Fox Sports Cancels Show that Mocked Asian USC Students

Sep 08, 2011

Fox Sports has canceled "The College Experiment" after the show aired a Pac-12 segment taped at USC that made fun of Asian students who either didn’t speak English well or seemed not to know anything about college football.

Fox Sports spokesperson Lou D’Ermilio said in a statement that last week’s segment was "clearly offensive and inconsistent with the standards FOX Sports believes in, and we sincerely regret that it appeared," AP reports. He said the "The College Experiment" would be cancelled effective immediately.

In the 3-minute segment, Bob Oschack — a comedy writer who labeled himself as an "investigative reporter" for Fox Sports — approached Asian students at USC and mocked their accents and corrected their grammatical and pronunciation mistakes in a condescending tone. All for laughs.

Daryl Maeda, a professor at the University of Colorado who studies social movements for racial justice by Asian Americans, sports and racial theory said the Fox Sports segment has has no place in a diverse and civil society.

Fox Sports has issued an apology to the USC student body but Maeda says Fox should apologize to all Asian Americans.

"This is demeaning to millions of Asian Americans who have put down deep roots in the United States, claim English as their language and root vigorously for their favorite sports teams," Maeda told the Daily Camera.

Fox Sports said it’s reviewing their editorial process "to ensure something like this never happens again."