Mindy Kaling Responds To Backlash About Her Role As ‘Scooby-Doo’ Character Velma: ‘There Are Indian Nerds’

etcanada.com:

Mindy Kaling is addressing the criticism of her role as the beloved “Scooby-Doo” character Velma in a new spinoff series. The actress admitted to Seth Meyers on Thursday’s “Late Night” that people were okay with her being the voice of Velma.

However, people drew the line when they realized Velma was going to be of East Asian descent. Kaling told Meyers, “People were not happy.

There were a lot of ‘so not Velma’ tweets. First of all, I didn’t know that she elicited such strong reactions, in either direction. “She’s such a great character, she’s so smart.

And I just couldn’t understand how people couldn’t imagine a really smart, nerdy girl with terrible eyesight and loved to solve mysteries could not be Indian. “Like, there are Indian nerds.