The excitement of seeing a South Asian woman and a Muslim woman as main characters is quickly subsumed by the frustration of yet-again stereotypical/prejudicial story lines in ABC’s newest television drama airing this fall, Quantico. ABC released its official trailer of the show on Monday, May 12.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7gJ74ARN84
Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra plays Alex Parrish, a recruit in the FBI’s newest class of trainees at Quantico Base who is accused of being the mastermind behind a terrorist attack in New York City, the deadliest in America since 9/11.
The cast of Quantico. (Photo: ABC)
Among the diverse class of trainees is Nimah Anwar, a Muslim woman wearing hijab, played by Yasmine Al Massri.
As if we didn’t have enough confusion and eliding of identities, depictions like this reinforce and perpetuate racial profiling and targeting of South Asians, Arabs, and Muslims for being ‘terrorists’. Because of course, all brown people are the same, and all brown people are Muslim, and thus terrorists who hate America.
You’re crying before the sting, we don’t even know how the storyline is going to play out.. not yet at least.