Maria Polletta | The Republic | azcentral.com

GAVIN BOND/SHOWTIME

After a less-than-flattering portrait of Kingman emerged on Sacha Baron Cohen’s new series, with residents saying black people "aren't welcome" and Muslims create "problems," representatives for the northwestern Arizona city of about 29,000 hit back.

"It might be easy to laugh off what took place Sunday night on a show with very low ratings that tries to make everyone look bad," officials said in a written statement. "… But shrugging this off is not going to be us."

Sunday's episode of the Showtime series "Who Is America?" featured comedian Cohen, disguised as the liberal Dr. Nira Cain-N’Degeocello, leading a community meeting in Kingman.

He announced that an exciting new project was coming to the city, which drew positive responses. Then he explained that the project was a sprawling, $385 million mosque, which did not.

"When I hear the word ‘mosque,’ I think of terrorism," one member of the audience said.

“You bring in Muslims, we’ll probably have problems," said another.

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Later, a man yelled that the "town’s lucky to have black people in it.”

When Cohen's character agreed, saying African-American residents make valuable contributions to the community, another man explained: “He’s saying there are black people in Kingman who aren’t welcome, either. But we tolerate them.”

'More frightening than hilarious'

The episode triggered a swift, broadly critical reaction on social media, with users calling the segment "unsurprising," "brutal," "utterly embarrassing" and "more frightening than hilarious."

Others — mostly current and former Kingman residents — argued most people in the city "are nothing like the ones who appeared on the show tonight."

City officials seemed unconvinced those featured on the episode even live in Kingman.

In their statement, they said the city "has made great strides to erase previous perceptions."

"We do have a mosque. We do have a robust Latino community. We do welcome tourists from all over the world, especially more and more from Asia fascinated by our Route 66 history.

"We do have African Americans applying for leadership positions with the city," officials said. "This is the Kingman of today, not of yesterday."

'More work to do'

Still, officials acknowledged that "the comments in the show, fairly or unfairly, show that we still have more work to do."

“Every city has resident voices that challenge respect and dignity for others," they said. "They are wrong and unfortunate."

In their statement, officials laid out steps to combat prejudice and discrimination.

Kingman's city manager will propose a resolution in support of National Hispanic Heritage month this year, they said.

The city will invite Phoenix civil-rights leader and pastor Warren Stewart to a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration in January.

And officials plan to develop a Diversity Commission "that will be charged with expanding what our city and community does for people of all types and persuasions."

"We’re going to use this opportunity to keep moving our community forward," the statement said.

Republic film critic Bill Goodykoontz contributed to this article.

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