Come on. Can we please cut it with the stupid 7-11/Indian jokes? Last week on CNBC's Squawk Box, co-host Joe Kernen decided to go there, asking if Indian currency was good at 7-11: CNBC's Kernen Reacts To Indian Central Banking Decision With Racial Stereotypes.
Kernen and co-hosts Becky Quick and Andrew Ross Sorkin were discussing recent changes in the Indian central bank's interest rates and their effect on exchange rates. When the discussion turned to the rupee, the tone of the conversation definitely shifted into oh-those-silly-Indians mode, mostly led by Kernen.
When Quick realized that she still had rupees in her wallet from her last trip to India, Kernen couldn't resist going Full Apu, using a stereotypical Indian accent and asking, "Are they good at 7-11?"
Let's go to the video:
Here's the transcript:
QUICK: I think I have rupees in my wallet right now.I love how Kernen actually wrestles with whether or not he should go there with the 7-11 joke -- Quick seems to know what's coming, and reaaalllly doesn't want him to -- but he just can't resist making an ass of himself, like a squirming little kid holding his hand over his own mouth. Then followed by the perfunctory apology: "I apologize, before I have to." Is it really that hard not to say the stupidest shit possible?
KERNEN: From your trip?
QUICK: No, I think I honestly do from the last time I was in India.
KERNEN: Really?
QUICK: Yeah, I think I might. Hold on.
KERNEN: You got a rupee in your wallet?
QUICK: I think I do.
SORKIN: That sounds a little, um.
KERNEN: You've got to be kidding. There is the rupee chart, just in case you were wondering where the rupee is. The dollar had been soaring, look what happened when we said we were going to keep pumping.
QUICK: I do.
KERNEN: Becky's got a rupee.
SORKIN: A rupee!
QUICK: Here's a fifty and a ten.
SORKIN: How much are those worth, do we know?
QUICK: I don't remember.
SORKIN: Look at Gandhi.
KERNEN: Well, ones worth ten and one's worth fifty, what do you mean?
SORKIN: Gandhi's on the rupee. Look at that.
KERNEN: Gandhi. Gandhi. Now. No, I can't make any jokes about that, I mean do they take -
QUICK: [unclear]
KERNEN: No I can't do it. I was going to say something.
QUICK: Please don't.
KERNEN: I really can't?
QUICK: No, you can't.
KERNEN: Are they good at 7-11?
QUICK: Stop.
KERNEN: Alright, alright, I won't. Let's look at the - people say that all the time. Right? Oh, you're nervous.
SORKIN: They do. They do say that all the time.
KERNEN: They do. They say it all the time.
QUICK: It's insulting.
SORKIN: I've heard that.
KERNEN: It is. Alright, I'm sorry, I take it back. I apologize, before I have to.
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