The media demonisation of desi (south asian) men — an accepted form of discrimination?

A paedophile, a misogynist, a wife beater, a terrorist or a victim of racism in the news. A nerdy, awkward, desexualised comedic sidekick or a creepy, odd, slum dweller with bizarre cultural practices on the TV and in film.

The news and entertainment media have consistently underrepresented and misrepresented desi men. In the age of diversity we have been overlooked. We are persona non grata despite being a minority group with dark skin.

In the news, we are either victims of racism or the oppressor and a problem; we are misogynists, murders, terrorists with little in between.

Articles are written which generalise us and deemed acceptable that would never be published about any other group as it is seen as liberatory/righteous to attack this demographic and openly tar us with the same brush.

TV and film is not much better. Brown men are either socially awkward, creepy, nerds who have been desexualised like Raj from Big Bang Theory or the villain; terrorists, paedophiles etc.

There seems to be no distinction between first generation and later generation South Asian men such as myself who are clearly different in nearly every way apart from skin colour.

Despite being culturally British for all intents and purposes, as many of us are given the history of migration to the UK from the subcontinent, I am not seen as British due to my phenotype. I have nothing to do with what is happening in India yet I suffer the consequences.

Name one brown male superhero? I can’t. There was even a brown female superheroine of Pakistan descent. It is clearly specific to brown men; we are still considered persona non grata in the age of diversity and casting directors simply can’t see us outside their stereotypes.

In Taken 2, a white American woman is kidnapped by Arab sex traffickers and is saved by her white male father. In the age of sensitivity to Muslim representation it probably couldn’t be made now.

In Indiana Jones, the Indians literally eat monkey brains. It’s beyond ridiculous.

What is most irritating is the censorship and media silence about this issue even from so called liberals and diversity virtue signallers. It is extremely unfashionable to talk about brown male issues because we have been so badly represented in the media and liberals have made us an oppressor class.

We cannot complain and have been discouraged from doing so because apparently I am responsible for other desi men or theoretical concepts such as patriarchy.

Brown men in the media are only talked about specifically in this lens; we can’t argue positively without it being under the general Asian umbrella or without adding ridiculous caveats that we have to sort ourselves first in a blatantly racist case of collective responsibility.

As someone who is socially liberal and no skeletons in my closet I have every right to complain.

Desi women are also underrepresented and misrepresented but the British media at least will run articles about their representation and you will see countless Asian women empowerment groups. The BBC has a podcast “Brown Girls Do it Too”.

There is no such thing for Brown Men and there never will be as long as we are an oppressor group and they are an oppressed group. Desi men are victims of racism or the problem, desi women are victims of racism or the victims of desi men.

Love Island is a perfect example of this. You will see every race and gender represented but brown men are underrepresented to a laughable degree. When one did appear he was called Aladdin. An Asian woman recently won the show but that didn’t stop the Metro writing an article about South Asians being underrepresented but focusing entirely on women. This is a deliberate choice by casting directors and media editors.

What is even more upsetting is even our own people do this. The most prominent British Asian film of all time is probably Bend it Like Beckham. In this movie every straight brown man is a misogynist and at the end of the film they fight amongst each other whilst the brown heroine walks off into the sunset with her nice white boyfriend who is none of these things. The only brown man represented as someone not controlling or sexist is a gay man.

Could you imagine a British Asian man directing a film in which every Asian woman was represented negatively? There would be feminist outrage and rightly so. The hypocrisy is outstanding.

There needs to be introspection into what diversity really means and if it is actually for minority groups or not and we need is films and TV directed by desi men for desi men. That’s the only way we will get our due representation as clearly so far it has been proven nobody else is willing to do a good job.