Is the ABC/”Desperate Housewives” apology enough?
ABC, the network behind ‘Desperate Housewives’ apologized on October 4 for the “brief reference” to Filipino medical professionals in a line delivered by actress Teri Hatcher as part of the “Desperate Housewives’” latest season premiere.
The ABC network statement read: “The producers of ‘Desperate Housewives’ and ABC Studios offer our sincere apologies for any offense caused by the brief reference in the season premiere. There was no intent to disparage the integrity of any aspect of the medical community in the Philippines. As leaders in broadcast diversity, we are committed to presenting sensitive and respectful images of all communities featured in our programs.”
ABC will also delete the line spoken by Teri Hatcher’s character in that controvercsial scene.
Are Filipinos now satisfied?
Apparently not. Spokespersons for the National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (Nafcon) and executive director for the Washington DC-based Migrant Heritage Commission says the written apology was “not proportionate to the damage [the show] has caused.”
The two groups demand more than a public apology, but also cultural sensitivity training for network staff, more shows depicting Filipinos and other minority groups as “prominent, positive role models,” and support for Filipino-American projects that will strengthen diversity awareness.
Other groups also want the writers investigated accordingly with subject to appropriate disciplinary action and the scene deleted from all DVDs produced.
I totally agree with editting the scene. I’m not sure the ABC producers will go all the way to supporting Fil-am projects.
What’s your take? Should we call it a day with ABC’s apology?
news: Inquirer
Tags: abc, desperate housewives, apology, racial slur, medical profession, teri hatcher
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POSTED IN: Arts and Entertainment, General: Philippine Culture, News and Events
October 7th, 2007 at 7:52 am
Even though I didn’t watched that scene of ‘Desperate Housewives’ where Teri Hatcher delivered the insulting line about are medical professionals. For me, their apology is not enough they should cooperate or support the Fil-Am project. And they should edit the scene where they insulted us Filipino especially our doctors.
October 7th, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Grace,
I don’t feel it was enough because they didn’t apologize the the Filipino medical professionals world wide but just the the “medical community” in the Philippines.
They chose their words carefully didn’t they.
To answer your question..NO it’s not enough but I don’t think anything at this point will remove what they said.
Seeing more Filipino people in these roles on television might be a good start.
October 8th, 2007 at 2:47 am
i think this is enough we don’t need to demand much more apology. what is important is that they aknowledged their fault. one thing those who cried aloud are the ones affected so much by discrimation. definitely we should put an end to this controversy
October 8th, 2007 at 2:54 am
erratum:discrimination
October 9th, 2007 at 5:42 pm
Hello Grace,
Use spell check. Please!!! For goodness’ sake, you’re online. (Misspelled “controvercial” and “editting”).
October 11th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Elisa - thanks for spell-checking me. I could use that sometimes.
Kelsey - the ABC producers are going to edit the scene out from the show and DVDs of the episode.
Don - I hear you. It would be good to feature or include our nurses and medical professionals on TV and other shows. I think I only saw one show/episode somewhere where the nurse was Filipina. The other times where there were ‘extras’ the Pinoy was either a housekeeper/maid or low-educated something.
Although, there are in fact, very successful Fil-Ams actors working in Hollywood.
Raffy - I think all minorities are affected by discrimination, whatever the nationality or ethnic background. America, as accommodating as it already is, really, is still a long way towards fully accepting its immigrant citizens. There has been a lot of progress, but most of it is because the ethnic group themselves made the move. Maybe this desperate housewives is a wake-up call of sort for Filipinos not to allow themselves to be treated as inferiors.
October 12th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
I think the apology is already sufficient.
Let’s remove the mask of hypocrisy here, but isn’t racism/discrimination towards indigenous Filipino, Chinese-Filipino, Indian-Filipinos, Muslim-Filipinos, Visayans very rampant in the Philippines. Being part indigenous, I’ve witnessed many racial slurs against us indigenous people sadly, by fellow Filipinos and when you inform them that you are offended, they butt in that you’re being oversensitive.
Apologies have been offered. Filipinos should also look and ponder on the way threat each other..and move on. They’re editing the scene on DVDs anyway.
Even our Filipino-Chinese kins are not spared from racism in their own homeland(the Philippines). Despite their major contributions to our culture, food, country, economy, many of our non-Chinese kababayans wanted them out of this country or be treated as second class citizens.
Aside from Mano Po series(which was produced by a Filipina-Chinese and contains a lot of inaccuraccies about Filipino-Chinese folks), I can’t think of any local films that makes the Chinese ‘in one’ with non-Chinese Filipinos.
I’m not saying that Filipinos should not fight racism but we must be reminded that fighting racism is two way: you will not allow people to be racist towards you AND you will not throw racist statements against other people.
October 17th, 2007 at 3:26 am
Kris:
are you kris aquino?host of deal or no deal.
October 20th, 2007 at 8:48 pm
I think the apology from ABC is sufficient. The rallies, threats of boycotts and lawsuit of $500 million ( last I read in the Inquirer) is a bit extreme…even hypocritical. If only these professional were as passionate about the condition this country as they are in their pursuit of the $$, and let’s be honest folks…that’s what this is really all about. The deep pocket of ABC.
So how much money did the medical professional lose over the remark? How many patients walked out on them? I haven’t heard this in the news.
Erap was convicted of plundering millions and the government is considering a pardon. Where are the rallies to get the people’s money back? I am outraged more by this than the silly remark made on a TV show.
And by the way…I do here of teachers selling grades and board exams being fixed as a common occurance here in the Philippines. And as far as racial slurs…Filipinos are just as bad. In a country where white skin is consirdered beautiful and those with dark skinned are called negro, bombay, Ati, Nognog…PLEASE! Stop your hypocracy and start your sensitivity training here at home. And yes I am Filipina.
p.s. I’d also like to know if the doctors and other Filipinos who called for a boycott of Disney (parent co. of ABC) started at their home. Did they throw away all their Disney products? Let’s not be half assed about this…Pilipinas let’s boycott Disney!
November 9th, 2007 at 6:14 am
i haven’t seen a single episode of Desperate Housewives but im not ruling them out. I am a filipino. The joke was not funny for us filipinos but it sure was funny for non-filipinos, the scriptwriters on that show aren’t newbies in the field, so they know what makes their audience tick but because of that they stepped over the line. not that i’m sucking up to ABC but, a joke is a joke, but the truth of the matter is the joke that was told is very untrue, lmfao, imagine UST, Ateneo, De La Salle producing dumbass meds. first is that we must consider the Filipino Doctors in the US, they sure are smart because they needed to pass various tests and examinations to be able to practice med in a specific state which ultimately means that the Filipino Doctors working in the states are definitely on-par with their American counterparts. And in terms of educational calibre, it is true that our highschool and elementary calibre is pretty low in the public schools but look at our private schools, you would be amazed at what those kids are learning. College is different, a student has a great impact on the total assessment of a University/College’s educational standard, but in my experience, the Philippines has the some of the best Universities/Colleges in Asia. I studied (for a brief period of time) at Ateneo de Davao University, lo and behold rich sons and daughters of Indian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese families were studying there, why? because ADDU offers top-notch college education for a very affordable price, they said that the price of similar education in their native land costs a lot of bucks. Now back to our doctors, Filipino doctors who graduated in the Philippines who ended up working abroad, as i’ve stated earlier, had to undergo tests and examinations to practice med in a certain US state, or other foreign countries, in Filipino standards these Doctors are none other than, THE CREAMS OF THE CROP, THE BEST OF THE BEST, the US community should at least consider this and thank our country for providing them with our best and leaving us with our worst. Brain drain my fellows, the best stocks of our intellectual resource pool is drain towards US, Europe and other nations. YOU CAN JOKE ALL YOU WANT BUT AT LEAST BE THANKFUL.
peace
January 10th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
There goes the problem. Filipinos do not investigate. If you watch the whole episode, it would turn out that the one being ridiculed was a HARVARD grad not a grad from the Philippines.
Watch many Tagalog films and you’ll see how worse the Tagalog racism against the Visayans, Indians, Chinese and indigenous people is!