U.S. officials show support for protests against ABC's offensive skit

San Francisco, Nov.10 -- (People's Daily Online) A nationwide protest against ABC over Jimmy Kimmel’s offensive rhetoric was staged in 27 cities last Saturday in the United States. Different from the first protest, many local Chinese American officials showed their firm support by being present at the rally.

The largest-scale Chinese American protest, including a rally outside ABC's headquarters in Burbank gathered thousands of Chinese Americans. Some even brought their children to the proceeding.

In San Francisco, more than 5,000 Chinese Americans took part in the protest demanding“fire Jimmy Kimmel” and “sincere apology from ABC”. Council members from San Francisco, Cupertino, Millbrae and Oakland mayor Jean Quan spoke at the gathering and expressed their disappointed over ABC’s ignorant and inflammatory action.

Jean Quan, mayor of Oakland said, “As the first Chinese-American woman mayor of a major U.S. city, I am proud of how far Chinese Americans have come and of all our great contributions to our society.”

An organizer of the protest told the report that he wanted a formal apology from ABC, not just to the groups protesting, but to all Chinese people. "We know ABC has issued an apology, but that is not enough. We want the company to make a formal apology to all Chinese,” he said.

Vincent, a native American, told People’s Daily Online that ABC owes Chinese people an apology because “It is racism”. One protester said that TV talk shows have immense influence in American culture. It should not be the forum for creating racial animosity. Free speech does not mean hate speech.

When asked whether Chinese Americans have overacted, one American passerby said that Jimmy Kimmel not only offended the Chinese American community, but also instilled racial hatred and violence in children’s minds.

“Adding insult to injury, ABC took nine days to produce a half-hearted apology, not to the community but to a political action committee by fax, that’s unacceptable,” said another protester.

The protests are in reaction to a segment called "Kids Table" that aired on Jimmy Kimmel's show on Oct. 16. During the segment, Kimmel asks a group of boys and girls how should the U.S. pay nearly $1.3 trillion in debt to China. One of the children suggests that the US "kill everyone in China."