place?
Considering that Hassan Minhaj is probably the most recognizable face amongst the three names I mentioned earlier (no disrespect intended to the Janina and Theo) and he has said several times that he never wanted to change his name on TV, why did he agree to be “Eric” for The Morning Show? Would his character’s storyline or impact been any different if his character’s name sounded similar to “Fareed” or “Manu” who have been very successful while keeping their ”original Indian names” in TV and news reporting?
In the 1980’s former Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal changed his name from Piyush to Bobby , a few years later actor Kal Penn changed his name from Kalpen Suresh Modi to sound like Sean Penn and Vera Mindy Chokalingam became Mindy Kaling to have a “sweet American name”
In the post 2015 era, it looks like Indians can become CEOs of Google or Microsoft or IBM by keeping their “original name”, but if you have made it big in Politics or Hollywood you still need an “American name” to make it “easy on the palate” for those who make the decisions about casting diverse actors. There are truly some things that token “diversity casting” doesn’t change, and it’s called real “inclusion and belonging”.
Let’s inform “The Morning Show’ that its viewers can accept a Dinesh, Anita or a Aakash just like they have accepted a Bradley, a Alex and a Mitch.
The show’s tagline — “The News in only half the story” rings more true now than ever.
