“It was [Adi] Shankar’s intention to crowdsource a script that 'in a clever way subverts [Apu], pivots him, writes him out..."

"'... or evolves him in a way that takes a creation that was the byproduct of a predominately Harvard-educated white male writers’ room and transforms it into a fresh, funny and realistic portrayal of Indians in America.' Shankar’s primary hope was that Fox would produce the script as an episode of 'The Simpsons,' but now that he has found what he calls the 'perfect script' and announces the winner of his contest, he told IndieWire that he has heard from people who work for the show that 'The Simpsons' is eliminating the character."

Metafilter.

I don't know how perfect that script really was, but by just eliminating the character with no explanation, it remains possible to bring him back whenever they want and explain it when the time comes.

Compare Roseanne. They eliminated her by killing her off, and now she can never come back... not without a really weird explanation anyway.

You could say "The Simpsons" isn't even giving its Indian character the dignity of needing his absence explained. He just becomes unseen, which is the way pop culture in the old days treated minorities. They're just not there. No explanation needed.

That's what deserves the label "microaggression." And my tag "seen and unseen."