Last week, ABC issued an apology for a child’s remark about China from the October 16 episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live. Nevertheless, a petition calling for the White House to “investigate†the show continued to grow, and it has now acquired the 100,000 signatures required for the Obama administration to comment on the incident.
In the original segment, “Kids’ Tableâ€, Kimmel asked a bunch of six- and seven-year-olds what the US should do about its $1.3 trillion debt to China. One child replied, “Kill everyone in China,†which Kimmel laughed at, ultimately ending the segment with, “Well, this has been an interesting edition of Kids Table – the Lord of the Flies edition.†ABC apologized for the segment, stating, “We would never purposefully broadcast anything to upset the Chinese community, Asian community, anyone of Chinese descent or any community at large.†The comment has been removed from the online videos and will be cut from future broadcasts of the episode.
It’s unclear, then, what the petition is aiming to achieve. The full text of the petition reads:
I was very disturbed by Jimmy Kimmel’s ‘Kids Table’ show. It was aired on ABC recently and talked about killing all the Chinese so that the states do not need to pay back their debts to China. The kids might not know anything better. However, Jimmy Kimmel and ABC’s management are adults. 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. It is extremely distasteful and this is the same rhetoric used in Nazi Germany against Jewish people. Please immediately cut the show and issue a formal apology.