@scribeofthecodex said:

My question is if you’re writing an Indian American character for a story as a white writer, should you bring up the caste at all? I know surnames can tell what caste a character could come from, and have read news articles on how caste can follow a person even after immigration or even changing of religions, but it does sound like a case of ‘not my story to tell’ because it can be so complex and really easy to get wrong. So is it better not to talk about it or is erasure of important issues?

Whenever you write a white character, do you feel the need to discuss racism, even if the plot doesn’t involve social justice topics? If you don’t feel comfortable writing about casteism as a social issue, then don’t. It’s not something I’m comfortable writing about as a South Asian, definitely not something I’d recommend to a white writer who’s not prepared to do the hard work.

The main issues I see in South Asian characters is that non-scheduled castes are the most commonly represented, writers often portray the culture of non-scheduled castes as the only South Asian culture, and casteism in the writing itself.

When writing a character from a non-scheduled caste, I would keep those things in mind. I would be careful about casteism in the writing. Recognize that you aren’t breaking any barriers in this specific area.

Non-scheduled castes exist and make up a large part of the South Asian diaspora. There’s nothing wrong with writing characters from non-scheduled castes. However, casteism is primarily an intra-community issue and there’s nothing wrong with a South Asian character existing as a non-scheduled caste.

- SK

I think the advice of approaching writing Indians (particularly Hindus, and particularly Brahmin Hindus) as akin to writing about white people in the context of South Asia is helpful. More generally, this is about knowing that the existence of majority perspectives doesn’t make minority perspectives less valid or deserving of representation. It would be very exhausting if we devoted ourselves to discussing anti-caste and social justice topics all the time. Frankly, this is not a productive approach to a problem that spans millennia.

Depending on your setting, you can easily show caste diversity simply by how you name your characters. Someone growing up in Edison, New Jersey or a major American metropolitan area is likely to have many desi acquaintances from a variety of backgrounds. You can dodge the issue by making the story about children who are likely too young to be preoccupied by caste stereotypes or conflicts. Caste is a part of the identity of many desis, but it is a part, not the only part. Are race and nationality the only significant aspects of your own identity and character? If you aren’t comfortable addressing caste, simply seek a setting where caste is less relevant to your story. For me personally, pan-South Asian solidarity is more what I identified with in the US because many people I know experienced similar forms of discrimination and othering, particularly post-War on Terror. This isn’t to say casteism doesn’t happen in the US (See the Qualcomm incident), but for diaspora who grow up in the US, it can be easier to ID with people who share secular/ cultural aspects of life rather than focus on caste, religion and other divisions that are more relevant back home (Food, home life habits, where we shop, clothing, etc.).

To our desi followers, how do you feel about non-desi discussing caste? Do you feel this is an intra-community issue? Or one that can benefit from broader, global commentary? I believe the former (Having witnessed similar patterns of social stratification in Japan and the USA), but I also worry that many non-desi populations lack the education and appreciation for nuance needed to discuss this issue.

We request comments only from desi followers.

- Marika.

@lun4rc0w said:

I know that doing a whole hecking lot of research if you’re writing a major character who is POC is important, but what about minor characters? I don’t mean to sound dismissive I’m just not sure if you should read a whole book or something to write a character who has a very small role.

Why Research is Important

I’m curious why, as a writer, you would want to write about characters from backgrounds with which you are not familiar if you have no interest in doing the research? Research helps us write about foreign topics by giving us the appropriate context needed to ground characters and settings, making their presence in the plot and interactions with other characters compelling. I don’t mean to sound dismissive, but is it reasonable for an audience to invest in a story if the writer can’t be bothered to care whether or not the average individual finds the story worth reading? 

Please excuse my blunt response, but I wanted to make a point. As a consumer of media, I can easily tell when a creator cares enough to try and capture my attention, as I’m sure you can as well. Poor research creates dissonance, which disrupts your audience’s ability to engage with your work.

Let’s remove race/ ethnicity/ culture from the equation and look at this problem from a different angle. Many popular works in different genres of literature (Mystery, fantasy, sci-fi, historical fiction) live or die by their technical accuracy, often requiring copious research. Think of researching diverse characters as another form of accuracy but for societies, norms and social concepts as opposed to physics, warfare or forensics.

If you find that the amount of work needed to research a particular character is exceeding what you are willing to do, I think there are several approaches.

1. If a character is minor enough that their background has no relevance to the plot, setting or other characters, they probably can be eliminated. Remember: poor representation is often the greater sin.
2. If the research needed for a particular background is too tiresome, perhaps the background can be changed to something more accessible. There is no shame in not being ready to integrate diversity into your writing at a rapid speed. Take your time.
3. Just write for yourself. Never share your work. Store your works in a secret room hidden behind a bookcase.
   

- Marika.

@theoldgodsarealiveandbitching submitted:

Hey there, I’m working on a fantasy story where one of the girls who forms the starting cast is a Japanese-Canadian girl, and she’s a third-generation Canadian. I know it’s more common for second and third-generation immigrants to have Western first names, but I’d love to use the name Tomoko Sato for her as the meaning really suits. In terms of justification, her primary caretaker is her grandmother, who is a fashion designer that built a business off a fashion house that incorporates traditional Japanese fashion elements into their designs. I think it would make a lot of sense for her to push back against the pressure to assimilate.

As well, I’m worried about her falling into the Smart Asian trope, as she isn’t particularly great at school (her ADHD makes classroom learning hard), but she likes accruing knowledge and has a super broad knowledge base from cycling through hyper-fixations. She’s excellent at thinking at her feet and has a few moments throughout the story where she invents unique solutions or puts together things before the rest of the cast. She and her Nigerian-Canadian friend and love interest work together on a journal of their experiences throughout as well, with her providing the writing and him doing illustrations, though that plot line can easily be scrapped if the urge on her part to observe and document seems unnatural or forced. 

Lastly, she regularly colours her hair a platinum blonde colour. It doesn’t have a huge significance behind it besides her liking the aesthetic and enjoying it as a form of self-expression. Do you think it runs the risk of encroaching on the “Asian girl with coloured hair” trope? Thanks in advance!

WWC Commentary on Asians with Hair Streaks 

~ Mod Rina

The protagonist’s name is a little generic and old-fashioned (Think Jane Smith). There is nothing wrong with her name, but it might be nice to think about why she has the name that she does. I know my share of Nikkei acquaintances who are named for older relatives and thus have names that are more common in previous eras. 

I wouldn’t worry too much about the Smart Asian trope. You have concisely stated many characteristics of people with ADHD who manage to succeed in academic settings despite their limitations simply because coping skills and hyperfixation make up the difference (Also known as How Marika Got a 5 in AP US History Without Studying). Remember: tropes and stereotypes are tools. They aren’t meant to be avoided part and parcel, but rather used in moderation when they can result in more compelling narratives.

- Marika

endersrayne asked:

After scouring the #japanese and #mythology for weeks. I think I have the strength to ask my question.

I have a story that can be summarized as “secret society of immortal Japanese demon hunters in Japan”. The immortality comes from eating the demons. This practice is like “Sin eating”. I think they see their bodies as “filters” and doing a (spiritual) service for their country. The demons are normally born from emotions but there is also a hell.

In the macros, every known country has their version of “secret demon hunter” and methods of exorcism. I had the demon eater aspect be apart of various cultures throughout east Asian regions. However if that hits any no-no’s I can gladly drop that point.

I saw in a tagged post that the “Japanese bad boy” is an insensitive topic. I was confused as to why but if that’s the case I feel that my deuturagonist could fall into this category. He is bonded to the protagonist, an African-American expat who is a big anime fangirl. As he navigates his relationship with her, he confronts his family’s plus his own views on race and other-ism. Eventually he’ll have a “rebel” reputation. This is not to glorify the “bad boy”. He also happens to like rocker culture but his choices aren’t influenced by it. Let me know any issues.

World-building and Religious Incompatibility

Rina will handle the latter part of your ask, but I have some comments about your world-building. Demons, exorcisms and purification in Japan culturally fall under the purview of Shinto, Shinto-Buddhist syncretism and indigenous shamanism. Thus, these would be the philosophies that would influence any school of demon hunting. However, there are culturally Christian elements to your world-building that don’t quite make sense to me in the contexts of these religions. 

1. The view of demons as creatures needing to be hunted: In Buddhism, demons serve a purpose. They test people, either towards temptation or to help them eradicate moral impurity. Within Shinto, evil and uncleanliness manifest less from malignant forces and more from the stagnancy and traumas that we humans create through our thoughts and actions. 
2. The use of Christianity-specific terminology like “sin” or “hell.” There are hells in both Shinto and Buddhism. The former, however, is more like the underworld in Greek mythology. For the latter, it’s more like a purgatory where souls work off bad karma (and this is more specifically for esoteric Buddhism). I think comparing exorcism and purification to filtration is actually not bad, but rest feels off. 
3. The immortality. Immortality in Japan is generally thought of as unnatural. A side effect of being a country full of volcanoes on the Rim of Fire in the Pacific (In addition to fun things like typhoons) is that death and renewal are a constant reality. Key aspects of Japanese culture are about appreciating that things are precious because they are impermanent. Immortality makes this appreciation difficult. 
4. This last point is not religion related, but you say they demon hunters perform this service as “a (spiritual) service for their country.” This, and other parts of your description, imply one Japanese religion and the existence of a unified Japanese people. This is harmful because Shinto-backed Yamato supremacy has been used for over 200 years to justify the oppression and genocide of Ainu and Ryukyuan communities. Leaving aside religious diversity, Japan has historically had at least 3 major indigenenous ethnicities, several major immigrant communities and 1 officially labeled underclass. Whose interests do this organization really serve? Under whose orders? And for which religion? Which sect?

Essentially, your problem is a lot like when JK Rowling writes her version of wizardry for any country besides the UK. She can write one part of the world very well, but as soon as she extrapolates her world-building to countries and cultures where she lacks competency, she moves towards stereotypes and oversimplification at the expense of those cultures. Trying to distill any single culture, let alone a country, into a representative organization is a mammoth task even for someone who knows what they are doing.

Possible Solutions

I have 2 possible suggestions for world-building, both for Japan and the macroscopic view to reduce this risk of poor representation:

1. Instead of trying to come up with an overgeneralized secret organization for each country with all members practicing the same techniques or following the same underlying religious/ spiritual principles is to simply come up with individual characters from a variety of backgrounds. Then, think of a more secular organizational structure appropriate for each country that would allow these individuals to participate (Ex. A board of directors, a cooperative, a league, etc.).
   
2. Move away from urban fantasy to straight fantasy. This would allow you greater creative freedom. Set your demon hunter story in a world where you use coding to adapt and combine the specific elements of a Japanese culture that appeal to you with other culture(s) to create something more original that has a variety of cultural influences, but doesn’t run the risk of resulting in poor representation for a single culture because it will be uniquely it’s own.
   

Either way, I see more research in your future.

- Marika.

“Bad Boy Deuteragonist”

With regards to your deuteragonist, I figure you mean this post I wrote on fetishization. And uh, I never said that Japanese “bad boys” are an insensitive topic, rather that the idea of the villified, exoticized Japanese man was an Old Hollywood trope that goes to show that Japanese men were fetishized in the context of their foreignness. Ask yourself:

When I used the term “bad boy” in that post, was I really referring to the leather-jacket wearing delinquent type (which has its own Japanese media stereotypes FYI)? Or was I cheesily referring to the brooding, taboo, “exotic” Asian lover archetype of silent film, in the context of Sessue Hayakawa’s biography? (hint: it’s the latter)

Did I not say that this archetype was pretty much a dead trope, because it was situated in the context of mid-century American taboo of interracial relationships? (hint: I did) 

Please read the Sessue Hayakawa biography I linked to in that post, and perhaps you will be less confused. 

That being said, I still do see some potential for exoticization as-is, completely unrelated to his punk-rocking. I feel the need to point out that your “anime fangirl” protagonist is just as at risk of fetishizing her boyfriend as if she were white. Being a different kind of POC does not absolve one of fetishization against East Asians. You may want to rethink that label altogether, and critically examine in what way your protag is an “anime fangirl.”

How do Japanese people feel about non-Japanese anime fans?

A quick poll among my Japanese peers shows that:

• While over 90% of respondents were good with dating someone who enjoyed manga/anime (Provided they didn’t refer to themselves as a “weeb,” “otaku,” or “anime fangirl/boy…”)
• …Only ~20% of respondents were good with dating someone who unironically used the above labels. 
• Most people who responded in the negative said they may be convinced to go on a first date, but wouldn’t expect much, with one respondent noting that they would be significantly on edge. 
• That being said! A few respondents commented that they were willing to give BIPOC more benefit of the doubt, citing the alt-right hostility of many white-dominated weeb circles which they believed would keep many anime-consuming BIPOC out of the most harmful influences/communities. Even then, their willingness to date weeb/otaku/fangirl/boy BIPOC was rated as “neutral.”

This goes to show that, for the sake of the English-speaking Japanese people reading your story (Aka Nikkei people who care about representation) you should diminish the fangirl aspect of your protagonist, and just make her love of anime incidental. Make it so that your Japanese guy is neutral with respect to your protagonists’s interests, rather than, say, flattered that she’s “interested in his culture” or anything like that. Similarly, bonding over some mutual obsession of anime would be cringy and voyeuristic, not in the sense that it’s unrealistic (Japanese people like anime too!), but in the sense that it plays too readily into what Westerners (Particularly weeaboos) may expect. 

Confrontations with family

As for the way he confronts his and his family’s views on race, it’s unclear whether you mean the racism he experiences, or the racism the Black protagonist experiences. If we had more info, we could help you. Just consider these basic facts and make of them what you will:

• Yamato Japanese people are the dominant group and all other ethnicities are minorities; think of racism in terms of who is considered the Other, and who is systematically favored. 
• Anti-blackness in Japan is a big issue, but also one where Black residents of Japan, Black Japanese, and Black Nikkei should have their voices prioritized. Are you one of these groups? What issues will you cover? If you are non-black, are you getting consultation? Are you overstepping? 

You have quite a bit of cultural researching to do. Good luck. 

~Mod Rina

@viola-cola said:

I have a half-Indian, half-Scottish character named Niraj Ajit Sonar (Ajit being his father’s name) born in Scotland. His father is Marathi and immigrated to Scotland, while his mother is white. I’m mostly confident this name makes sense, but thought I should check anyway. My primary concern with this character is showing that he is a practicing Hindu when the story takes place in a boarding school. Beyond him going home for certain important holidays, how might he practice on a daily basis?

The Obvious:

• If he’s had a thread ceremony, you could show that he wears it under his clothes at all times. Many Hindu boys tend to have a thread ceremony performed before they are 16. 
• He might be used to taking his shoes off in his dorm room, as many diaspora South Asians do at home (The American/ British habit of wearing shoes at home still puzzles me to this day, given their preference for carpeting). 

The Less Obvious:

• Whether or not he chooses to be vegetarian depends on his personal convictions, his family and also his assimilation within the UK, but as a Brahmin who openly consumes and prepares beef, even I have a certain level of guilt about consuming beef, so that’s another cue that communal dining in boarding schools might offer. I can imagine lots of family tension around meals at home where the father has issues with beef that the mother’s family just doesn’t understand (This is heavily pulled from my own life). I’ve made the mistake of almost eating beef in front my Hindu relatives when they come to visit and oof.
• Sonar/ Sunar is a goldsmithing last name, so it might be fun to have relatives back in India sending him jewelry (like gold chains) or metal statues of Ganesha or Saraswati (For luck and studies) that he debates over bringing to school. It’s very typical for South Asian relatives who can afford it to send gold jewelry to favored children as gold is perceived as protective in many South Asian cultures. More practically, gold is a highly liquid asset in India. Explaining to my family that I couldn’t possibly wear the elaborate jewelry they sent me in a Western environment or the risks of displaying a sterling silver statue of Ganesha in my dorm room was a particular struggle growing up, but in this case, it could serve as a subtle nod to his caste background as well. In my case, I abandoned the silver Ganesha statue, but I did keep a prayer altar in my room that I offered incense to on a regular basis. Thankfully, my roommates had no issue, but California is also very strict about the protection of religious expression.
  

Coding Hinduism in British Environments

I think the best way to code his Hinduism is frankly to explore the tensions that  the climate of traditional Briish boarding schools/ Oxford/ Cambridge type can provoke for people from former colonies. This struggle strikes me as largely consistent with his Scottish/ Gaelic roots, particularly if he grew up speaking any form of Scots. For all the social mobility opportunities they offer, British boarding schools present real challenges to a person engaged with their non-British heritage. He’ll hear a lot of views on colonialism and his father’s culture (arranged marriages, dietary restrictions, stereotypes, pro-British sentiment, etc.) that directly conflict with his parents’ relatives’ stances in borderline offensive ways (Particularly for the Indian side). Even geography lessons could be a potential trigger. Starting from when I was a kid, states like Maharashtra started replacing the British names for regions and cities with their pre-British names (Did anyone wonder why Bombay, Madras and Calcutta became Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata overnight?). 

I recommend talking to people of mixed desi heritage living in the UK about their experiences with British racism and xenophobia. Tiktok has a lot of great “POC at Hogwarts” clips that skewer British parochialism with great flair.

- Marika.

He might practice by praying to an idol he brought with him, or wear an elephant necklace. It doesn’t have to be an expensive metal, for the reasons that Marika mentioned. That’s what my dad would do. Mom says he would get up at five AM every day and pray while working as an oncologist.

- Jaya

@reine-des-pres asked:

Hi there! My character was cursed to constantly grow new organs, bones and muscles, and one of her main goal is finding a way to stop it. She’s half-Indian, Bengali to be exact, and very close to her culture. I’m worried that readers will associate her curse with hindu gods because of the multiple limbs factor.

It’s absolutely not my intention. Neither her father nor her are hindu, and she gets her “growths” surgically taken out before they can develop into fully formed limbs. While she does have special abilities, the curse has nothing to do with it and she mostly sees it as a dangerous medical condition. Are there still things I should be mindful about? Or would it be better to change her ethnicity entirely? Thank you for your time. 

A Note on Religious Iconography

Limb generation and multiple arms/ heads are not exclusively a Hindu or Indian trope. Many religions practiced throughout Asia use this feature in their iconography. I think the basic idea is “More hands/ heads = More able to help/ More able to observe”. One variation of a myth about Brahma has him growing an extra head to better view the beauty of his wife from any angle (If memory serves, she didn’t appreciate this and hid herself). Another key thing to remember is that regeneration in myths is not equated to growing a limb for a specific purpose (Ex. The bodhisattva Avalokitesvara growing 1000 arms in Buddhist myths to more easily reach sufferers).

You don’t specify religion for your character here, which would make a big difference. Even a non-religious Indian person is likely to be culturally whatever religion their family is from. You will have readers who will make the kind of associations with Hinduism you are worried about, but that’s on their bias, not yours. Your responsibility is to your world-building, plot and characters so the story can stand on its own. To that end, you’ll need to make sure that you aren’t taking lazy shortcuts with respect to stereotyping and shoddy research. If the prospect of an angry horde of indignant readers scares you, I recommend finding a qualified S. Asian sensitivity reader to help you navigate which faction in S. Asia your story is most likely to piss off.

Medical Logistics?

Now, about her condition: The logistics are not quite clear to me. Is she constantly growing excess organs and limbs? Regrowing damaged ones? At what speed? At what speed do the new growths have to be removed? From what I’ve confirmed with people I know in medicine, I imagine she would be just constantly recovering from various surgeries, and that sounds very miserable.

Perils of Anguish-based Narratives

Forget offensive by Hindu/ Indian standards. I’m just personally bored with stories where the brown person suffers unless you can make it feel less…icky. 

I admit, I’m not enthused by this question because it brings up all sorts of parallels to stories of parasitic twins who are put on display/ worshipped in rural India. The girl referenced by Jaya below had to go into hiding to stay safe from a traveling circus that wanted to put her on display. Having a parasitic twin is very hard on a person’s body. The parasitic limbs and organs consume nutrients the main body needs, so perhaps you’d better research the pathology and consider just how hard you’d like to make your protagonist’s life.

- Marika.

Reminders on S. Asian Incidents Involving Parasitic Twins

I’m going to refer you to my answer about if a character who gives herself four extra limbs should be Indian/ Hindu or not. There are a lot of cultural implications and there have been with four-limbed girls.

My recommendation is no because an Indian person with extra limbs may be worshiped or exploited within a Hindu context. That’s what happened to a real girl named Lakshmi Tatma, who had a parasitic twin.

- Jaya

@reine-des-pres asked:

Hi there! My character was cursed to constantly grow new organs, bones and muscles, and one of her main goal is finding a way to stop it. She’s half-Indian, Bengali to be exact, and very close to her culture. I’m worried that readers will associate her curse with hindu gods because of the multiple limbs factor.

It’s absolutely not my intention. Neither her father nor her are hindu, and she gets her “growths” surgically taken out before they can develop into fully formed limbs. While she does have special abilities, the curse has nothing to do with it and she mostly sees it as a dangerous medical condition. Are there still things I should be mindful about? Or would it be better to change her ethnicity entirely? Thank you for your time. 

A Note on Religious Iconography

Limb generation and multiple arms/ heads are not exclusively a Hindu or Indian trope. Many religions practiced throughout Asia use this feature in their iconography. I think the basic idea is “More hands/ heads = More able to help/ More able to observe”. One variation of a myth about Brahma has him growing an extra head to better view the beauty of his wife from any angle (If memory serves, she didn’t appreciate this and hid herself). Another key thing to remember is that regeneration in myths is not equated to growing a limb for a specific purpose (Ex. The bodhisattva Avalokitesvara growing 1000 arms in Buddhist myths to more easily reach sufferers).

You don’t specify religion for your character here, which would make a big difference. Even a non-religious Indian person is likely to be culturally whatever religion their family is from. You will have readers who will make the kind of associations with Hinduism you are worried about, but that’s on their bias, not yours. Your responsibility is to your world-building, plot and characters so the story can stand on its own. To that end, you’ll need to make sure that you aren’t taking lazy shortcuts with respect to stereotyping and shoddy research. If the prospect of an angry horde of indignant readers scares you, I recommend finding a qualified S. Asian sensitivity reader to help you navigate which faction in S. Asia your story is most likely to piss off.

Medical Logistics?

Now, about her condition: The logistics are not quite clear to me. Is she constantly growing excess organs and limbs? Regrowing damaged ones? At what speed? At what speed do the new growths have to be removed? From what I’ve confirmed with people I know in medicine, I imagine she would be just constantly recovering from various surgeries, and that sounds very miserable.

Perils of Anguish-based Narratives

Forget offensive by Hindu/ Indian standards. I’m just personally bored with stories where the brown person suffers unless you can make it feel less…icky. 

I admit, I’m not enthused by this question because it brings up all sorts of parallels to stories of parasitic twins who are put on display/ worshipped in rural India. The girl referenced by Jaya below had to go into hiding to stay safe from a traveling circus that wanted to put her on display. Having a parasitic twin is very hard on a person’s body. The parasitic limbs and organs consume nutrients the main body needs, so perhaps you’d better research the pathology and consider just how hard you’d like to make your protagonist’s life.

- Marika.

Reminders on S. Asian Incidents Involving Parasitic Twins

I’m going to refer you to my answer about if a character who gives herself four extra limbs should be Indian/ Hindu or not. There are a lot of cultural implications and there have been with four-limbed girls.

My recommendation is no because an Indian person with extra limbs may be worshiped or exploited within a Hindu context. That’s what happened to a real girl named Lakshmi Tatma, who had a parasitic twin.

- Jaya

@murdergirlfriend said:

I’d like to ask the south asian/Indian people of WWC what kinds of south asian & Indian characters would you like to see more of?

Marika

As a South Asian:

• Brahmin characters are overused to depict Hindus, particularly devout Hindus. I’d like to have more well-researched stories about individuals from other castes.
• In general, Hindus and Indians overall are over-represented in Western fiction. I’d like to hear about people from other religions and countries within the subcontinent.
• Fleshed out characters with properly researched family backgrounds appropriately placed within the region’s history.
• South Asian characters involved in narratives that acknowledge oppression, poverty, colonization and ethnic/ religious/ identity politics, but aren’t fixated on these tensions. This might be more of an OwnStories thing simply because I imagine many non-South Asians would find this balance hard to strike.

As a diaspora South Asian:

• Stories without ABCD angst. We get it. People like to hear about how hard it is to be an immigrant from a weird country with a funny last name, and funny smelling food. I want more stories about desis who get joy and fulfillment from their identity. I want to hear more hopeful, coming of age stories from people empowered through engagement with their heritage.
• I want more stories about ABCD pan-South Asian solidarity. I was not raised in a Brahmin enclave like many Hindu Brahmins in the US. After 9/11, when being brown was not fun, my Pakistani, Sikh and Sri Lankan friends and I mutually supported each other. We benefited immensely from not fighting our parents’ wars, and to this day, they understand me better than Brahmins back home.
  

SK

I would like to see characters whose identities as South Asians have more depth. Like Marika, I want to see South Asian characters who don’t view their identity as a burden. I’d also like to see realistic fiction stories of South Asians that don’t revolve around romance and arranged marriage. 

For Sikh characters, I’d like to see Sikhs that aren’t Punjabi. Give me a story about an Afghan Sikh or a Nepali Sikh. I’d also like to see stories that don’t conflate Punjabi culture and Sikhi. I don’t think I’ve ever seen an initiated Sikh in the media. And I want to see women in turbans with swords!

Jaya

I want more fantasy stories where we aren’t there to react to broken systems. Most of the time, South Asians are side characters who exist as a token. Instead, I wish we were more flawed, that we are allowed to grow and change. Connie in Steven Universe felt refreshing because it was a relief to see an Indian kid with pushy parents but could wield a sword and train with holograms.