“Bridegerton” made history when it debuted on December 25, 2020. The show takes place during the Regency Era in London. In the first season, we saw the intermarriage of black and white people. This season, the Asian community was more represented. 

In “Bridgerton,” the Queen of England is a black woman married to a white man. The intermarriage of races was legalized in the United States in 1960 and 1948 in England. These concepts are still relatively new to people. This leads to still daily discrimination against interracial families.

In season two, the audience was introduced to the Sharma sisters, two women from Bombay, India. These women have made history for young brown girls and women worldwide. 

Representation is so important, but it wasn’t as if the show was playing into the typical stereotypes that we constantly see in the dorky, ‘unattractive’ Indian side character. During this series, the interactions between all races make it seem like this could’ve happened in real life.  There isn’t a racial hierarchy, but just a class hierarchy that allows men and women of color to be anywhere.

While the Sharma sisters participate in the western European culture of London, we also see bits of their culture and traditions that they brought from India: gold bangles, coconut oil in hair, making masala chai, the spreading of turmeric paste, and calling father Appa. This slight nod to their Indian life allows for people to feel represented. These women are not judged for their traditions and are not called out for being different and having practices that are ‘weird’ or ‘untraditional practices.’ 

For those from a multiracial household, you feel proud to watch this show and see men and women of different races fall madly in love. Seeing white men interested and wanting to court a woman of color is not always seen because those of color who aren’t Asian women, who are hyper-sexualized, can be considered too masculine or too different from a white woman. 

Seeing women who look like me, my mom, and all of my aunties makes me feel heard and proud. Showing appreciation of other cultures and ethnicities in a westernized television show makes it seem like there can be an actual change in combating the whiteness of media.