In Tuesday's New York Times, an article commends Steven Spielberg for his warnings .... ABOUT WHAT ?????............"a race against time for the conscious minds of young people," .....WHY...?????.... "because youths need to learn the dangers of stereotyping, the dangers of discrimination..."
EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, this is the SAME Steven Spielberg who is producer of the movie, "Sharks Tale" that reaches New Depths in Stereotyping and Discrimination, in that it associates Italian American = Mafia, AND it's audience are "impressionable" CHILDREN.
This is the same Steven Spielberg that in that same article discusses "the taunts and ugly incidents of his childhood" and "made me feel I wasn't safe outside my own door".
If Spielberg thinks being subjected to Jew and Shylock were bad, then think about the "nightmares" he will impose upon Italian American kids, who will face being reviled as "Mafioso" kids, as a result of his movie!
The
article speaks of Spielberg publicly confronted being Jewish, but if he
were to have studied our Jewish Heritage more than just superficially,
he would be aware of the Four Principles of Jewish Law (1) Lifesaving (2)
Stumbling Block (3) False Impression (4) Goodwill ......and that in producing
"Sharks Tale" in its current form
he
is violating ALL FOUR PRINCIPLES!!!!
And HOW could anyone who so clearly saw the awful results of bigotry toward, and the demonizing of a people, be SO oblivious to his own Bigotry and its foul harvest??
With
that said. Now to the Best Part. A more reasoned, diplomatic response.
Dona
De Sanctis' Letter to the New York Times, regarding their article.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To:
letters@nytimes.com
March
9, 2004
The
New York Times
To
the Editor:
Subject:
Spielberg's Urgent Anniversary
Steven Spielberg is to be commended for his enormous efforts to record the Holocaust through his Shoah Foundation, but I found a bitter irony in one of his remarks, quoted in this article ("For Spielberg, an Anniversary Full of Urgency" by Bernard Weinraub, Mar. 9). He said that youths need to learn "the dangers of stereotyping, the dangers of discrimination, the dangers of racial and religious hatred and vengeful rage."
Noble sentiments, yet Mr. Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG is producing Shark Tale, an animated children's "gangster comedy" that features sharks and killer whales as criminals with Italian last names. The Sons of Italy and other concerned organizations wrote to Mr. Spielberg in January asking him to change the names of the gangsters to ones that do not call to mind a specific ethnic group. We have received no reply, but learned today that Mr. Spielberg plans to premiere Shark Tale in May as part of New York's Tribeca Film Festival.
Thus Mr. Spielberg will pass on to another generation of children the stereotype of Italian Americans as violent people who live outside the law--a stereotype that Hollywood created in the early 1930's and has perpetuated for more than seven decades.
Apparently, for Steven Spielberg it is permissable to stereotype some groups but not others. We find this an unfair, unfortunate and most unacceptable double standard.
Dona
De Sanctis, Ph.D.
The
Order Sons of Italy in America
219
E Street, NE
Washington,
DC 20002
Tel:
202/547-2900
Fax:
202/547-1492
Web:
www.osia.org
============================================================
FOR
SPIELBERG, AN ANNIVERSARY FULL OF URGENCY
New
York Times
By
Bernard Weinraub
March
9, 2004
LOS ANGELES, March 8 — Steven Spielberg's earliest blockbusters... avoided any hint of ethnicity. It was only with the release of "Schindler's List" in 1993 and its aftermath that Mr. Spielberg publicly confronted being Jewish.
"Anti-Semitism affected me deeply; it made me feel I wasn't safe outside my own door," said Mr. Spielberg, who is now commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Shoah Foundation, an outgrowth of "Schindler's List"...
Discussing the taunts and ugly incidents of his childhood, Mr. Spielberg, 57, said: "It happened in affluent neighborhoods in Arizona and California, where I was one of the few Jewish students. I didn't experience it in more lower-middle-class environments in New Jersey and Ohio."
Once, in a silent study hall of 100 students, several of them pitched pennies around his desk to taunt him, Mr. Spielberg said quietly. "I have vivid memories of that," he said. The hallways, too, could be an ordeal: "A lot of kids coughed the word `Jew' in their hands as they walked by me between classes."
Those
memories and the experience of making "Schindler's List" led to the (founding
of )... Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation....
(and)...
the mission has never seemed more urgent.
"We are in a race against time for the conscious minds of young people," he said, because youths need to learn "the dangers of stereotyping, the dangers of discrimination, the dangers of racial and religious hatred and vengeful rage."
[In speaking of Europe] "They saw the warning signs, the restrictive laws and programs that happened in the 30's; they saw something," Mr. Spielberg said. "They just couldn't possibly foresee what came. No one had the imagination to imagine that kind of inhumanity. They couldn't see it coming. To this day there still is shock and a tremendous sense of loss....
The
larger issue, Mr. Greenberg said, is "racism and violence"...
...seven
diverse teenagers talk about bigotry and their responses to the (evidence)...
For
Spielberg, an Anniversary Full of Urgency
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/09/movies/09SPIE.html