Houston rallies against ABC's offensive skit

HOUSTON - Hundreds of people, mainly from Chinese communities in Houston, rallied on Saturday to protest ABC's rhetoric of racial discrimination against Chinese.

It was the second round of protest in recent two weeks in the city.

With logos reading "Teach Kids to Love, not to Kill" on their T-shirts, protesters shouted "Shame on ABC,""Boycott ABC" and "Fire Kimmel," referring to ABC's host Jimmy Kimmel, in whose show a kid suggested Americans to "kill everyone in China" as a way to solve U.S. debt problem.

Several protestors went on podium to give speeches, denouncing the insensitive skit aired by the network and encouraging Chinese Americans to stand in unity and participate more in politics.

One of the protestors, 66-year-old Wu Shijun, originally from China's Chengdu city and a U.S. resident for 20 years, told Xinhua that she was there to "let my voice be heard."

"It's not easy for us to come such a long way and settle down here ... We make positive contributions to the American society. The skit not only hurt our feelings, but also hurt other minorities living here ... We want peace. We want respect," she said.

Another protestor Jess White who has a Chinese fiancee deemed the skit as despicable. "It is really sad that ABC didn't keep it off the air. It should never been aired," he said.

In his "Jimmy Kimmel Live" show aired on October 16, Kimmel asked children on how the United States should do to deal with the government shutdown and its debt to China. One of the children commented that the United States should "kill everyone in China."

Critics said that Kimmel was wrong for not stopping the comment and failing to explain to the children that it was not the right idea, and even worse the ABC failed to remove the comment from the show.

The offensive comment has sparked indignation and protests from the Chinese communities. New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas and other cities have seen rounds of protests.

On Saturday, a wave of protests swept more than 20 cities across the country, demanding a formal apology from ABC and Kimmel's dismissal.