If you haven't seen the ad yet, it starts off with Mindy Kaling trying and failing to catch a cab. The cab breezes right by her, then stops mere feet from her for a man. As Kaling stands in the street perplexed and watching the scene unfold, we hear, "After years of being treated like she was invisible, it occurred to Mindy: She might actually be invisible." You probably watched the ad and thought it was funny. It is funny. Because Mindy. But my first thought on seeing it for the first time was that it was a commentary on minority women being invisible in general.
We're paid less than other women
Image: American Association of University Women
The legal system doesn't exactly treat us the way the way they treat you
Image: The Sentencing Project
According to The Sentencing Project, black women were incarcerated at almost three times the rate of white women, and Hispanic women were incarcerated at almost two times the rate of white women in 2010.
We receive lower-quality health care
Image: Affordable Health Insurance
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, minority women are also less likely to have breast cancer diagnosed in a timely manner (early enough to treat!) and less likely to receive lifesaving treatment when they suffer heart attacks.
Everybody is trying to kill us
Image: ThinkProgress.org
If it isn't law enforcement, it's our partners. But nobody seems to care.
We barely see images of ourselves in the media
Image: ThinkProgress.org
And we aren't exactly represented behind the scenes, either.
Image: Studio Daily
Image: PRC Collective
And the icing on the cake — none of you even bother to learn our names. Vera Mindy Chokalingam. Get it straight.
Watch the ad here:
Invisible Mindy Super Bowl Ad
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