Aasif Is Brown Like Us

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Shruti’s facebook status earlier this week said that she was “certain that Aasif Mandvi is a regular reader of Sepia Mutiny and Ultrabrown.” I asked her what she meant, and she referred me to the following:

I know he never says that he got his references from the Mutiny, but I’m pretty sure we blogged about ‘What Brown Can Do For You’ and we definitely blogged the dancing little man video. And come on, you have to type in ‘brown’ before you can comment on the sites! He MUST have been talking bout us. The Mutiny has ‘brown’ literally trademarked!

I got the privilege of meeting Asif earlier this year (at a brown conference) and I know he’s a visitor to this site, so Shruti may just be right … How bout it, Aasif? Give the Mutiny a shout out on the Daily Show next time!

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About Taz

Taz is an activist, organizer and writer based in California. She is the founder of South Asian American Voting Youth (SAAVY), curates MutinousMindState.tumblr.com and blogs at TazzyStar.blogspot.com. Follow her at twitter.com/tazzystar

27 thoughts on “Aasif Is Brown Like Us”

  1. Aasif is cool. I still love the way he let Peter Parker have it in Spiderman II. Brown people aren’t scared of Spider Man.

  2. The Mutiny has ‘brown’ literally trademarked!

    Thank goodness aasif didn’t use the word “lipstick”.

  8. Thanks a lot hyd. Daily shows videos are available on comedynetwork.ca over here (Canada) but I was not able to find this particular video when I last tried.

  9. “What can brown do for you?” That was my idea for a Haloween costume six years ago!

    How bout it, Aasif? Give the Mutiny a shout out on the Daily Show next time!

    Hey Aasif, it doesn’t even have to be obvious. Just play this in the background and we’ll know: My Favorite Mutiny

  10. BROWN…whether or not brother man is sourcing from Sepia Mutiny, he’s so funny and this blog is so entertaining (and informative) thanks for keeping it moving!

  11. 10 · LazyDezi on September 28, 2008 04:13 PM · Direct link · “Quote”(?) When is SM going to cover the Indian american candidates running for office. Navraj Singh is the republican candidate in California’s 27th district. http://www.singhforcongress2008.com/

    You’re kidding me right? Have you never been to this site before?

  12. not desi. not indo-american. not indian american. not south asian. BROWN

    I think the word brown is silly to use to describe us. because some “brown” people are actually darker than “black” people. European immigrants to this country gave up their culture for the privilege of whiteness. What privilege do we get for disowning our culture and background to assume a color monicker?

  15. I don’t think I am brown. How dare you make me something I am not. I am wheatish. HAHA

    not all Indians are brown. Most of them are wheatish. In that case if brown doesn’t fairly represent us or doesn’t actually stand for a real color then I would prefer to be BLUE.

    Blue makes more sense. I am BLUE> yeahhhhh or Orange….wtv BLUE is better. Make me Blue like Lord Krishna.

  19. I think the word brown is silly to use to describe us. because some “brown” people are actually darker than “black” people. European immigrants to this country gave up their culture for the privilege of whiteness. What privilege do we get for disowning our culture and background to assume a color monicker?

    Brown is the new white. See…Barack Obama.

  20. not to be a party pooper, but doesn’t UPS use ‘what can brown do for you’ as their slogan? I bet they even have it trademarked or something.

  21. um. not to be a downer or anything but i’m pretty sure i’ve heard ‘what can brown do for you’ by brown folks/muslims well before i saw it on sepia mutiny. i rarely comment, but i’ve been checking out this site for years now. and that video was circulated all over the place – SM was only one of those places.

  24. 20 · ctrlalteredmind said

    not to be a party pooper, but doesn’t UPS use ‘what can brown do for you’ as their slogan? I bet they even have it trademarked or something.

    Actually I want to be a downer and throw water on your self back patting endeavors. “What can brown do for you” started off with UPS giving it high visibility and then some comedians caught on to that. Of course, Aasif might have seen it on this site, but the sepia is far from being original in the usage of brown. By the way, brown is the color used in the US to describe human scat, whereas in India, we use the color yellow for that.

    now you can go figure out how cool it is to be calling yourself brown..

  25. 24 · Me said

    20 · ctrlalteredmind said now you can go figure out how cool it is to be calling yourself brown..

    Umm. It’s called appropriation. You know, we appropriate the word, so that we actively choose its meaning in an attempt to render it meaningless to those who use it in an insulting way. I, personally, prefer mocha. Much more exotic. And delicious. And hot.

  27. Umm. It’s called appropriation. You know, we appropriate the word, so that we actively choose its meaning in an attempt to render it meaningless to those who use it in an insulting way. I, personally, prefer mocha. Much more exotic. And delicious. And hot…

    If you are 15 million and the rest of the population using ‘brown’ to denote something else is 285 million, you cannot appropriate. By the way, this is out of context here, but I was reading your blog. Happy Eid to you. I said this 3 times today to “real” people I know. A question to you: did you manage to say L’Shana Tova to anyone yet this year or last year? or Happy Diwali ? I don’t need an answer for a year!