How does the media influence society? How do media representations of South Asians, as racial and ethnic minorities, perpetuate stereotypes about this group? How do advancements in visual media, from creative storytelling to streaming technology, inform changing dynamics of all non-white media representations in the 21st century? Analyzing audience perceptions of South Asian characters from The Simpsons, Slumdog Millionaire, Harold and Kumar, The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Big Bang Theory, Outsourced, and many others, Bhoomi K. Thakore argues for the importance of understanding these representations as they influence the positioning of South Asians into the 21st century U.S. racial hierarchy. On one hand, increased acceptance of this group into the entertainment fold has informed audience perceptions of these characters as “just like everyone else.” However, these images remain secondary on the U.S. Screen, and are limited in their ability to break out of traditional stereotypes. As a result, a normative and assimilated white American identity is privileged both on the Screen, and in our increasingly multicultural society.

"Thakore (Elmhurst College) is a sociologist, and in this book she is concerned with cultural appropriation (a term recently made current by novelist Lionel Schriver) and cultural misappropriation. Many scholars have accepted the inevitability of globalization, but others have pitched a culture war against appropriation. Thakore is on the side of the latter. First, she argues, South Asians are underrepresented. Then, when they are represented, they are stereotyped (as in the case of Slumdog Millionaire). In addition to being stereotyped, these characters are rarely three dimensional. Though Thakore comes down hard, she does not overlook work that achieves limited success. Kal Penn’s character in the television series House committed suicide but that was to free Penn up to take a job with the Obama administration. In the end, Thakore contends, in presenting South Asian characters the screen offers them not as multidimensional but as assimilated white Americans—"just like everyone else"—the current trend toward globalization notwithstanding. Thakore uses graphs and survey reports to illustrate her argument. Of interest for those interested in sociology as well as film studies. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty." - CHOICE

"Written in accessible prose, South Asians on the U.S. Screen is an engaging and informative text that joins a large body of critical race and media scholarship on film and television, which monitors the onscreen portrayals of different racial groups and evaluates how audiences make sense of those images. Updating earlier work on Asian portrayals, it provides an analysis of contemporary South Asian images and draws meaningful comparisons with other racial groups. The book would particularly interest television aficionados, as well as citizens concerned with the broader impact of immigration on facets of everyday life, including the production and reception of popular film and television images." - Sociology of Race and Ethnicity