Kairos

Even before the outrage over the Desperate Housewives' racial slur on Philippine medical schools could even subside, another American TV show made a very objectionable comment about the Philippines. In my opinion, this is even worse than what was said in Desperate Housewives in that, the disrespect was towards one of the Philippines' former lady Presidents. As you can see in the video clip above from the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, a segment which was supposed to answer the question, "Is America ready for a woman President?" was featured. In it is our former President Corazon (Cory) Aquino's photo (along with 3 other women leaders from other countries) was shown with a word "SLUT" written across it, and the voice over saying "Corazon Aquino faced down dictators".... What is wrong with American TV shows? And most especially, why is the Philippines suddenly becoming the topic of these very lowly and unpalatable jokes? True, Jon Stewart's sh...

Yes, I am referring to ABC's popular TV show, Desperate Housewives. This show has recently made headlines here in my country and has elicited a lot of angry reactions. Apparently on its premier episode on 9/30/07, a racial slur was said against the Filipino medical doctors. In the scene, Susan (Teri Hatcher) was told by her doctor that she might be hitting the menopausal stage, to which she replied " wait, before we proceed, let me take a look at those diplomas. I just want to make sure that it doesn't come from med schools like, the Philippines!" Wow, what a totally inconsiderate, ignorant, hateful, racially discriminating remark! And with the media coverage that Isaiah Washington got when he said something about gays, Michael Richards against the African-Americans, and Rosie O'Donnell saying something stupid about the Asian-Americans (Chinese, to be specific), I am surprised that this type of derogatory remark has made it through the screenwriters, producers, ac...