White House to respond to Jimmy Kimmel controversy

By Liu Qiang
0 Comment(s)Print E-mail China.org.cn, November 8, 2013
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A petition on the White House website reached the 100,000 signature threshold, and the White House is obliged to respond to the controversy. [file photo]

A petition on the White House website calling for an investigation of the "Kids Table" segment of the Jimmy Kimmel Show has reached the 100,000 signature threshold, meaning the White House is obliged to respond to the controversy.

The White House website requires that a petition must obtain 100,000 signatures within 30 days to receive a response. The petition reached the threshold 12 days before the deadline.

On Oct. 16, a boy on the "Kids Table" segment of the Jimmy Kimmel Show, when asked how to pay back the 1.3 trillion in U.S. debt owed to China, responded that the U.S should "kill all the people in China."

The clip was aired by ABC and the "kill everyone in China" comment led to anger and protests by Chinese Americans.

Two days after the show aired, a White House petition was launched, calling for "a sincere apology" and for the program to be cut. The petition reads: " They had a choice not to air this racist program, which promotes racial hatred. The program is totally unacceptable and it must be cut. A sincere apology must be issued."

The show even attracted attention on China’s social media sites such as Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter, and Renren.com, China’s version of Facebook. The social media sites were inundated with calls for apologies and political voices from Chinese-Americans.

Both ABC and Kimmel himself have already apologized for the clip, and the video has been cut from future broadcasts.

A statement from ABC read, "We offer our sincere apology...our objective is to entertain." But the apology has been criticized for lacking sincerity.

Around 10,000 Chinese Americans are expected to protest in 20 cities across America this Saturday.

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