Stop poisoning innocent minds with hate

Protests were held in more than 20 cities in the United States over the weekend to protest at a skit on a late-night television show, in which a child's suggestion that the country's debt problem could be solved by "killing everyone in China" was amusingly endorsed as "interesting" by the host.

Some argue that as the broadcaster ABC and the host Jimmy Kimmel have both apologized, there is no need for further protests. But in a country where the media industry usually boasts a swift and high profile response to any racist gaffe, the tardy and subdued apologies in this instance have failed to appease.

Around 200 people participate in a peaceful protest in San Francisco on Monday urging ABC's formal apology. [Photo by Chen Jia/China Daily]

It is good to know that people are disturbed by the network's decision to air the pre-recorded segment, and as the Chinese saying goes, people should take no offence at a child's babble.

But there is no excusing the program makers and the ABC executives, as the comments were part of a pre-recorded segment of the show and should have been edited out before being aired. Certainly, if the same Nazi-like rhetoric was directed against African-American, Jewish-Americans or American Indians, ABC's executives would have acted differently.

Nor can the culture that has cultivated such violent rhetoric be excused. That the comment - "shoot cannon all the way over and kill everyone in China" - slipped so easily out of the mouth of a 6-year-old also reveals the worrying impact the country's violent culture is having on its youngsters.