I don't think the cartoon is racist or offensive. I was trying to explain why some people found it distasteful. And stereotyping someone as elite is surely not the same thing as stereotyping someone as poor?
To add some nuance, I think the cartoon goes both ways, but unintentionally managed to offend Indian sensibilities by portraying them that way.
I think one way to look at it is... The underdog Indians managing to rub shoulders with the likes of NASA and ESA at a fraction of the latter's budget, which isn't wrong. ISRO's missions are typically about two orders of magnitude cheaper than NASA's, while still being very productive.
Somehow threads about India just devolve into ridiculous mudslinging like no other. White people clinging to tired old stereotypes. Indians are half to blame too, being over-sensitive and oddly conservative.
> Somehow threads about India just devolve into ridiculous mudslinging like no other. White people clinging to tired old stereotypes. Indians are half to blame too, being over-sensitive and oddly conservative.
There is an additional factor. Anglophone internet tends to be dominated by Americans. So, discussions about say Denmark don't get too heated because there aren't too many Danes participating.
>>> I think one way to look at it is... The underdog Indians managing to rub shoulders with the likes of NASA and ESA at a fraction of the latter's budget,
How are you getting this through the cartoon? All the cartoon shows is a poor asking for permission to get into an elite club
