Both the film Mississipi Masala and “Flipping the Gender Script” explore interactions between Black people and South Asian people. In “Flipping the Gender Script”, South Asian hip-hop artists have to navigate the world of hip-hop not only with gendered limitations, but raced ones as well. Black female hip-hop artists were exclusionary towards D’Lo and Deejay Bella because they were working hard enough to be accepted in the hip-hop community as women, and there seemed to be limited room for inclusion.

In Mississipi Masala, Mina and Demetrius fall in love and have to deal with their parents’ reactions to their romance. The scene I found most interesting was when Demetrius confronts Mina’s father and says he is “only a few shades lighter”, referring to his attitude that Demetrius is not good enough for his daughter. It is made clearer toward the end of the film that part of Mina’s father’s prejudice against Demetrius and his romance with Mina is the reason why he left Uganda: his Black friend tells him he has to leave Uganda because Africa is only for Black Africans. I perceived this to be part of the reason that Mina’s father is resentful towards Black people. Thus, his perception of race is affected by his position in the South Asian diaspora– Uganda was his home, where he had been born and raised, but even in Uganda he was “othered”.