In the “Saudi Arabia” episode of the Netflix original show Patriot Act, the host, Hasan Minhaj discusses the role of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi as well as the various Indian Americans who have “gone over to the dark side” in American media. In this segment, While he covers the corrupt hijinks of John Kapoor and other well known Indian Americans, he also examines the skewed representations of Indian Americans in the media and the suffocating effect of stereotypes. As he jokes that “Trump employes more Indians than any show on television”, Hasan uses comedy and satire to not only discuss corrupt Indian American individuals but also the effect that the imbalance of media representation has on stereotypes about Indian Americans.
Hasan makes many cultural references to common stereotypes surrounding immigrants that contrast the actions of the individuals he talks about. He references things such as the pressure to succeed academically and the tendency to be in respected professions in a playful way that mimics the way that Indian Americans are reduced to a set of traits. While he assures us that “Americans love Indians” and that the stereotypes don’t tend to be necessarily bad-natured, Hasan lays out that the way groups of people are pigeon-holed leaves a lasting influence on a population. At the end of the segment, a skit featuring children getting influenced by media portraying John Kapoor and other individuals illustrates an exaggerated idea of how constraining some media representation of minorities can be. If the only Indians on TV are corrupt criminals and politicians, then what harm does this do to the stereotypes surrounding them? Where are the positive representations that break down the ideas that “a Raj” can’t be cool? The stylised skit shows just how absurd the generalizations of minority groups in media is.
Both the first segment on Muhammad bin Salam and the second on Indian Americans touch on the prevalence of stereotyping and generalization in society and how the media reinforces it. While Indian people have faced generalizations about being studious or hard-working, Muslims have been consistently overrepresented as violent and extreme. Only 2% of Muslims are Saudi Arabian and yet it seems that in the media, all Muslims have been painted with the same trope of violence and irrationality. Hasan Minhaj, who identifies as both Indian and Muslim, has a personal understanding of these issues and by discussing them side by side, he compares and contrasts the damaging representations in media.