“Do you find it racists?” were my friend, Rini’s, exact words. I had no idea what she was even talking about.

“What?” I asked. “Fox news? Christine O’donnell? The Pope?” They were all topics in the news that week, so I assumed it was one of those.

“New York Mag says it’s racists.”

When I finally realized that she was talking about a television show; I grew sad. I really wanted to have a debate about the Stephen Colbert going to Congress.

“I haven’t seen it yet.”

Poor Rini looked as though she was going to cry. It was still taking up hard drive space on my Windows Media Center PC.

I didn’t want to admit this to Rini, but I was avoiding watching it due to all the bad press. It did seem insensitive to me that NBC would choose to put a show on tv about a call center in India when so many Americans we unemployed or underemployed. Along with my personal feeling that after the PR nightmare the New York City mosque became, the last thing this country needed was another reason to hate people with brown skin.

But I’m glad I did watch: because it was funny not racist. I never understood why people blamed India anyway for “stealing” jobs when it was corporations moving them.

Outsourced is based on the movie of the same name. I found the first episode really well written. It addressed how American companies basically own their workers as slaves right now because so many are afraid of being unemployed. It also addresses the caste system (which every country in the world has) but in India it’s more blunt.

Perhaps I identify more with the show being Indian. I don’t eat meat and find hamburgers gross. I also grew up listening to Indian music, so when the Punjabi Remix started playing- I started dancing. I never found it to be racist, I found it to be honest. Newsflash: Indian names are different than Anglo counterparts. Manmeet may mean friend, but to Americans it is man-meat. From my own personal experience I remember in fifth grade a classmate finding out my middle name and screaming, “Daveeta rhymes with Velveeta!” I then proceeded to kick the little punk in the knee when Mrs. White turned her back. Indian parents tend to name their children after meanings and not prettiness. Daveeta may not sound pretty to some but it derives from the male name Dev which means God. Daveeta means Goddess. My first name Sarah means princess. So take that Paris Hilton!

Asian parents do tend to push education more than other cultures as well which was represented when the show examined A teams and B teams. I remember going to high school and my friends’ parents wanted them to be happy and/or popular. My parents couldn’t have cared less if I was popular; they just wanted me to be a Full Bright Scholar, which I did upon penalty of death.

So maybe this show isn’t for everyone. If your job has been moved to India, I don’t blame you for not watching. But if you just want an half an hour a week of something funny in a different way- then watch.