New NBC Series Makes Light of Human Trafficking and Asian Stereotypes

By Laura Sirikul. Cross-Posted from The Nerds of Color.



Move over, Fresh Off the Boat! There’s going to be a new show in town that will diminish all the progressive work you've done for Asians.

Deadline announced recently that NBC has picked up a half-hour sitcom called Mail Order Family, a comedy about a widowed single father who orders a mail order bride from the Philippines to help raise his two preteen daughters.

The series is loosely based on comedian Jackie Clarke's life -- which has already been told in an animated webseries and as a story on This American Life. Her father had his children look through a catalog for a potential wife to be mailed over from the Philippines. He bought a wife and both lived unhappily together for several years. Clarke's new stepmother not only rejected her attempts at closeness but also divorced her father after discovering he had a secret family in the Philippines. Eventually, Clarke's father abandoned his kids to be with his new family in the Philippines as well. And now her story is being turned into a comedy. Funny, right?

Banh Shop to change red star logo

Vietnamese American community complained the design was too reminiscent of the Communist red star



Well, that was quick. Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, has announced that it will change the logo of its recently launched bánh mì concept in Dallas, following complaints from the Vietnamese American community that the design was too reminiscent of the Communist red star.

Yum Brands will change Dallas Banh Shop's red star logo after complaints

In a letter posted on the Banh Shop Facebook page, Yum Brands Senior Vice President apologized to the Vietnamese community for the design, announcing that the company would change the logo and remove the red star from all materials and signage from the restaurant by the end of the day.

You might want to reconsider that red communist star logo

Taco Bell's parent company opens bánh mì restaurant with the worst logo possible. So much fail it hurts.



File under awful marketing... Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, recently launched a new bánh mì concept in Dallas called Banh Shop. Which is... neat? Interesting? Inevitable? I do love me some bánh mì, but the people behind Taco Bell better make one hell of a sandwich to get me to abandon my favorite bánh mì joint. But who knows? Maybe it tastes okay. That's not the problem.

Taco Bell's Parent Company Opens a Bánh Mì Shop...with Communist Star in Logo

Somewhere along the way, the minds behind Banh Shop designed the restaurant's logo with the stupidest choice possible: a Communist star. The five-pointed red star is a widely-recognized symbol for communism -- and a sure-fire way to get thousands of Vietnamese Americans really, really angry.

Man tries to rob kung fu studio. Bad idea.

Some criminals are just asking for it. Ask the would-be robber who tried to rob a kung fu studio. Really. In Pittsburgh, authorities are looking for a man who tried to rob a kung fu studio, but was thwarted by an instructor and his students: Kung fu instructor, students fight off would-be robber in Squirrel Hill.

An armed gunman walked into the Win-Win Kung Fu Studio in Squirrel Hill last week just as a night class had finished, and told everyone to get down. Turns out, he messed with the wrong disciples of kung fu. Not just instructor Joshua Wang, but his students too: