If he were but one character on an entire program filled with East Asian characters, you and all of your fellow Simpsons apologists might have a point that he's somehow a charming, wonderfully representative comic depiction of one aspect of a diverse culture that includes many, many people from Kwik-E-Mart salespeople to Scientists and Authors, and well, gee... Just everyone! (Smile*sparkle*Smile!) 

But you don't, and he isn't. He's a pathetic joke from a bygone era which was never funny to begin with. Get over yourself. Look behind the counter. The guy ringing you up isn't Indian anymore.

We'll cross the Mindy Kaling bridge when we come to it. If we have to ditch her to save the schoolkids, well, I guess we will, but since that's a paranoid fantasy from an ignorant and intellectually dishonest point-of-view, I don't think Mindy needs to worry, do you?

How much of this is political correctness and people LOOKING for something to be offended about?

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It always saddens me when issues that minorities have been discussing amongst ourselves for decades are dismissed with a handwave as manufactured outrage and the political correctness of other white people.

Someone looking to be offended seems very accurate.

Err...

Stereotypes do not equal racism. Limited representation + stereotype equals racism. When the primary representation of black women on film and TV was the "Mammy" stereotype, would you not consider that problematic?

What. The. Fuck.

I agree. There are people taking offense at minorities wanting better representation.

Does stereotype equate racism? Pretty much, yeah, Andy. Quick on the uptake there, pal. These Indian convenience stores definitely need to be attacked, right? I mean, for existing and all.

My 10 year old son and I have been watching every Bugs Bunny cartoon ever made, in order.

One ("All This and Rabbit Stew") featured a Sambo antagonist, and I chose not to watch that with him. He's not ready to appreciate the context of that film. There's also nothing special about it, beyond the Stepin Fetchit type of character. The cartoon is essentially insignificant. Later, when he can grasp the wider history, he can see it. Right now, it's unimportant. 

We did watch another Bugs cartoon, an especially excellent one ("Fresh Hare"), which ends with a group of Canadian mounties suddenly transported to the Deep American South and transformed into blackface characters. Instantly upon this scene appearing, my son -- with utter innocence, totally ignorant of what happened -- asks me, "why is Bugs now singing with monkeys...?!" A terrible, sad-happy moment for me. Sad because of the obvious. But happy that, while he's far from sheltered, he isn't growing up exposed to things like this. I had recalled the cartoon ended this way and I deliberately wanted him to see it and to explain to him what it all meant, why it was thought to be funny in 1942, why it wasn't to Black people back then, why it isn't funny to anybody today, etc. 

Another reason I allowed him to watch this cartoon is because the blackfaced mounties in the cartoon were singing "De Camptown Races," a Stephen Foster tune, a most-famous, significant piece from the American songbook. Now exposed to it in racist usage, with the proper context, he'll be able to fully appreciate how the racist usage of it was parodied when years from now he watches BLAZING SADDLES.

The key phrase in this discussion, whether we are talking about old comic stories containing unfortunate caricatures or confederate statues.