80-20 PAC, which is by far the largest Asian American political action committee with an email list of 350,000 e-addresses, announced today that ABC’s top executives gave verbal and written apologies for permitting an offensive segment in “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to air.
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It requested S. B. Woo, President of 80-20 National Asian American Political Action Committee, to be a conduit to convey “our sincere apology” to the “Chinese community, Asian Community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large.”
ABC also apologized for letting the offensive segment to get on Youtube linkage. ABC stressed that upon being contacted by 80-20 PAC, it has since “taken swift action” to remove it and promised to “edi 6089 t(ing) it out of any future airing of the show.” The written apology was signed by ABC’s Executive Vice President, Alernative Series, Specials and Late Night, Lisa Berger, and Vice President, Talent Development and Diversity, Tim McNeal. |
Mr. McNeal also verbally requested S. B. Woo to convey ABC’s eagerness to have Asian American writers, actors and producers apply for jobs with ABC. It is one way to avoid such unfortunate incident in the future — through diversity in its organization. McNeal said, “ABC takes achieving diversity very seriously.” Interested parties may reach his office at [email protected].
Mr. McNeal has also offered to ask the producer of the “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to “personally apologize.” Woo preferred a written apology from the top executives which was sent subsequently.
S. B. Woo said, “Many worked to achieve this success. 80-20 is very much aware that many different individuals and organizations in the Chinese, Asian and other communities have made great efforts asking ABC to apologize. They organized a petition at the White House, and planned demonstrations in NY & SF. The Chinese media, in particular, did an outstanding job in calling our community’s attention to this unfortunate incident. It is their victory. ”
Woo also said, “Personally I don’t consider it as an 80-20 victory at all. Instead it is a sad teachable moment for our community. I humbly hope that this incident has shown our community the importance of SELF RELIANCE. 80-20 started communicating with ABC on Oct. 23. We together got the result before the White House did.”
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Woo said, “Had we been like the Jewish American community, the outcome of this incident would have been even more satisfactory. The 3 largest social and civil right Jewish American organizations have a combined annual expenditure of $168 million. In comparison, 80-20 PAC has an annual expenditure of $100k. The population of Jewish Americans is 6 million. The Asian Am population is 16 million. So the per person expenditure by the big 3 Jewish orgs is $28. The per person expenditure of 80-20 PAC is $0.007. The expenditure ratio is 4000 to 1! That is why 80-20 Educational Foundation is try to establish a Self Empowerment Long-term Fund, SELF, of $10 million/year for 5 years. Go visit admin.80-20nj.info/cgi/80/e?l=8/au/1/f&w=no.” |
Woo stressed, “Turn your anger into action. Donate at least $100/year for 5 years to 80-20’s SELF project, if your family income is $100k/year. There are 250,000 such Chinese American families. How many such families have sacrificed a little to help establish our group political clout? It’s not too late to start today!
We can’t be out spent 4000 to 1 and expect the same quality in results. To live with the dignity of Jewish Americans, we need to DONATE like Jewish Americans!”
To see a copy of ABC letter of apology, go www.80-20initiative.net/pdf/abc-kimmel-apology.pdf.