I will begin my Ted-Talk with a few examples from popular TV shows and films and contrast them with examples of South-Asian representation today, which sets up the discussion of the change that has taken place. I will also add personal anecdotes here. I will make sure to also talk about the overall implication of this change. I will bring up the question of whether the change still upholds racial hierarchy by showing characters assimilating to American culture or whether the change is organic and accurate. I will go in-depth into this later on.

Next, I will set up an initial context for the impact of misrepresentation. There is a large population of Asian-Americans in the US, and many that have always been in the US and are not as connected to the cultures they descend from. It is important that impressionable audiences do not receive an inaccurate message, and it is important that audiences who have grown up with a greater exposure to their cultures do not feel misrepresented or demeaned. I will draw in information from my sources here to back up my argument.

I will go on to provide examples of shows that didn’t hit the mark when it came to South-Asian representation. As South-Asia consists of multiple ethnicities, I will make sure to address them differently. Examples can include but will not be limited to The Simpsons, Outsourced, and The Mindy Project.

I will contrast the examples from before with more recent representation in shows like The Good Place, among others. I will highlight that representation does not mean writing a character with the sole character trait being the fact that they are Asian, but making them well-rounded with more dynamic personalities. Additionally, roles do not have to be written for a South-Asian character, but can still star a South-Asian actor purely for their skills and talents. Visual aids will be used for every show that I mention (stills, not video clips).

Lastly, I will discuss the perceptions of modern representation and what it really means. Do characters need to assimilate to American culture to be more acceptable by audiences? Do they have to be either highly stereotypical or highly Americanized and nowhere in between? What does misrepresentation or lack of misrepresentation mean in the long run? How is racial stigma shaped by what is portrayed in popular media? Here I will use sources again (155 online surveys that assessed audience perceptions of South-Asian characters in popular shows and movies).

I will include a little about what can be done moving forward as well.

I will not make my conclusion sound separate from the rest of my speech. I’ll make an overall comment on the points I have already made. I will reiterate the importance of accurate representation, the impact on racial stigma, and how things can further change moving forward.