Must not imitate Indians

We read:

"You must have heard by now about his “racist” ad – a series of commercials where Ashton portrays different men looking for love on some faux dating site. It’s all a sort of stealth stand-in advertising PopChips snacks. The ad’s conceit is simple – Ashton presents himself as several different characters making videos for a generic dating site that subtly mentions PopChips. He does his best metrosexual German designer (Karl Lagerfeld to be exact), a sensitive biker named Swordfish, an English stoner/hippie-type and an Indian Bollywood film producer. Objectively, the portrayals are all really high-school level improvs but you can see the idea. Ashton gets to show off his comedic range, have some laughs and make some dough. Well, that might have happened if not for the delicate sensitivities of much of our world today.

The ugly slurs and screams started almost immediately. RACIST! How dare he? Kutcher was accused of donning “brownface,” a term morphed from the “blackface” method employed during post-Civil War minstrel shows where some acts took to mocking black people and their culture. In this case, Kutcher was deemed guilty almost instantly of insulting Indian people, causing PopChips to suffer a corporate aneurism. They pulled the offending ad and immediately retreated to a corner

But why is this racist? What did they do that was so cruel or even offensive? And how come he can portray a pasty-faced German bisexual and that’s okay? Don’t they have feelings too? Why isn’t an English stoner named Nigel off limits? Aren’t slack-jawed, biker-types deserving of blanket cultural protection as well? What if Swordfish is Polish or Dutch or even part Chinese? Isn’t that just as insensitive? Is it only the race being poked at that’s wrong?

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