Deadpool fires bullets and racist stereotypes

Overview

In Deadpool, there is an Indian cab driver named Dopinder, played by Karan Soni. In the original script, Dopinder is described as looking “like Aziz Ansari’s and Dev Patel’s love child. He is young, thin, bearded, brown.” In the beginning of the film, Deadpool, played by Ryan Reynolds, and Dopinder introduce themselves to each other and have casual conversation. Deadpool spots a picture of a young Indian woman and asks Dopinder who she is. Dopinder responds that she is the woman of his dreams, but he is unable to be with her due to his more attractive and cunning cousin who stole her away from Dopinder (we’ll return to this). They arrive at their destination, but since Deadpool didn’t bring his wallet, he simply leaves Dopinder without paying and does not even promise to repay him. Dopinder doesn’t get mad and quietly takes it like a good little beta.

A quick Google search yielded this meme highlighting Dopinder’s beta nature:

Later, Deadpool takes another cab ride with Dopinder. Dopinder reveals that he kidnapped his cousin and stuffed him in the trunk of his cab – presumably to “compete” for his dream girl. Deadpool encourages Dopinder to do some morbid things to his cousin before leaving to fight. Dopinder drives away and gets hit by a truck from behind, crushing his trunk, killing his cousin, and getting Dopinder in trouble. This is the last we hear of Dopinder.

Deadpool: Dopinder! This is no way to win Gita’s heart back! (I’m so proud of you…)

Deadpool: Drop Bandu off safe and gentle-like. (Kill him…)

Deadpool: And then, win Gita back the old-fashioned way, with your boyish charm! (Kidnap her…)

Analysis

Dopinder is a good example of the way Hollywood portrays Indian men as beta males and white men as alpha males. Dopinder is happy with Deadpool stiffing him. Dopinder is unable to get the girl he wants. He has has to resort to kidnapping his competition like a terrorist. Dopinder is incompetent, getting into an accident, killing his cousin, and getting caught. Dopinder is a failure. Dopinder is weak. Dopinder is beta.

Even his made-up name, Dopinder, is a derivative of dope as in doofus or loser. These racist insults are staring at you right in the face.

Contrast this with how Deadpool is portrayed. Deadpool is a hot white male. Deadpool gets to have sex with hot women. Even when Deadpool reveals how ugly he is, he still gets the girl. Deadpool is successful at killing many people. He is praised for doing it and faces no repercussions. Deadpool is a hero. Deadpool is strong. Deadpool is alpha.

What’s interesting to us at Kulture is that in the original leaked screenplay from 2010, they originally had Deadpool helping Dopinder with his predicament. Deadpool was originally going to kill Dopinder’s cousin for him as a favor. Instead, they opted to make Dopinder a bad guy by kidnapping his cousin for his own selfish desires and showing his incompetence by allowing his character to fail.

This is not an isolated incident. Indian and Asian men are constantly being portrayed as worthless by western media:

ASIAN GIRL KILLS ASIAN MAN TO SAVE HER WHITE DUDE IN DISTRESS

ASIAN MEN ARE WEAK AND WORTH DUMPING

GRAVITY: IN SPACE, NO ONE CARES ABOUT THE ASIAN MAN OF THE TEAM

BT TV AD – IGNORE THE ASIAN

ROYAL PAINS GIVES ASIAN MAN THE ROYAL CUCKOLD

NEW GIRL SAYS INDIAN MEN ARE LOSERS

Indian men have far too little representation in movies for cases like these to be harmless. If you don’t think this doesn’t affect how minorities are treated in real life, think again:

Prescriptive Stereotypes and Workplace Consequences for East Asians in North America

Portrayals like these are not harmless. They have real life consequences:

This Coward’s False Accusation Relied on Asian Male Stereotypes and Nearly Imprisoned an Innocent Man