ABC Axes Show After Ex-Toledoan Threatens Suit

Jul. 7–The threat of a lawsuit by a Toledo native probably affected media giant ABC more than change of heart when it recently canceled its reality show Welcome to the Neighborhood.

Shanna Smith, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance and former director of Toledo’s Fair Housing Center, said yesterday her organization was prepared to file a lawsuit if the show aired as scheduled on July 10.

ABC pulled the six-episode reality show off its lineup last week after a wave of criticism from Ms. Smith and other civil rights organizations.

“There’s been a lot of bad reality shows, but none that ever violated civil rights laws,” Ms. Smith said yesterday during a telephone interview from her office in Washington. “This show was in violation of the Fair Housing Act.”

The heavily promoted summer series followed three suburban Austin families as they decided who would move into a 3,300-square-foot home in their neighborhood.

The three families were white and conservative. The families trying to win their favor were an African-American family, an Asian-American family, two white gay men with an adopted African-American child, a tattoo-bearing couple, a couple that practices a pagan religion, and another white family whose mother is a stripper, according to published reports.

Families were voted out each week after a series of social meetings and competitive events to win immunity.

The last family standing won the house.

Ms. Smith said Fair Housing laws prohibit people from being discriminated against based on race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, or familial status.

She said after screening the first two episodes of the series, it was clear those laws were being broken.

“Would ABC put on a reality show where a restaurant refused to serve customers based on race,” Ms. Smith asked. “Of course not. It’s no different in housing.”

Ms. Smith said many of her minority staffers were appalled at the comments made by the Austin families about the contestants.

She said in other reality shows, at least contestants had an opportunity to fight back. But this show allowed racist comments and stereotypes to go unchallenged or unchecked.

ABC publicist Marsha L. Smith, no relation to Shanna Smith, declined to comment on the show and its cancellation, but issued a statement:

“Our intention with Welcome to the Neighborhood was to show the transformative process that takes place when people are forced to confront preconceived notions of what makes a good neighbor, and we believe the series delivers exactly that.

“However, the fact that true change only happens over time made the episodic nature of this series challenging.”

Ms. Smith said the show not only played on stereotypes with the contestants, but the suburban Austin families themselves.

The conservative Family Research Council issued a statement to the media earlier saying it was afraid the series would make evangelicals look judgmental and foolish.

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