Knowing who you are and being a parent go hand-in-hand….

Bernardo and Anita

Mindy is out on a date with the super hot Neel and it’s going fairly well until their shared Indian heritage comes up. Neel deems Mindy a coconut: brown on the outside, white on the inside. And Mindy? Is appalled.

This episode is very much about the dilemma that interracial and adoptive parents have when trying to raise their children to respect every aspect of themselves. As a child of parents who are from two different cultures and countries, as well as being one half of an interracial couple, this episode speaks to me on a pretty personal level. While my parents taught me about my family history from jump I was still accused of being an oreo because I embraced all the parts of my background. Much like Mindy I had to decide how much I cared what other people thought of me and their judgments on how ‘black’ I was. And much like Mindy it was my awesome parents who loved me unconditionally and let me know that they were proud of me that made my decision for me.

Danny also wants to make sure Leo knows who he is and makes plans to take Leo to Italy to meet the Castellano half of his family. He’s pretty damn awesome and cool, with Mindy embracing more of her heritage, and raising Leo to do the same. It’s a great scene, very true to who both these characters are and does a lot to make up for the Danny drama of the past year.

Over in subplot land, Morgan and Jody are both pursuing the lovely Ashley, and reacting to her virginity very differently. Surprisingly it’s Jody who comes out on top, metaphorically speaking. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out as Jody’s feelings for Mindy haven’t just gone away.

Lab Report

There are so many great lines this episode containing it down to just three is actually pretty hard but here we go:

• Honestly, I think of you as a white man. Largely because of your entitlement – Jody re: Mindy
• You think you’re white and I think I’m black, we skipped that whole steez – Rishi re: Mindy and himself
• It’s segregation they can feel good about – IE: why white people love to see POC dating within their race