LETTER OF COMPLAINT

October 30, 2003

Dear Robert C Wright, President of NBC:

I am writing to express my concern about the negative portrayal of Asians on your new TV reality show Average Joe in which physically unattractive men compete for the hand of a beautiful woman. Two of the twelve are of Asian heritage: Tareq and Dennis S.

While no prime time reality show to date has featured Asian men at all, it seems particularly negligent on your network's part to feature Asian men finally--but to propagate the destructive stereotype of Asian men as being somehow sexually undesirable.

According to the most recent Census, Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic minority group in the United States, yet there still isn't a single prominent Asian character on prime time. The ones that do show up from time-to-time are usually fresh-off-the-boat, brainiac nerd characters whose actions invoke pitiful laughter rather than empathy.

Certainly, your network's ER has attempted to include Asians, but as female doctors, these characters are neither original nor groundbreaking. Your network must feel this is what remains most palatable to the American public, and this must be the explanation for why the only ethnic minority group you chose to portray as unattractive in Average Joe is Asian.

I am deeply offended by the venue in which you have selected to show Asian males on TV. By broadcasting Average Joe you turn a blind eye to the multi-culturalism that is America today.

Sincerely yours,

Place your name here

Send an the letter to Robert C Wright, NBC President, and
Average Joe Producers Stuart Kranow and Andrew Glassman to AverageJoe@nbc.com

or fax letter to Robert C Wright at (212) 664-5830.