In today’s episode of “Trying to Understand How Liberals Think”, we examine the curious reaction to the new movie The Big Sick. In the film, comedian Kumail Nanjiani–who is of Pakistani descent–meets a Caucasian woman and falls in love. The story centers around Nanjiani’s character trying to hide his white girlfriend from his parents–who are trying to arrange a marriage for him with a woman of Pakistani descent. That is followed by the usual “culture shock” humor and eventual acceptance–because as we have been told many times “you should be allowed to love whomever you want”.
One would think that a movie garnering rave reviews and some box office success starring a Pakistani-descent lead actor and portraying societal acceptance of such inter-racial relationships would be considered a “success” in Hollywood–which consistently pays only lip-service to minorities (especially when it comes to things like the Oscars or the Emmys). But as several on-line articles claim the movie is actually racist.
The problem–according to those on the Left–is that Nanjiami’s character falls in love with a white woman–which perpetuates something known as “white love”–or the belief that winning the favor of Caucasian women somehow “embodies an acceptance into American culture.” Men of Asian descent lust after white women not because of who they are–but what they represent–“a gateway to power in our culture”. Furthermore, there is criticism that the Pakistani women recruited by his parents that the main character rejects are all caricatures of the simple, subservient females of the native culture.
Apparently, to meet the “expectations” of liberals, The Big Sick should have featured a Pakistani-American man that meets a Pakistani-American woman that is successful in business, independent, that has rejected the “patriarchal standards of Pakistani culture” and whom he treats as an equal. His parents immediately accept her for who she is–and not what their background believes she should be. All of his friends–especially those that are white men–respect her from the first time they meet her. And then they go on to marry and have kids that they do not force any cultural expectations or gender norms upon.
There probably wouldn’t be any comedy and hardly any entertainment value in that story–but at least everyone would leave the theater feeling really good about themselves.
