Ready for a South Asian American child star?

It’s fair to express that Aziz Ansari, Mindy Kaling and Kal Penn are becoming household names, paving the way for a lot of South Asian performers; like the cast of the recently-canceled “Outsourced” and younger stars such as Manish Dayal (“90210”) and Dilshad Vadsaria (“Greek”).

There was a time when South Asian actors did little more than play a glorified extra, and much more often today the centerpiece of these walk-on roles is to score laughs by having a funny-sounding Indian accent. Though days past seem gone, a current promo to have an upcoming Disney Channel show caught my eye and left me pondering a more substantial issue: Where are the South Asian American child stars?

The show in question is “Jessie” starring Debby Ryan of “The Suite Life on Deck” fame, debuting Sept. 30th. But my eyes went straight to the small Indian boy featured inside the teaser, an actor named Karan Brar, who also appeared in the feature film “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”. The reason why he caught my attention is because his one line showcased him speaking in a very faint Indian accent. My Wikipedia search led me on the revelation that Brar will play 10-year-old Ravi Ross, an “Indian adoptee imbued along with his Eastern culture, but thrilled along with his new life in America“.

Really, Disney? We are approaching the year 2012. Can there be no simpler way to write a child of South Asian descent into a show without she or he having to be an “adoptee from India”? or fake a highlight that these kids nowadays are probably so far off? Now, the show hasn’t begun and possibly this reaction is slightly assuming of what on earth is in the future. It might have been spurred after seeing a commercial after a viewing of the MTV Video Music Awards, where former Disney child stars Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato are seen as shining samples of Latina children incorporated in the realm of child stardom without ethnicity playing a great deal in their roles. Were it not for their names, the majority of their young fans probably wouldn’t have a clue that these young ladies share a Mexican ancestry.

Brar, on the other hand, is left playing a task through which a lot of the jokes may ultimately be driven by his accent and unfamiliarity with American culture. Even though I wish to take nothing far from his chance at starring on the channel which includes a number of the biggest stars we have seen, something about forcing it so blatantly obvious that this child is Indian appears to undo the hard work of the names mentioned from the outset informed. Seldom does race play a role inside plot lines for Tom Haverford (Ansari on “Parks and Recreation”) or Kelly Kapoor (Kaling on “The Office”). At most, you will find the occasional reference that may be just like the Indian equal of a @whitegrlproblems Twitter account.

Though it remains to be seen how “Jessie” will pan out as a show, one can’t help but await the day when South Asian American children have a child star to look up to as someone they are able to identify as what exactly they are, South Asian American. So built into American society and holding seats in some of the very prestigious educational facilities, how difficult is it to depict a desi boy (or girl)-next-door? However, I cannot say I might idolize Ms. Kaling the same way as if she had played a Bangalore-import overseeing Dunder Mifflin’s outsourcing department.

Sabrina Siddiqui will be the editor-in-chief of Divanee.com.