Tell us how you really feel, Mindy. Sitcom star Mindy Kaling raised a lot of eyebrows during a panel at SXSW on Monday after she broke out the expletives after being asked about the diversity on The Mindy Project. According to Flavorwire, it all began after an audience member asked Kaling if it was a “conscious decision” for her character to be the only female doctor and only doctor of color on the show.
That’s when the mood of the event suddenly became testy.
“I look at shows on TV, and this is going to just seem defensive, but I’m just gonna say it: I’m a [bleeping] Indian woman who has her own [bleeping] network television show, OK?”
…I have four series regulars that are women on my show, and no one asks any of the shows I adore — and I won’t name them because they’re my friends — why no leads on their shows are women or of color, and I’m the one that gets lobbied about these things.”
So, no, she didn’t actually answer the question of why Dr. Lahiri is the only doctor of color on the show. To be fair, Kaling was probably expecting an extremely sympathetic audience — the panel was titled “Running the Show: TV’s New Queen of Comedy” and was sponsored by Marie Claire. (Flavorwire)
Lakshmi Gandhi is an editor at The Aerogram. You can follow her on Twitter @LakshmiGandhi.
Too many people assumed that after being put in this position she would be a pioneer and open doors for others. But I keep reading article after article and see her on panels where she says she has no responsibility to bring diversity to her cast. I read on another blog, if you take Kaling out of the show would you watch? But until there are more women of color in lead roles on TV we can’t pick what we chose to watch, we gotta watch it all?