Goodness gracious me! The Simpsons is most surely missing the point. Apu, the Hindu shopkeeper at the Kwik-E-Mart convenience store in the long-running cartoon series has, reportedly, been dumped from the show, following complaints that his character is a racist misrepresentation of South Asians.
In particular, he’s got a ‘funny voice’. Condemned as a stereotype, Apu has become the target for a campaign of hand-wringing and virtue-signalling.
The faux outrage completely ignores the fact that, in the fictional town of Springfield — a place not noted for its intellectuals — Apu Nahasapeemapetilon is well-read and armed with thoughtful opinions.
Top of his class (of seven million) at technical college in Calcutta, he also has a PhD in computer science and is a member of Mensa. He is unfailingly polite to his customers, always wishing them well with his catchphrase, ‘Thank-you-come-again’.
