6 Tweets that exemplify why South Asian Twitter isn’t feeling ‘Velma.

The debut of “Velma” late last week — a reboot that’s supposed to be a modern adult reinvention of TV classics. “Scooby-Doo where are you?” –He has a remarkable feat to his credit:It was Most watched premiereThe show started as an animated series on HBO Max, but it has not yet been broadcast by a UK network or partner.

He boasted about how previews created hype for the months prior to the event.Mystery Inc.’s diverse cast is accompanied with a equally diverse cast: South Asian protagonist Velma(Mindy Kaling), East Asian Daphne, (Constance Wu), Black Norvell, (Sam Richardson), and Shay Mitchell (Wanda Skies), as well as minor characters voiced by Jane Lynch, Shay Mitchell and Shay Mitchell. The cherry on top was the hint of a strange relationship between Velma and Daphne. sowHat You do not like?

A few notes for My Brown viewers, including myself. We were disappointed to discover that some South Asian tropes don’t accurately reflect our racial identity when we reached the series, which Kaling executive producers. This track is one we are familiar with, having heard it many times.”“The Mindy Project” – I have never done it” And “College students’ sexual livesComments degrading body hair, unattractiveness, regression back to being lonely and inappropriate, snooty banter about a mediocre white man

These images are not entirely the fault of Charlie Grande, the show’s white showrunner. The show is back! what Critics communicateThe familiar Kaling pattern of self-insertion that focuses on whiteness and eliminates browning across four series is getting a lot publicity.

In the three other Kaling shows, whiteness is an aspiration in the characters’ romantic relationship. Mindy Lahiri, (The Mindy Project),Devi Vishwakumar (“Never Have I Ever”) & Bella Malhotra («The sexual life of college students.. He is no longer with us.

Kaling raised our hopes when she acknowledged that it was important to reimagine Velma as a brown girl, while promoting the movie. “The essence of Velma is not necessarily linked to her whiteness,” she said He said last fall. “And I define her character very often, and I think that a lot of people do. So it’s like, yeah let’s make her an Indian for this series.”

Kaling is correct in the superficial sense. In the series, Velma isn’t technically associated with whiteness—perhaps marking “Asian,” then “South Asian” in her standardized fictional tests. In Velma’s neon animated world, brown has connotations. It can be a streak at best. The second episode of the first episode contains a brief sequence commenting on Velma’s weight, “handsome face”, “hairy gorilla arms” and “weight”. Or it is ignored at best. The gray zone Velma occupies can be divisive. Is Kaling attempting to bully her brown hero by bringing him down? Or is she just being a person of color and telling these jokes?

The character Velma (which was written by several people and not Kaling) reminds us about the world almost a decade back. It was a time when the audience was still laughing. Apu Nahasapeemapetilon in The Simpsons and comedian Russell Peters (appropriately voicing Velma’s father, Aman), who used clichéd stereotypes about Indians in his stand-up. “The Mindy ProjectIt first appeared in 2012 with the same tropes that we see in “Film“, which would in some manner be fleshed-out in each subsequent show of its titular creator (Less than thatIn ““I’ve never done this before” But exaggerated”The sexual life of college students).

It is difficult to create one persona that represents all South Asian Americans. Our experiences are not homogeneous. The show is not without its nuances, especially in its making. Vilma CoeerHer character portrayal of her character had not allowed for this in the past. But, I would argue that we have changed in the past when culture was used as a dead end or reason to self-deprecation.

So I went to social media immediately after watching the first episode of “Velma” to see if there was anyone else. Based on the flood of frustrated tweets, it was not alone. Here are some that resonated the most.