When ER first came on TV, I remember thinking it looked completely unrealistic because it was too damned white. Now I finally have some numbers to back up my instincts:
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Plenty more like her |
From 1980 to 2004, the fraction of medical school graduates describing themselves as white fell from 85 percent to 64 percent. Over that same period, the percentage of Asians increased from 3 percent to 20 percent, with Indians and Chinese the two biggest ethnic groups. [Link]
S. Balasubramaniam … recently queried 50 medical schools and calculated that 12 percent of the class that entered in 2006 is of Indian heritage. The highest percentages are in California, Texas, New York, New Jersey and New England. [Link]
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p>While the article doesn’t indicate anything about Balasubramaniam’s sampling methodology, the numbers are consistent with my gut feelings about the number of brown faces I’ve seen amongst med students. When asked to explain why she went into medicine, one desi doctor said:
“We were never forced into medicine … But in the Indian community in Chicago, everyone was a professional. Everyone was a doctor or an engineer…” [Link]
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p>Although there have always been many desi doctors, the numbers of current brown medical students represent a sizeable increase over past years since roughly 5% of all doctors are of Indian origin, and many of them studied abroad:
In the US, Indians and Indian-Americans make up the largest non-Caucasian segment of the American medical community, where they account for one in every 20 practicing doctors. [Link]
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p>My thoughts at this point go off in two different directions. The first is about the clannishness of desi doctors. How many times have you heard a doctor say that nobody can understand what they go through unless they’re a doctor themselves? It’s as if they think that being a doctor is distinct from other professions, on a plane of its own, completely inaccessible to people who do other things for a living. They also love to boast about the hours they work, even though (post-residency) my doctor friends work both shorter and more predictable hours than friends who are lawyers, iBankers or programmers.
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p>I don’t understand why they feel this way though – I’ve never heard anything similar from engineers. Is it the combination of the long training and the high salaries? What’s at the root of this medical exceptionalism?
My other thought has to do with how little the multicultural nature of the medical profession is reflected on TV. ER finally has a one desi doctor. To the best of my knowledge, none of the other medical shows do (although I don’t watch much TV so please correct me if I’m wrong).
This is part of a larger problem, namely that the America you see on the small screen is significantly whiter than reality. An analysis of the 2001 Fall Season found that:
White characters received 81 percent of screen time, while non-Hispanic whites make up about 70 percent of the population. [Link]
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p>An article I once read made the case that this was driven by audiences and advertisers, namely that white Americans felt most comfortable with shows that skewed whiter than what than realistic demographics, and therefore advertisers were willing to pay more to reach them. The article below makes a similar argument, but puts the blame more squarely on advertisers:
The FCC has collected plenty of … evidence, illustrating a range of racist assumptions about non-white customers openly cited by advertisers as reasons to pay less for ads in ethnic markets, or not to buy them at all. There’s the buyer for Ivory soap who refused to purchase time on a Latino-formatted station because “Hispanics don’t bathe as frequently as non-Hispanics.” (FCC study, “When Being No. 1 Is Not Enough: The Impact of Advertising Practices on Minority-Formatted Broadcast Stations,” 1/99) Companies have cited worries that “our pilferage will increase,” if they advertise on minority stations, or said simply, “Your station will bring too many black people to my place of business.” If that’s not racism, what is?… [Link]
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p>This is part of how we end up with TV shows like Friends that are set in New York City but which show a city which is whiter than Boise, Idaho. To me, that’s just bad television and I refuse to watch it.
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p>I do realize that because of stereotypes about Asians we’re likely to see Asian representation on TV increase soon, but I want more than just parity for yellows and brownz. And yes, I do also realize that TV shows are fantasy not reality, but that’s precisely what bothers me. If the absence of minority characters represents the fantasy world of white viewers, then what does that tell us about them?
Related Stories: How Asian doctors saved the NHS
same situation in Australia. Hardly any non-white characters on TV including newscasters. Except SBS which is a publicly funded multicultural station.
It tells me that the dominant culture in Australia is the Anglo Saxon one.
I guess it is the same in USA. Although I did love the Hispanic channels for their beautiful men & women.
That is true, and I believe the reason for this is precisely both. 1) Longer training compared to the usual jobs AND 2) the good salaries.
A profession that requires longer training generally also correlates to more intelligence on average. And secondly doctors can also consider themselves significantly better off than the average profession in terms of money. Its this nice combination that gives the glamor to this job. There are other professions too that can have both these characteristics but this does not happen as uniformly as it happens for doctors across all the members of other typical professions. For instance, academia(professors) does have a higher intelligence/smartness appeal than doctors but they don’t usually have the same wealth appeal (on an average, obviously). Similarly you have other professions with a higher wealth appeal than doctors but not as much smartness appeal. I think the doctor profession does a good balancing job between both the appeals and hence the the ‘clannishness’ you attribute to the people doing this job.
In other words as an example, just the fact that Susan is a doctor implies Susan must be reasonably rich(at least upper middle class) AND also that Susan must be a fairly smart woman. I can’t think of another profession that very likely ensures both. You can be sure that if Tom is a professor of XYZ then TOM must be real smart but you couldnt keep a bet that TOM is rich without a little more info on Tom. Similarly you can find other rich people, but you couldn’t bet that they are also smart without some more info at least…
oh, and as for the statement of how you have to be a doctor to understand their lives, I agree that does reek of condescencion. I dont think its any more true than saying you have to be a clerk to understand what a clerk goes through.
Fair critique good sir but what’s the percentage of South Asian Americans who become actors? Lord knows that we have considerable walls to climb before an audition (ahem, parents!). Does the Screen Actors Guild collect and make public the ethnicity of its members?
Mistakes hurt you, me and
DupreeDeepak. Under every white lab coat you’ll find unisex red knickers worn over blue tights and a cape.I also wondered about the “clannish” aspect of the Indian physicians. They form their own professional organizations and tend to hang out exclusively with their own kind. They have every right to do this, too.
But Indian engineers and other professionals don’t seem to have the same unity. Or I might be unaware of any groups dedicated only for engineers, nurses or business people, etc. I know NetIP includes all Indian professionals. But if I am wrong, enlighten me.
One of my cousins is an oncology nurse who is married to a hardware engineer. She mentioned her engineer husband works many more hours than the physicians she works with. Is this true elsewhere? Or is it an isolated case?
I guess initially in the physicians’ training, their work hours are significantly longer. ER physicians and nurses work inhumanely long hours and should be compensated the most if there was any justice. I also think the medical residents/fellows/etc are also treated to inhumane treatment with non stop work for days at a time with no breaks, no salary, etc. No wonder most young physicians I have seen are cranky and bitter about life and humanity – they are constantly dead tired! Something is wrong with the whole system and Medical malpractice/Insurance companies are adding fuel to the fire.
(Doctors Without Borders, St. Judes Hospital for kids and other volunteer groups like them are awesome. I always support them yearly and their work gives me hope for humanity!)
My parents were super-liberal and allowed me the freedom to make choices. For instance, I had the freedom to be any kind of Engineer or Doctor I chose to be.
My sister was involved in a study on Asian Americans and screen time during primetime television shows. See below:
http://www.dailybruin.com/news/2005/may/12/off-the-airwaves/
What a shameless, brazen liar!
What Indian-American characters in Grey’s Anatomy? How gross!
There could be another reason why these shows are popular among IA teens, even those on the path to med school. There are elements of the lifestyle that they are in agreement with – independent, working on large public health projects etc., And yeah, breaking ou of the family business.
@ #7:
I knew there’d be some inspection into screen time and you could see the networks rebuttal from a mile away. But how many are in the talent pool to begin with? And what projects are they getting auditions for and what projects are shutting them out?
There is a brown connection in Grey’s Anatomy- the show was inspired by and loosely based on Atul Gawande’s Complications.
my dream? to represent the indians on ‘scrubs’… the most real medico show out there.
It’s not quite “finally” for ER — Parminder Nagra’s been on the show since 2003. She started the fall after Bend it Like Beckham premiered.
Sad that I know this.
Does anyone personally know desis who were “pressured” to become doctors but ended up doing something else AFTER becoming full fledged doctors? I’ve met 4 now, all my generation who absolutely abhor the profession and wouldn’t want anything to do with it and have gone onto to other equally lucrative and successful professions but simply didn’t want to be doctors. This is something I’d unheard of growing up but seems like it’s become quite common now.
My elder brother is a Radiologist. He tells me he does surgical procedures too. He also went to IMSA — the best high school in Illinois..
There should be more desi doctors on medical shows but I see a lot of desi doctors on the news and on talk shows.
And yeah of all the medical shows I have seen I have learned the most about what being a doctor is like from Scrubs.
1 out of 20? That doesn’t correlate with the number of times I’ve heard: “Oh, you’re Indian? My doctor’s Indian!” Often followed by: “Do you know him?”
Oh but we’ve made progress on tv! Who saw the Indian guy featured on all those MTV Award commercials last night? 🙂
i wasn’t pressured into becoming a doctor, but it’s not the end all for me.. i love what i do, but it’s also a springboard into other fields… which is fantastic.. it opens tons of avenues, whether it be in the business, financial, pharmaceutical, media fields of interest.. i think nowadays, people realize that you don’t have to let the degree define your career, but can use it to your benefit for anything you’d like to pursue..
i know of a few desis who dropped out of medical school and became something else, and are happy.. and i know others who were pressured into becoming a doc, and are misterable.. it’s like that with everything (law, engineering, etc).. not just medicine per se.
This is a good outlook, and in fact many times, doing what you love as a job can sometimes kill the very attraction you had for it in the first place.
I don’t have a TV, but I’d guess that was probably Aziz Ansari, from the sketch comedy show Human Giant. Nirali Magazine profiled him here.
funny as shit. that is so true.
ennis, that was fun as shit to read. you are the man when it comes doing research and showing statistics.
Perhaps this explains why doctors feel the way they feel: Doctor vs. Mechanic
1 out of 20? That doesn’t correlate with the number of times I’ve heard: “Oh, you’re Indian? My doctor’s Indian!” Often followed by: “Do you know him?”
LMAO. And so true…
NetIP is the pits, atleast the one event I went to was a bunch of desi stags (trying)chasing skirts to Bhangra, well nothing wrong with it but not exactly entrepreneurial
This is part of a larger problem, namely that the America you see on the small screen is significantly whiter than reality.
Really? I don’t think this is true with the medical shows on tv — there’s a ton of black doctors. I’m thinking the black doctors are representing all the minorities out there to corporate America.
I grew up in a family of all doctors…and I mean everyone…my mom, dad, sister, uncles…well you get the point. I gasp became an attorney, and it really is frustrating how every social conversation somehow turns to medicine. Even more frustrating is how some of my family members see medicine as the be-all, end-all field and some even see my work as dispensible – though I have even worked for the public defender. Or maybe they just don’t “get” what I do. Anyways, I digress. It’s good to see more desis branch out into “untraditional” fields, even if it be as “untraditional” as the law! Kudos to all you rebels out there 😉
The people who come up with these shows exist in a demographic that is well over 80% white, ie older Americans. I’m sure you’d find way more black people on TV than Hispanics, and yet Hispanics are now a bigger segment of the population. These things take a while to be reflected in the wider culture – also, most people who watch these shows are white, and besides, a large amount of the patients are black.
“If the absence of minority characters represents the fantasy world of white viewers, then what does that tell us about them?”
God Ennis you can be a resentful whiner at times, it tells us absolutely nothing about them.
and yet Hispanics are now a bigger segment of the population.
That’s interesting b/c mostly on tv I see black and white characters. It probably also depends on which group has a more influential lobby on media representation
Yes, then there is the gigantic hispanic population.. That is the new trend in marketing now, to create ads that target hispanics.. Also I notice that quite a few of the news people in chicago are hispanic..
Actually it does, it ratifies the ‘potency of color’ argument, which is why in the white world, a jury with 11 blacks and 1 whites is a ‘black jury’, and a jury with 11 whites and 1 black is ‘diverse’
Which city?
Let me break this down for you sloooooowly. Imagine this dialogue:
Q: Why is TV so white? A: There are non-white actors on it (names a few) Q: Think about a show like Friends which was set in NYC. NYC has only 44% white people. I’m pretty sure that show was at least 95% white. A: That show wasn’t real. Real 20 somethings don’t own apartments that size in New York City, they don’t subsist on meager salaries, and they don’t run around sleeping with their friends. Get it – it’s fantasy. Q: So it’s your average white person’s fantasy to live in New York City, be able to afford a huge apartment with no salary, sleep with all their friends … A: Exactly! Q: … and be surrounded by only white people? A: You are a resentful whiner!
Great post! I have been saying the same thing for awhile now. I have seen a slow shift on television. I haven’t seen ER in ages! It has been on the air forever, but I don’t know why.
Thanks for this, Ennis! I’m reading through the media advertising link you posted – crazy! (and yet not surprising)
Maybe this is a bit more historic, also? While there is still a good deal of blaxploitation on the small screen, I think folks have gotten to the point where they realize racism vis-a-vis African Americans in the U.S. I think (and this is totally unsubstantiated, just a hunch) that outside of a few states, most folks have not met other kinds of people of color, nor do they think of them as Americans. They think of non-Black people of color as foreigners. Not that that justifies anything — it’s still racism, but there’s a little nativism/xenophobia thrown in there, too.
NVM, I’m with the previous commentator. Is there a dearth of desi actors? Yes and no. There are more out there than folks think, but they don’t get cast, and part of it is because people cast with specific races/ethnicities in mind. If there are no parts for which you are recruited, then it’s kind of hard to get your foot in the door.
Also, Scrubs had a desi guy! (p.s. best show eeeeever) He wasn’t a huge character (although he was kind of physically huge), but he was in the same class of residents as JD, Turk and Elliott 🙂 Funny that Grey’s, which is relatively concerned with having a diversity of ethnicities portrayed, does not have a desi character.
Ennis,
I’m with you on that. Although, (and I can’t be completely sure about it, because I haven’t seen the show enough times) but the show friends focused more on these people, rather than where they lived. Sure, it was set in NYC, but was NYC a really big ‘character’ in the show? (As it was in say, Seinfeld, which I think is more likely target for NYC From the look of the show, it could have been western montana (and maybe that’s the point you’re making?) But, the majority of white people don’t have non-white friends, and in that sense, the show Friends is quite realistic
TV is white because the people who make tv are white…Then again I would rather see a white actor than shyamalan cast himself in another role uggg!
I’m not really that familiar with the show, but I do recall seeing their workplaces and a lot of scenes in the whitest coffee shop in Manhattan.
As for white people and non-white friends, New York is less socially segregated than the rest of America, another reason why the show felt more like Montana to me.
I don’t know, HMF. Friends would’ve been more realistic, if they lived in say, Iowa, rather than NYC. In ten years, these six white characters only ran into basically an average of a minority character per season, per 1 to 2 episodes.
Ah, my fav topic!
My wife is a doc and she suffers from a mild form of physician-related snobbishness too. While the AMA has a lot to do with how many doctors are certified each year, the exams, material and residency requirements are also quite high. Small club = more clannishness. That said, such clannishness is also a result of early hazing during residency programs. I have talked to several doctor friends and they all have tales of being treated like sh!t by supervising docs during the early years of residency – a form of initiation ritual, if you will.
Econ theory time. The medical profession in the US has done a stellar job of restricting the number of graduating doctors, thereby keeping prices high and ensuring the wealth others have discussed on this thread. Any opinions?
it’s pure and simple elitism, is what it is. and, imho, there are two reasons for it:
first, doctors are more qualified, so there is a certain rationale to it. but there are several other professions which require as much qualification, so what makes doctors different? they also deal with people’s lives, so there’s a “god-complex” aspect to what they do.
secondly, desis have this subconscious reverence for doctors which is drummed into their heads from a very young age. doctors are at the receiving end of it, and especially desi doctors. in india, there’s this whole superstition thing, and the doctor who saves your life is analogous to god, in some sense.
so basically, it’s a feedback loop – i am god because i saved your life, thinks the doctor. you are god because you saved my life, says the patient. hence, the doctor ends up thinking they are “special”. and since doctors mostly hang out with other doctors, they come to believe that even more.
well, that’s my theory, anyhow…
As for #13:
i am one of those somewhat-pressured ones. my entire family is a doctor family (i feel your pain, BarristerBetty) parents, grandparents, grandparent’s siblings, first cousins, second cousins, etc. etc. but after i slaved and got a much-coveted medical school seat in india after my 12th (as it works in india), i didn’t bother to go through the motions after some serious conversations with the fairly liberal parents.
i ran to the us for my undergrad, and have recently got a doctorate in quantitative finance. and, i should add, the salaries are higher than the average doctor’s, and you work a fairly regular workday (not i-banking hours).
i constantly keep my eye out for doctors-turned-something else and have met several of them including a family friend who dropped a rhodes scholarship in sports medicine at oxford to become a consultant at mckinsey. let me tell you, they are much more interesting to talk to, considering they are aware of the world outside medicine.
prema, thanks for pointing this out. it’s a ridiculous statement to make, and one that is commonly made. it upsets me when people make their small indian circle to represent the entire indian american population in the area.
Ennis, I wish you had explored the reasons for CNN hiring Sanjay Gupta as the face of medicine. I beleieve it constitutes more valuable screen time than ER. A lot of baby boomer America (CNN’s audience) is very comfortable with a desi doctor. ABout the rest, time will tell – not TV.
Just as an aside, can people stop bringing up places like Iowa as the example of a place that is lily white and/or socially segregated? Granted, Des Moines is not New York City, but it (and other Midwestern cities/states) are nowhere near as bad as folks on SM seem to think. Iowa is not Idaho, after all…
With respect to Friends, I noticed a smattering of non-white characters towards the end of the show’s run, which makes me wonder if these complaints were made to the producers as well.
Good question. Takes courage to ask it. Dont agree with the poster who thinks its whining….
Its a good question, cut anyways.
I dont see any clear answers though. However, for the reality to change to reflect American demographic reality, does this question need to be asked by people people of all hues?
If I were white and I saw myself as a fairminded person, which many of them are, I would defnitely ask this question. For a non-white person to ask this question aggressively opens him/her to the risk of being a “whiner.”
A white friend of mine remarked about the very white audience and performing crew at the ballet and the opera and said it makes him feel strange. He said he is not sure why this is so, even though so many Asians study music and dance, and other arts, and are very accomplished in it.
People are asking this question..and rightfully so…
HAte to tandem post …but
I do not think we need to worry about minorities not being represented…check out the most popular radio stations in L. A. – all Spanish. I think we are hung up on watching shows in English. There’s a ton of stuff out there in Spanish. And , i will say it again, will someone please spruce up Namaste India?
Much of the reason, I believe, that desi kids go into medicine is because of the stability factor, which has now turned into a prestige factor. Back in the desh, being a doctor or engineer meant not having to worry about where your next meal came from.
Also, speaking of the AMA SkepMod, I think it’s bullshit how the AMA limits the # of MDs in order to increase their salaries etc. The United States NEEDS more doctors, as today, healthcare is a privilege, not a right. With a society as advanced as ours, we all should have access to healthcare.
Yes, the world of Seinfeld was pretty white bread but they still did a better job with diversity than Friends. Great minority characters that spring to mind are: Rebecca DeMornay, the Exterminator, the gay, hispanic tough guys that torture Kramer about the AIDS ribbon, Poppy, and since this is SM – BABU (played by a possibly Jewish actor but that’s a story for another day…)
secondly, desis have this subconscious reverence for doctors which is drummed into their heads from a very young age. doctors are at the receiving end of it, and especially desi doctors. in india, there’s this whole superstition thing, and the doctor who saves your life is analogous to god, in some sense.
Yes but I think in the US too doctors are like gods. My father is a doctor and when we immigrated to the US, most of our friends were doctors. I was continuously surrounded by doctor aunty and uncles and it wasn’t something I gave much thought to in elementary school until…when my young friends or teachers asked me what my parents did, and I said my father is a doctor, these kids were all wide-eyed and expressed that I must be so rich. It’s a very, very difficult school to get into to in the US, so to a certain extent I can understand why people are so in awe of them, especially also its a profession that deals with life and death.
We were never forced into medicine …in the Indian community in Chicago, everyone was a professional. Everyone was a doctor or an engineer… What a shameless, brazen liar!
prema, thanks for pointing this out. it’s a ridiculous statement to make, and one that is commonly made. it upsets me when people make their small indian circle to represent the entire indian american population in the area.
I don’t think she was lying for god’s sake – I think this is just what she experienced and probably not being a sociologist didn’t qualify her statement.
For those complaining about the unrealistic whiteness of Friends, I sort of agree, BUT – my ex had a rent-controlled inherited place in the West Village too, when he was right out of college – there ARE such cases; and if you go around the hip parts of Manhattan, the crowd IS more white than the City generally speaking. It’s still not as vanilla as the show depicted it, but hey. Also, I don’t understand why Americans expect television to serve as a sort of sociologically-correct census-based reality. Most people’s lives, in the US, consist of driving around a lot, working, and watching television, and not a whole lot of witty dialogue in between – you want a watch a show like that?
I get the impression sometimes that folks like to complain when TV shows don’t reflect THEIR particular experience, or show people living in prettier places or wearing nicer clothes or having more spare time than their characters realistically should. Now that, to me, is an unrealistic expectation. TV is about verisimilitude, not veracity, and one has to be able to relate with part of it to get into the story, but if you want to just watch your life, you’d turn off the TV.
I’m sure if you crunched the numbers you’d find that an insanely disproportionate number of characters in TV shows are Jewish, but you can’t say that now can you?. What, a meagre 2% of the US population, but it’s difficult to think of a show that doesn’t have a prominent Jewish character. Is that fair? Is Ennis going to whine about that statistical anomaly?