UPDATE: Our voices have been heard. Following overwhelming criticism, the writers and producers have "chosen not to go forward" with Mail Order Family at this time, according to NBC. But the fact that such an insensitive show premise was green lighted by so many people is proof of the harms of the overwhelming whiteness of the media industry.

It's clear we have NBC's ear -- so we need to push the major network to do better. If NBC had more Asian Americans in positions of power, Mail Order Family probably wouldn't have gotten so far in the first place.

Sign the petition to ask NBC to make a public commitment to increasing the number of Asian American voices in its writers rooms and executive staff.

OKAY…. So NBC thought it would be a great idea to produce Mail Order Family, a “comedy” sitcom about a widowed white man who buys -- yes, BUYS -- a Filipina mail-order bride to raise his two daughters.

But human trafficking and the exploitation of Asian women is no joke.

Lately we’re seeing more Asian American stories told on network television with programs like Fresh Off The Boat and Dr. Ken. But Mail Order Family isn’t progress -- it perpetuates an offensive stereotype of Asian women with NO Asian American writers attached to the project.

Tell NBC that human trafficking is no laughing matter. Cancel Mail Order Family now!

This story is loosely based on show creator Jackie Clarke’s family, whose white father bought a Filipina mail-order bride before he moved to the Philippines himself and started a second family. But Mail Order Family is produced and written by white folks. This isn’t representation, it’s exploitation.

Add your name to #CancelMailOrderFamily.

What Jackie Clarke and NBC don’t seem to understand is that the mail-order bride industry isn’t a joke -- it’s a violent, racist system that exploits vulnerable, predominantly Asian women. There are over 36 million victims of human trafficking worldwide and nearly two thirds of that number are from Asia. The fact that millions of Asian women and adults are forced into bonded labor, sex trafficking, and slave like conditions is not fodder for a comedy sitcom.

As our campaign partner, GABRIELA-USA points out in their petition: “The mail order bride industry in the Philippines is rooted in historical U.S. colonial occupation of the Philippines...Due to an economy ravaged by U.S. imperialist economic policies dictated upon the Philippines, Filipino women lack employment opportunities in the country and are forced to leave their homeland to support themselves and their families.”

On Tuesday, October 4, we’ll be delivering this petition to NBC studios at a rally organized by Nafcon Southern California. We need to make sure NBC knows we won’t stand for being made the butt of another racist, sexist joke.

This petition is co-sponsored by National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), Gabriela USA (Los Angeles chapter) and Migrante Southern California-a Filipino migrant workers organization.