Is The Portrayal of Ravi On Disney Channel’s “Jessie” Racist, Unfunny, or Both?

By Jeff | Wednesday, February 1, 2012 | 7 Comments

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I have written before about the character of Ravi on the Disney Channel’s Jessie show and talked about how some wonder why this Indian American character has to have an accent. The reason why is apparent in this clip which makes Ravi’s Indian culture the entire joke. Not surprisingly, the clip has raised a stir in blogs like this and garnered many dislikes (I can see why Disney turned off comments). Some people don’t think it is so bad, but then again, others react to lines like “I am a human samosa” (not in this clip but in other episodes). What do you all think? Is the portrayal racist, unfunny, both, or neither?

Number Two Son’s reactions to the clip was that it was “culturally ignorant.” He no longer watches the Disney Channel. My personal take is that it is both racist and unfunny. Even Baljit’s portrayal on Phineas and Ferb is better than this, as it is funny most of the time and doesn’t drive all of its humor out of weird versions of Indian culture. There is a chance that Jessie“can get better and more nuanced in how it treats Ravi, but I’m not holding my breath.

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Facebook Comments (Beta)

ellebee11

I was totally distracted by the other kid’s gay dance. Is he supposed to be gay? I think Ravi was the most normal kid in the clip! We have 1 kid that wants to be a part of Menudo, and another kid that torched her doll’s face off. I’m surprised only the face got torched, and not the hair. lol… i know i know! that was racist! But Jessie should have made THAT joke when she saw the doll. of course if she did, then Disney would have the NAACP knocking on their door. If Ravi didn’t have the accent, I don’t think it would have been as racist, and just more educational…..
Laciemn

I think it was sort of both. I mean, there’s such a big reaction to the kid’s garb. Not to mention the lady corrects the young kid for making fun of it, yet then she pronounces it wrong and when he gently corrects her she gets this unpleasant look and goes, “sure,” in this “no one cares about your silly culture” tone.
http://www.bigwowo.com/ bigWOWO

Yeah, I think it was racist. Indian culture has definitely come to the U.S. in force with Bollywood, etc., but this clip seemed only to make fun of the poor kid for loving his culture enough to show it. It would be one thing if Indian culture were an equal or near-equal to the dominant culture, but in this case, it’s simply subjecting another culture for the sake of an unfunny joke.
Luv4theGame

He also plays Chirag Gupta from Diary of a Wimpy Kid:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqgHO76vpfk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1WENhbErRo
socalmoslem

yeh…so i am happy I am not the only one gripping about this. I think the Ravi character has gotten worse in terms of his portrayal just over this past season. I talked to my cousins, all under the age of 14, and none of them said they liked the show, but worse one of them told me a story about how he got picked on by kids who used lines from the show. He’s doing fine, but the incident goes to show that the protrayal has real world consequences and in a world where “bullying” is a “big concern” Disney sure seems oblivious to that content-real world-nexus.
socalmoslem

@ellebee11 you know i been thinking about this show all day- after my own blog rant about it a while ago- I wanted to respond to your comment because the character you refer to is also OVERLY stereotyped. Zuri is adopted at birth from “Africa”. Disney doesn’t even bother to say where in Africa, rather refers to her birth country as the continent, similar to the idea that if your from “Africa” you must speak “African.” they don’t ever refer to her actual birth place/country reflecting the idea that its just not “relevant”- but I can’t accept that, because we got a county where folks don’t even know where the country we are fighting a war in is geographically placed. Worse, and more overt, Zuri exhibits the stereotypical tendencies of an African American “woman”- the neck wagging, smart mouthing, sassiness and self interest- she represents a one-dimensional character without any respect to the qualities that she as an individual might possess outside of her ethnic background. I watch Disney and they can produce “entertaining” shows, but Jessie relies on racism, overly simplistic stereotyped approach in order to keep the show going more than any other shows Disney has going on. Its not intelligent, its not funny and its just outright racist if you ask me.
BriannaWalker

I never understood it. I have international friends, especially in India, and this role on the Disney Channel does not do that ethnicity justice. I don’t watch “Jessie”, and I especially don’t watch Disney. Disney needs more diversity. It actually quite lacks it. I still can’t understand why Brenda Song never got her own show…

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