How did this show last nearly 30 years, and ONLY NOW realize that Apu is a bit of a stereotype?
Shit: stereotypes are funny. I will trade you: you mock me, and we get to mock you. Deal?
In the past: deal. Now: fuck you, all white men are evil, and the rest is up to us. Shut your fucking mouth and leave while we decide your fate.
Me: I may have some other ideas.
In all honest, I get this image in my head of human sharks, prowling endlessly in the pursuit of some bubble they can burst, some shit they can start, some day they can ruin. And they happened to hit on Apu a week or two ago: THERE, THERE, THERE is an ethnic stereotype. RUIN THEM, RUIN THEM, RUIN THEM.
My best guess is that some Indians (the real ones) found it offensive, most didn’t give a shit one way or the other, since they were using our system to built comfortable lives which would not have been possible in India (particularly in its long and awful Socialist period), and some actually found him amusing. I would hazard a guess that at least 80% of Hindu Americans were either supportive or indifferent. Probably more.
But these fucking psychopaths, these sharks, these human predators–their day and their week is not made until they are shitting on someone.