South Asian Representation
Over the last decade or so, there has been much more positive representation of South Asians in the media, but people don’t seem to talk about just how important that is.
For a long time, characters such as Ravi from Jessie and Baljeet from Phineas & Ferb were some of the only South Asian kids on screen, and even then, they were portrayed as stereotypical Indian boys with an accent. Even today, it still feels like we can’t completely escape that bubble. With shows like Never Have I Ever and season 2 of Bridgerton, South Asians are finally able to see people that look like them on the screen in a normal setting, just… existing. Not just as a character who provides comedic relief, but as real characters in normal settings.
When Representation Is Missing, You Feel It
I am a Bengali American, and I grew up in a predominantly white neighborhood. When we first moved to my area, there were not many other Bengalis or, really, any South Asians at all, but in the last 10 years, there are now entire communities of us. Although I did still grow up around my culture, I remember feeling a lot of imposter syndrome because I never felt “brown enough,” but I also never felt fully “western” either.
I have an ethnic name, I consume and enjoy South Asian media, and I eat my culture’s foods. I have always been proud of those things, so I assumed I was completely comfortable with my identity, but looking back, I can see that I had internalized smaller microaggressions without realizing it. I grew up seeing my mom wear traditional clothes in public, and that never felt strange to me. But when it came to wearing simply just casual cultural clothes myself, I felt weird about it, even though there was nothing weird about it at all. It’s only been recently that I’ve found myself wanting to incorporate pieces of my culture into my everyday life.
Representation comes in more than just forms of media. It also comes from the people you surround yourself with. I grew up around a diverse group of people, but my closest friends were never from the same culture. It wasn’t intentional, but it just happened naturally through school, work, and the spaces I was in.
The Power of Being seen
Within the last year, I have started to surround myself with and spend more time with people who share my cultural background, and I have slowly realized how much of a difference that makes. Being able to talk about small details of my culture without having to go into another conversation to explain them, or even casually mix in parts of my language during conversation, has made me appreciate my culture and feel much more connected to it. To many, these details may seem small and can’t really change one’s perspective on themself, but to me, small details add up over time.
I think for a long time, I didn’t realize how much I was shrinking parts of myself without meaning to. Not in big, obvious ways, but in small choices. What I wore, how much I explained myself, when I decided it was “worth it” to bring up my culture versus when it felt easier not to. None of it came from shame exactly, but more from wanting to blend in and not stand out too much. Seeing more South Asians represented in media and in my own life has made me more aware of those moments. It’s made me question why certain things ever felt uncomfortable in the first place, and who that discomfort was really for.
At the end of the day, representation is really about feeling seen.