A Call To Action!

MEDIA ADVISORY/T.V. TIP
Who: Asian Americans Coalition for Total Inclusion on the Networks (AACTION), East West Players, Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA)

What: Press Conference: Asian Americans announce local efforts in support of nationwide campaign to end the "whitewashing" of network television.

Speakers:
Tim Dang, East West Players Producing Artistic Director
George Takei, Actor & Community Activist, speaking on behalf of AACTION
Amy Hill, Actor & Writer, speaking on behalf of AACTION
Guy Aoki, Founding President, Media Action Network for Asian Americans (MANAA)

Where: East West Players David Henry Hwang Theater at the Union Center for the Arts Aratani Courtyard
120 N. Judge John Aiso Street, Los Angeles 90012
(formerly San Pedro Street between First and Temple Streets)

When: Tuesday, September 14, 1999
10:00am

Dear Friend of East West Players:

As you may have read in the Los Angeles Times (front page as well as the Calendar section), there have been several articles about the lack of minorities in lead roles in this upcoming TV season. Dan Mayeda, East West Players Vice President of the EWP Board of Directors and Legal Counsel, has crafted an eloquent letter regarding the networks not representing the "true American scene" on television.

We are asking you to read the letter enclosed below and if you agree with the letter, to have your endorsement by emailing the following address with your name and official title or the organization of which you represent.

endorse99@aol.com

We have collected over 600 names of individuals and organizations so far and plan to release this letter by September 10, 1999 when the NAACP hold a press conference either in LA or NY as a cause for concern from our community of the issues at hand.

As East West Players has been the home to over 3,000 talented artists and the diverse voice of the Asian Pacific American experience, our community is not represented accurately on national television with regard to race, sex, age, sexual preference, disablility, etc.

I hope that you will endorse this letter. Diversity is one of the most important tools that is at the very core of East West Players. I hope you'll join us in strengthening our voice. Please email this letter to your friends and colleagues to enlist their support.

Thank you for your support.

Tim Dang

Producing Artistic Director

THE WHITEWASHING OF NETWORK TELEVISION MUST END

After studying prime time television programming from 1969 through 1977, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights concluded that racial and ethnic minorities are little more than "window dressing on the set." Little has changed since then.

Children still most often associate white characters on television with wealth, education and achievement, while minority characters when they appear at all are more often seen as breaking the law, struggling financially or "acting goofy" (Children Now, 1998). Ill-fated characters in prime time are disproportionately African American and Latino (Cultural Indicators Project, 1993, 1998). When they are not depicted in stereotyped ways, Asian Pacific Americans and Native Americans are generally invisible even when large numbers of them actually reside in the locales at which fictional television shows are set.

The result is television that denies the reality of the United States as an increasingly multi-racial, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society.

When these concerns were raised in the past, network executives usually acknowledged the problem and promised to do better in the future. Yet when the new 1999-2000 prime time network television schedule was announced, it was blindingly white. Not a single nonwhite leading character or theme could be found on any of the 26 new prime time television series that will premiere on the four major networks.

This "whitewashed" network lineup is harmful because beliefs and attitudes are shaped by television. Those who are depicted in primary roles in television programming become worthy of attention and concern; those whom television ignores remain invisible and marginalized. Children Now found that children of all races overwhelmingly agreed that it is important to see people of their own race on television because "it makes children of that race feel included" and "it provides role models." For all of us, white or nonwhite, televised images affect our self-esteem, our aspirations and how others view us based on those images.

This season's prime time schedule is particularly disturbing as it coincides with a rise in anti-immigrant sentiment and shocking incidents of vicious racial hate crimes. Because of its broad reach, network television has a unique potential to enlighten and unite us as a people. Not only have the networks forgone this opportunity to use the medium's power for good; they also have neglected to pursue their own self interest by failing to exploit America's diversity for its abundant creative possibilities and for the financial gain from expanded audiences. Instead, the networks have adopted, deliberately or unconsciously, a policy of cultural apartheid.

We, the undersigned individuals and national and local organizations from diverse communities, with varying missions and disparate constituencies, call upon those in positions of power and influence in the television industry and in industries that advertise on television, to take decisive action to address and reverse the present picture of prime time television. We are developing a number of strategies for effecting this change, and we are united in demanding a dramatic alteration of the status quo.

First of all, we challenge the networks immediately to adopt policies ensuring that actors of color be sought out to play any role that is not of necessity racially or ethnically specific. Such policies should institutionalize the principle that this is not just a black or white issue, but that diversity is a value that embraces every color and background.

Second, we urge the networks to hire and promote more people who exemplify diversity and who are interested in integrating new perspectives in programming. This must take place at every level, from writers to programming executives, so that they will at least be in the pipeline for positions that can influence the make-up of programming. The goal of this reform should be to ensure that new programs are developed that include diverse stories and minority characters as leading players, so that people of color are not relegated only to guest or recurring roles.

Third, we ask advertisers to demand that the programs with which they associate their goods and services reflect America as it truly is -- a land filled with diverse, vibrant and talented people of every hue, gender, age, sexual orientation, physical ability and culture. In general, television commercials already are more diverse than the programs with which they are broadcast, revealing that advertisers obviously see the value of appealing to all types of audiences.

Our demands are just and consistent with the television industry's own enlightened self-interest. So long as prime time programming continues to be colorless, an increasingly diverse population will increasingly turn elsewhere for its entertainment. The status quo is both morally wrong and fiscally short-sighted.

We ask all right-minded people to join us in making their desire for richer, more colorful programming known to the television networks and to the corporations that sponsor network programming.

Daniel M. Mayeda