Millenials, Stop Hating!

November 9. 2018

Millennials are getting on my nerves recently. I don't know how I can describe it... I was born 1989 and that makes me a millennial. I transitioned to adulthood ever since I graduated high school and my vocation program. I know how hard it is to find job when you everyone wants to downsize. But I am not talking about employment or politics. I want to talk about social issues that bother certain groups of people. Now a days people complain all the time. 

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I love my cartoons. When I moved to America, I got hooked on The Simpsons. a show about a family, that is dysfunctional but they stick tougher no matter what. One character Mrs. K, was retired due to cancer death of Marcia Wallace, of the voice actors and in the intro there was a tribute or rather a sad good-bye and The Simpsons displayed many times tribute to their staff and big names in entertainment to sports athletes. All these name are displayed after an episode ends. This particular one did it in the begining was done perfectly. And it was toching.

In recent weeks one character will be written off due to racial stereotypes. But what is wrong with the character? In my opinion nothing. The character is Apu, a store owner from India. He works long shifts, is married and has eight kids.Yes, Hindus have large families. Yes, they are business owners. And yes, all of us have distinctive accents. For example, if you heard a person from Boston say, I lost my car keys, you might think he lost his pants but that's not what they mean at all. I have an accent too, but so what. The Indian character is played, or should I say was by Hank Azaria, the same guy who gives voices like for Homer, Chief Wiggum, Comic Book Guy, Disco Stu and a handful of others. So why do complain about? Family Guy has a character named Cleveland Brown, who is black and the voice actor is Mike Green who is white. What now? Will you bash Family Guy next? You were bashing Tom & Jerry for being racist few years ago.  Every Simpson character is based on the observations what creators and voice actors seen in their past.

The stand up comedian, Hari Kondabolu grew up watching The Simpsons when growing up and he praised the show for the cultural impact and he could relate to the characters. Apu was not the character. He could not relate to him just because of the thick accent. Hari Kondabolu's explanation is that no Hindu sound like that. We all have accents, even I do. I speak English very well and people still can recognize where I might be from. Polish is rather hard language because unlike English, we don't have silent letters and syllables. Each letter is very distinctive. Many of my peers and teachers in school told me that this such and such words have silent letter. When I moved here, I could already speak English. I picked up English fast and this is true, back in Poland my favorite class in school was English. And speaking of English, I find it very interesting how Japanese try to pronounce English words. Japanese have the same vowels (a, e, i, o, u, y) but every letter in the aplahabet and syllables have a vowel at the end and a lot of Japanese speak English using their own vowels. I think I got a little of track… Back to my point.

As a kid, I loved that shows and I did not see any racist stereotypes in TV shows. Just good humor. As you read in my biography, I am from Poland and we like to laugh at ourselves and America has many comments like, Polaks like to drink lots of alcohol and are dumb. Yes, many of us like to drink a lot and that's true. So as the Swedes, Russians or Americans. And we certify are not dumb. We can read and write, and we have many famus people from my  country. And everyone has different accents like the British, Irish and Australians. There are many actors who played Polish people and they played them perfectly. For example, Vince Vaughn in these romantic comedies and there are many others. And it did not bother me at all.

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I have a little message for the millennials. If you don't like he shows you watch, nobody is forcing you to watch it. Keep your opinions to yourself and do something else instead of cretisizing things you did not create. How about you create a cartoon show and I start bashing it? How that will make you feel? We all look the same, we all bleed the same blood and we have the same things in common. Don't let racial stereotypes bother you, learn to laugh at yourself and then you might understand. And going back to accents, we will eventually lose them because we live in the era when it is normal for different races melt together. Skin color and the way we talk does not matter!

Here is my idea for Apu's character tribute episode, if the writers plan to write him off. After working in the convenient store for many years, Apu gets promoted to a executive board member. The Simpson family feeling happy for him don't want him to leave but Apu says it's a huge opportunity and made up his decision. Apu moves with his family to Capital City where the headquarters are. To his disappointment he finds out that the entire Kwik-E-Mart corporation is a mess with expired food products and unsanitary conditions, demands to change the image of the stores and fire neglectful employees after customers complaints. The team agrees with Apu's idea and in short period of time about future of Kwik-E-Mart. But Apu had a dilemma, he had to confess that he wasn't a good team member and made lot's of mistakes when he first got hired after moving to America. The executives accept Apu's apology. Sadly being an executive team member takes a toll on Apu's health. Apu is sick from stress and seeks retirement. Meanwhile his wife, Manjula is against the idea and decides to help him out. She applies to work on the board. Meanwhile Homer gets injured after tripping in front of the store on the pothole and sues the company. Apu's reimbursement from his own hard saved money makes Homer happy. He tells Homer that, he would pay for his tratments because none of them want to bother with the court system. After the lawsuit both find out that the Kwik-E-Mart files for bankruptcy, and Homer decides to help Apu to his best ability. But Apu said that he had been laid-off and asked for his old job back after many locations have closed and the only one in Springfield stayed open. Apu promised to be fair to his loyal customers but after another robbery during late night shift, Apu retires and sgns off and gives the ownership to his oldest son. A naional news station decisides to broadcast an interview after hearing that Apu never took a vacation or even a sick day, making him a respected role model. 

Now that would be an good episode! A proper send off. The reason I came up with this plot is that Apu is hard working and a good character. When I look at different races, I only see a person not a skin color. People want to achive great things and bring joy to others. Some want to share their achivements. And last thing, and I will say this again, my website talks about positive topics and I ask other millennial to accept and deal with what you see on TV and hear on the radio. If you can't, turn it off. Go outside, play a video game.  Do something else constructive. Apu is an unique character and beloved by many. Will he stay or be adapted?

© E. P. Sendecki / EeroSendTheKey