The writer and supervising producer of the the latest episode of Hulu’s The Mindy Project titled “Mindy Lahiri Is a White Man,” recently admitted in an interview that tackling the subject of “white privilege” has "a whole new meaning," given the unexpected victory of Donald Trump over Hillary Clinton. Really? Last I checked, both of them were white people.
The issues of white privilege and the gender wars are easily interchangeable in this episode. Dr. Mindy Lahiri (Mindy Kaling), the owner of a fertility clinic, is up for the job of Head of Obstetrics at St. Brendan’s Hospital. Her colleague from her clinic, Jody (Garret Dillahunt) is also up for the job. Another Asian doctor, Dr. Irene Lee (Ellen D. Williams) is the only other woman going on the job interview. Jody was quite self-assured about his chances of success with the job interview- as a white male but Mindy piped up that she looks like how leaders look today. Then she went on to name the examples of Michelle Obama, Kamila Harris, and Gabrielle Union.
During the first round, Jody came out of the interview mentioning that he did really well and told a great Hillary joke to the panel of interviewers. An all men panel, during Mindy’s interview they peppered her with questions about how she would juggle being a single mom and her workload and if she would let her emotions get in the way of her job. Mindy and Dr. Lee were not called back for a second interview. Jody was. Mindy said, “White men get to do everything.”
Wishing she were a white male as she fell asleep, Mindy awoke as Michael Lancaster. Reading her new ID from her wallet, she proclaimed, “That’s as white as hell.” Looking at her wardrobe, she commented, “Man, that is a lot of light brown. Guess I’m not a gay man.” Going on a second interview before the panel as Michael, he was assured the job was his.
Mindy/Michael had previously dismissed Dr. Lee as a nerd but after observing her perform a Caesarian section on one of her own patients – she was hung over from a night on the town with the guys as “Michael” – she became determined to insist that Dr. Lee continue vying for the job. Mindy/Michael helped her with a make-up and wardrobe makeover and helped her find self-confidence. Then Mindy/Michael told Dr. Lee to throw the race card and guilt the panel into giving her the job – “Every white person’s worst fear is being called a racist.” The efforts surprisingly failed, as Dr. Lee was not offered the job.
As Michael Lancaster lambasted the all white male panel for choosing him instead of a woman of color, they reminded him that the last Head of Obstetrics was a black lesbian and this time they wanted to go in “a different direction.” They applauded his strong advocacy for diversity.
In the end, Mindy decided she missed being interesting and different and wanted to go back to being an Indian woman again, before falling asleep. She awoke and she was Mindy again. Good bye Michael and standard boilerplate liberal white male shaming and hello typical Hollywood actress.
