Assemblyman Jose Rivera is demanding an apology from television network ABC for offensive remarks made on its newest sitcom, "Work It."
Here is Rivera's statement:
Enough! The Puerto Rican community
once again became victims of racist abuse by the American media. Last Tuesday,
January 3, ABC transmitted a new show called “Work It” in which a Puerto Rican
character states “I am Puerto Rican – I’d be great at selling drugs.”
This is not the first time that the American media
stereotypes and racially discriminates against Puerto Ricans. However, our
community has always fought back, winning important battles against billion
dollar media conglomerates. Oliver Stone’s 1980 film, Wall Street, originally
had a scene in which Puerto Ricans are compared to cockroaches. In the 1990s,
an episode of Seinfeld showed the character of Kramer stomping on the Puerto
Rican flag during the Puerto Rican Day Parade. In both occasions, Puerto Ricans
protested, and both Seinfeld and Stone apologized. Stone went on to eliminate
the offensive remarks from the video and DVDs of the movie. This type of
discrimination is not unique to these two examples and goes back to West Side
Story and beyond.
The fact that in the 21st Century we still have to change
the channel in order to prevent our children from hearing comments on TV and
film that attack their humanity and self esteem is unacceptable. We should not
live in fear of watching TV or going to the movies because we do not know when
the next insult is coming. We demand that ABC apologize to the Puerto Rican
community at the beginning of the next episode of “Work It” and that the
President of ABC meet with Puerto Rican community leaders to create a plan in
which, instead of discriminating against the Puerto Rican community, the
network promotes the rich tradition and contributions of Puerto Ricans and
Latinos in general.
Not only is Rivera calling for an apology for the offensive remarks, but also I am calling on ABC to issue an apology for the entire show, which wasted a half hour of my life.
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