Hari Kondabolu, comedian and star of The Problem With Apu (2017), joins UCSB's Kum-Kum Bhavnani for a conversation about the film. Kondabolu reflects on what it means to retrospectively reexamine offensive stereotypes about race, culture, and forms of work, as well as the power of humor to disarm and dismantle them. Kondabolu and Bhavnani discuss at length how, rather than creatively being intended as hurtful or offensive, stereotypes can enter the cultural lexicon as struggling/tokenized forms of representation in cultures where there is otherwise none, or as a form of insensitive marketing of foreignness in and for a dominant culture, as well as the eventual dilemmas this can cause for the creators and the legacy of their works.
Recorded on 04/05/2018. (#33754)
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