"It tends to be an unmindful reflection of self on the part of writers and developers and networks in general," he told the Times.

Just because prejudice is unconscious doesn't mean it's excusable. If "an unmindful reflection of self" is the problem, as Bochco implies, it wouldn't be that hard to hire more people of color to create shows.

Sadly, "whitewashing" isn't the only problemminorities have to deal with in entertainment. They also have to deal with the endless, consistent perpetuation of certain misleading stereotypes.

Strangely, I didn't really have a burning desire to explain to my elementary school classmates that I did not, in fact, consume insects and that neither did I tear people's hearts out while they were still alive. Thanks to "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doo," quite possibly the worst film ever (partially filmed in Sri Lanka!), I had to do that multiple times.

The film distorts religion--notice the villainous cult's poorly veiled similarities and references to South Asian religions, including Hinduism. As David Sterritt of the Christian Science Monitor wrote in 1989, "racist implications...became uncomfortably strong in 'Temple of Doom,' where Indy strutted like a Great White Hero among people of color who were consistently helpless, villainous, or both."

And although in my innocent youth I loved the film "Short Circuit," I became disillusioned when I realized that the white actor portraying the Indian immigrant inventor was acting like a caricature, not a person.

The problem even extends to commercials. A recent football commercial on ABC made fun of Indian movies. The ad, roughly summarized: ABC showed a cheesy clip from an Indian movie. "Monday night in India," the screen said. Then they showed a clip of football players. "Monday night in America," it explained.