MTV’s reality show “Growing Up Greek” aims to show what it is like to grow up Greek in the United States. The show features a group of Greek Americans in their twenties embracing stereotypes like breaking plates, having heated confrontations and lots of food and “opa”. It airs at 11 p.m. on December 3 but has met with a great deal of outrage by Greek Americans who claim that the show is embarassing to Greeks and a huge misrepresentation of what it means to be Greek.

A large portion of the Greek-American community has started a petition to cancel the show that it considers a “gross misrepresentation of what it means to grow up Greek” and that it “lessens the community to look like Jersey shore.” They are embarrassed by the “trashy image” of Greeks on the show. The Facebook page Boycott “Growing Up Greek” already had over 700 fans on the morning of December 1 and the petition numbers are constantly growing.

The half-hour special follows young Greeks of Tarpon Springs, Florida, where everyone is either dating, related or work together in oen of three fueding Greek restaurants. Here’s the trailer:

Transcript of the petition:

To Whom it May Concern,

We present to you our formal complaint on behalf of the thousands of signatories on this petition that were collected within 72 hours upon receiving word that our ethnic group was to be exploited by name on television we feel that this is ethnic discrimination. Most recently, the FCC positioned itself (Nov. 2014) ‘… discrimination simply has no place in broadcasting.

MTV has titled a new reality show as “Growing Up Greek” which infers that it depicts how citizens of the United States of America of Greek descent are raised, behave and speak as portrayed by the individuals on the show. We feel that the title MUSt change and be disassociated with the Greek-American community as we have been a target in the early 1900s along with the African-American community. Specifically the same “rules and laws” that applied to African Americans in the early 1900s applied to Greeks up until the end of WWII. Forty years of being seen as low-class citizens, forced to eat in separate places than whites, forced to sit in different areas than whites and even the disallowance of marriage between a white person and a Greek that was considered interracial. I am sure that MTV would never consider to air a show titled “Growing up Black”, “Growing up Jewish”, “Growing up Iraqi”, then how would “Growing up Greek” be considered? The outrage we have as a community, as an ethnic minority stems from our deep-rooted notion of pride. It was our pride and philotimo that defeated Hitler’s army. It was our pride and hard work that built long standing communities and the economy here in the U.S. as imigrants. it was our pride our spirit and our culture that invented economies, democracy, modern medicine, philosophy and so much more. As a community we represent our ancestors. We find this show a direct attack on our heritage.

When the movie “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” was created, a lot of thought and consideration was taken into the depiction of the Greek Community ensuring that the poise and pride we have was sanctioned. We enbraced the tasteful film and the light references to what Greek-Americans are like. Now, years later the simple Windex reference and “You don’t eat meat? I’ll cook lamb” are stereotypes that have not been shaken off and probably never will. Though , those notions and stereotypes are nothing compared to the tasteless, ill-mannered, mal-articulated language, and misuse and discriminatory portrayal used on this potential TV series by individuals we do not recognize as our minority group’s representatives.

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We demand as an ethnic minority that at least the title of the show be changed and disassociated with our heritage. We have been victims of racial and ethnic discrimination in this nation before and seek that you as our leaders and enforcers of rights to all citizens within this country to acknowledge and apply the laws set forth for discriminatory and racial profiling. Greek-Americans have strong religious, family and social values that are desecrated and misrepresented in this show, which are offensive and an insult to our country of origin and being.

Respectfully yours,

The Signatories