So, like, there's clearly a class of stereotypes that are nominally positive, but that are still negative in effect.
Obvious examples include "black people have big dicks and are sexually potent" and "Jews are cheap". Even "Asians are smart". None of those things are intrinsically bad - in fact, all of them are good! Being careful with your money, or good at sex, or smart, are all positive traits (IMO). But all of them, when they're used as stereotypes, are used in ways that limit and objectify the person being stereotyped and to imply that those traits are actually negatives. Assuming that all Jewish people are cheap, and reducing them to their cheapness, and then turning it into a negative, and then using it to dehumanize them - that's how these things do work to entrench racism. And it's the same with the stereotype of the Asian convenience store owner.
And to be clear, I'm not saying that Apu goes that far at all. The problem comes from the cumulative effect of these stereotypes - from the broader pattern that they create. But the only way to alter that broad pattern of stereotypes and dehumanization is to push back on specific attitudes and examples, and that includes examples that aren't as glaring or aggressive.
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Obvious examples include "black people have big dicks and are sexually potent" and "Jews are cheap". Even "Asians are smart". None of those things are intrinsically bad - in fact, all of them are good! Being careful with your money, or good at sex, or smart, are all positive traits (IMO). But all of them, when they're used as stereotypes, are used in ways that limit and objectify the person being stereotyped and to imply that those traits are actually negatives. Assuming that all Jewish people are cheap, and reducing them to their cheapness, and then turning it into a negative, and then using it to dehumanize them - that's how these things do work to entrench racism. And it's the same with the stereotype of the Asian convenience store owner.
And to be clear, I'm not saying that Apu goes that far at all. The problem comes from the cumulative effect of these stereotypes - from the broader pattern that they create. But the only way to alter that broad pattern of stereotypes and dehumanization is to push back on specific attitudes and examples, and that includes examples that aren't as glaring or aggressive.