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Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (2015) is largely praised for its upbeat look at overcoming trauma, its sharp-wit humor, and its delightfully obnoxious satirical characters. The show is generally well-received except for one element: its depiction of race. One criticism leveled against the show is that Kimmy’s (Ellie Kemper) saccharine charm is not sweet enough to cover its exploitation of racial stereotypes. However, the argument can be made that satirizing certain unfortunate, yet, nevertheless, still existing racial stereotypes can cast an important light on racial inequities and unconscious racial biases still present in American society today.

There are different levels of racial jokes in the program. Some are more topical and rooted in unfortunate, honest realities. One of the first instances of this is a dark stab at the media in the opening scenes when Kimmy and the captives are being pulled from the bunker. A television news report shows the headline “White Women Found,” and in smaller text, “Hispanic woman also found.” Racial? Yes. Unauthentic? Sadly, no. Same goes for Kimmy’s roommate Titus (Tituss Burgess), who takes to walking around the streets in a werewolf costume because he gets treated better in a lycanthropic outfit than he does as a regular black man. Situations like this one are rooted in everyday realities and based on highlighting realistic discrepancies; a relatively smart way to tackle race.

Kimmy Schmidt effectively portrays stereotypes through buffoonish characters - like Titus - that the audience cannot avoid seeing the ridiculousness within the underlying bias. Just look at Titus’ exaggerated, cartoonish behavior that almost always highlights his homosexuality and African Americanism for humor:

However, two subplots in particular raise racist questions with some viewers, as they don’t strike those same cartoonish chords, and instead come across as shallow and therefore purely offensive.

Jacqueline Voorhees (Jane Krakowski), Kimmy’s employer, is a rich white socialite with a wanton disregard for basically everything and everyone but herself. She’s also, curiously enough, a runaway Native American who wanted nothing more in life but to become a rich white socialite. But she’s not as outlandishly bizarre as Titus, and her Native American backstory doesn’t add anything enriching or definitive to her character the way being a homosexual African American does for Titus. It simply appears to exist for shock value.

Libby Hill for Vulture says, “This specific backstory is most frustrating because it doesn’t serve a purpose, either narratively or comedically. There must be more compelling (and funnier!) ways to give Jacqueline a backstory that don’t require sloppily marginalizing a group of people who are already as marginalized as you can get… Think of it this way: Is there any other race Krakowski could have played without raising a substantial uproar? The fact is, no matter what Krakowski looks like, we are asked to believe the character is Native American, a device that only serves to add color to the backstory of a character played by a very white actress. If we take the show at its word, we are laughing at a Native American woman who felt so uncomfortable in her skin and in not being a member of the dominant culture, she sold her soul to look the way she thought she should. That’s not funny; it’s disturbing. Not just because the pressure to Anglicize exists for so many cultures in America today, but because of how this very country systematically stripped the Native American people not only of their culture, but of their lands.”

Arthur Chu of Slate furthers this, saying “Jacqueline’s parents don’t confidently dive into a stereotype to amplify it, mock it, and eventually show the humanity within it. Instead, they awkwardly go through a by-the-numbers stereotype of what people think an “Indian family” would look like only to immediately, weakly apologize for it.”

Kimmy Schmidt often follows race-joke material by criticizing whites, a “two wrongs make a right” tactic that doesn’t hold justification in the eyes of many. Meghan O’Dea on Medium writes:

“This is where Fey’s attempts to universalize Kimmy’s experience breaks down, and where the possible intent behind her jokes veers into unfortunate stereotyping. Her attempts to deal with race head-on backfire. When the characters of color do address racial issues, they criticize the white characters rather than opening up about their own experiences.”

Then there’s Kimmy’s Vietnamese boyfriend/math tutor named Dong (Ki Hong Lee). In many ways, he personifies stereotypical young Asian male attributes (heavily accented, good at academics, works as a delivery driver) perpetuated by juvenile, and uninformed minds. Racial jokes involving Dong aren’t cultural jabs or well-timed reflections of societal disparities.

Arthur Chu continues, “Instead we get weaksauce stuff like Dong actually being good at math but Kimmy being chided for racism for saying so. Limp stuff like people making dick jokes about his name only for him to briefly comment that Kimmy also means penis in Vietnamese… Dong would’ve been groundbreaking 10 years ago, maybe even five years ago. But in a post-Selfie, post-Fresh Off the Boat world I just don’t care about him… Dong is, from top to bottom, a stereotype. He’s positively portrayed, but everything about that positive portrayal is straight-up model minority stuff - hardworking, smart, earnestly naive about sex and romance, unimpeachably innocent and well-intentioned.

Most major characters on the show are somewhat grotesque cartoons who are lovable despite the fact that in real life they’d be intolerable for all kinds of reasons. This only makes Dong, who would be a bland character on a “normal” sitcom, even more of a misstep. That’s not to say he’s entirely racist, but the usage of racial jokes for his character are not as effective or sarcastic as for others.

Tina Fey’s high-wire act is all about the alchemy of making it OK to laugh at big, heavy issues—like kidnapped women, the experience of undocumented Vietnamese immigrants, and people with Native American ancestry passing as white—by skimming over them with a light touch. Everyone who’s tried to walk an actual tightrope knows that the key is to walk confidently and calmly, to take a straight, smooth path without hesitating. Kimmy’s arc, Titus’ arc, the arc of Jacqueline’s divorce with her husband—these have that deftness of touch.”

Tituss Burgess spoke with Huffington Post about the racial representations on the program, and gives an insider’s take on the way races are conveyed and received by audiences. Check out out here.