After who is America? segment exposes racism in Kingman, Arizona, municipal authorities announce diversity initiatives.

The City of Kingman, Arizona, is the latest target of the satirical show of Sacha Baron Cohen Who is America? and local authorities scramble to respond to Kingman's resident comedian's portrayal as racist.

In a segment that aired on Sunday, Cohen poses as a member of a development company presenting plans for a multi-million dollar project in Kingman to a residents focus group. When Cohen reveals that the project would be the largest mosque in the world outside of the Middle East, the locals are not satisfied and vehemently criticize Cohen's increasingly far-fetched ideas. One participant said that he badociates the word mosque with terrorism and later states that "we do not even want [Muslims] in our city." Another man categorically baderts that he is "Racist towards Muslims". On the other hand, even blacks are not welcome in Kingman.

Once Kingman's leaders saw how the show represented the city, they quickly tried to do some damage control. Mayor Monica Gates condemned the performance of the series, claiming that she was misleading and that she did not reflect the city that she knows. Gates also asked if the focus group participants were actually members of the community. "I did not recognize a soul in this video," she told the Washington Post.

On Tuesday, the city issued a statement on Facebook claiming that Cohen "incited" the focus group participants to make sectarian statements and further claim that many people in the segment do not actually live in Kingman . The statement first tries to downplay the importance of the segment Who Is America? highlighting the "very poor ratings" of the show and noting that other US cities have their fair share of intolerant residents.

However, the statement then pivots to announce that the city will double its diversity and inclusion efforts in response to the segment:

It may be easy to laugh at what happened Sunday night … [b] I would not be shrugging. We will take advantage of the opportunity to advance our community with the help of many community stakeholders, including the Kingman Interfaith Council. And as we progress, the comments in the show, in a fair or unfair way, show that we still have work to do.

The statement lists plans to present a resolution in support of National Hispanic Heritage Month, invite a prominent black pastor to Kingman to honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and coordinate with the Kingman Interfaith Council to develop the city's first Diversity Commission. These first steps are promising, but it remains to be seen what will happen once the general outcry on the segment diminishes.

Could Cohen have imagined that a city would try to take into account the deep racism and xenophobia revealed by his show? If yes, Who is America? could be good for a lot more than a few laughs.