I started watching Aziz Ansari’s Netflix show ‘Master of None’ at the same time as I was reading the Gopinath article this week. Ansari’s show has been lauded for it’s frank and often awkward portrayal of millennial dating as well as it’s poignant coverage of second generation Asian-American immigrant experiences. As a writer, producer, star, and occasional director of the show, Ansari inserts himself into popular culture while speaking overtly about sexism, feminism, racism, and ‘minority’ (lack of) representation in media and popular culture.

In the episode ‘Parents’, Aziz and his co-star Kelvin Yu seek to uncover their parent’s backstory and immigrant experience in order to better connect to the struggles and sacrifices that allowed them to have the comfortable lives they currently lead. Through moving vingettes, the audience sees the trajectory of both character’s fathers early lives and moves to New York in sharp contrast to the at times ungrateful or dismissive sons. It is interesting to note how the portrayal of intergenerational diaspora is overwhelmingly male centric in this show. Aziz’z mother is briefly present, as a nagging background character  who bluntly responds to his questions of her years in America by saying it was hard, she was lonely, she looked after her husband and son, and cried. The audience hardly gets to see her story and her life and Kelvin’s mother is absent from the present day storyline. However, the heartfelt moments of cultural and generational recognition and reconnection are reserved for the father-son relationships. Gopinath’s discussion of diaspora centralizes concerns of re-inscribed gender roles. She traces the origin of the very word diaspora to ‘scattered seeds’ and remarks that patrilineal conceptions of diaspora have rendered women virtually invisible (Gopinath 306). Master of None echoes this by highlighting and valuing the professional achievements of male members of the family, while reducing immigrant women to silent child bearers smiling serenely in hospital rooms.

Master of None is in many ways a ground breaking snippet of pop culture. It reflects on the anxieties and uncertainties of 2nd generation immigrant millennials seeking success and romance while reconciling the sacrifices of their parents. However, when reflecting on Gopinath’s inquiry into what the diaspora reveals, hides, or privileges, it seems that even on progressive, critical television, racialized women continue to be underrepresented.