JACL Meets with Paramount Chief

Following the public outcry against the negative Asian American stereotype portrayed in the movie “The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard”, Paramount Pictures President and CEO, Adam Goodman, met with key community leaders to discuss next steps.  Among those who attended the meeting were the following: ^[1]

• Floyd Mori, National Executive Director, The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). 
• Craig Ishii, Regional Director of the Pacific Southwest District, The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)
• Bill Imada, CEO of the IW Group (formerly Imada Wong Communications Group)
• Guy Aoki, co-founder of MAANA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans)

Kudos to JACL's leadership for its strong, decisive actions in pursuing this!  It was Mr. Mori who first reached out to Paramount via a formal letter of condemnation of the “The Goods”.  The letter precipitated Mr. Goodman’s eventual apology and his invitation for this meeting.  The outcome of the meeting was largely positive. Paramount Pictures:

• Acknowledged the concerns of the Asian American community regarding racially demeaning films like “The Goods”
• Expressed further cooperation and even pursuing becoming a model in portraying diversity
• Committed to continued dialogue via ongoing meetings with community leaders to monitor and evaluate Paramount's performance in such regards

With formalities aside, the next steps of monitoring and evaluating Paramount’s performance seem toughest to tread.  Open dialog never hurts.  Also, our community leaders can potentially charge their members to participate in an early warning or rating system of sorts for each film release that portrays Asian Americans.  However, the weight of the burden rests on Paramount Pictures and how sincere they are in those commitments they uttered.  The film company can start by aggressively educating its employees and partners on matters of diversity, and implanting within its ranks a sense of social responsibility that is sometimes put in the wayside by the lure of the quick buck.

^[1] jacl.org