Diversity Day

Hopewell Valley Student Podcasting Network 

Show Name: A Day in The Office

Episode Title: Diversity Day 

Episode #2

You are listening to A Day in The Office the podcast with your host(s) Samaira Sachdeva.

In this episode of A Day in The Office the Podcast, I will discuss the Diversity Day episode of The Office, how I relate to this episode, and the cast of the show.

Segment 1: Summary of the Diversity Day episode

This episode is probably the most controversial episode of the whole series of The Office. So I’m going to give you all a quick summary of it, so you can decide if you agree with most of the audience when they say it’s offensive. So this episode is very early on in the series. It is the second episode of season 1. Now in this episode, Michael imitates a very controversial and racist Chris Rock routine. Everyone from the office files a complaint to corporate about Michael, which forces them to undergo a meeting in which a consultant, known as Mr. Brown in the episode, teaches the office about the importance of diversity and tolerance. Michael being Michael insists on teaching the importance of diversity in the workplace in his own way, and takes over the meeting. Okay, so if you think that this episode is bad so far, just wait until you hear about this part. So now we know that Michael has taken over the seminar to teach it himself. Which is already bad enough as is. And as we also already know, Michael is very oblivious to pretty much everything that he does. So, Michael assigns each staff member with a card that has a different race written on it. With these cards, he tells the staff to treat people how they would be treated if they were the race written on their cards. So now, all the staff members are basically very confused but they all know Michael. They know that this is the type of oblivious person he is, so they didn’t really question him. But, after a while, the staff start to get very aggravated and annoyed with Michael, and here’s why. Michael begins to claim that he is now “two fifteenths Native American.” which is not okay to say, considering that he is not, in fact, “two fifteenths Native American” Along with this, Kelly, the same staff member from my last podcast episode, walks into Michaels racist seminar. She was out in a meeting of her own, so she didn’t exactly know what was going on when she walked into the conference room. So, you know, she wasn’t there, meaning that she never received an index card from Michael. However, despite not receiving a card, he delivers a very racist impression of Indian people to Kelly, who takes offense and slaps Michael. So, this episode is very controversial for many many reasons, and I think that we can all agree that this episode probably wouldn’t have even aired, had it been made within the past (at least) 4-5 years. 

Segment 2: How I relate to this episode of The Office

Okay, so if you listened to my first podcast episode about Diwali, you already know that I (along with Kelly) am Indian. And I feel like we need to talk more about how it isn’t okay to mock accents such as Indian ones. And although I personally haven’t had someone be racist to my face, regardless, I still know that it, well, exists. I know even of people in my grade who have said racist remarks about Indians and even other cultures and races which is really not okay. So I think we should also talk about the Indian stereotype in tv shows and movies. One thing that I like about The Office, and about Kelly, is that she doesn’t have an Indian accent. Now you might think that her not having an accent is just of little significance, but for me, this is really important, and here’s why. A lot of shows, and I feel like Disney shows especially, make Indian actors force an Indian accent. For example, in the show, Jessie from Disney channel, one of the main characters, Ravi, was adopted from India with an