Maria Francesca LoDico, wrote a satirical piece on a recent McGill University conference on Mordecai Richler, in his style, that has created quite a flap.

LoDico, apparently felt that because she is of Italian blood, that she is "entitled" to use besmirching bigotted self loathing words, like W-p!

She assumed wrong. All heck broke loose. Feelings were frayed in both the academic and Italian communities. An apology was published in the next edition of the Reporter.

LoDico lamely attempts to defend her actions, by "contending that the best way to deal with pejorative stereotypes is for the offended communities to appropriate these words and make them their own". I agree with the author's calling that "niave".

LoDico says. "What is necessary nowadays is a cultural debate or discussion about the politics of language and identity."  I respond, where in "dickens" have you been??
We've been there, done that! Take some Remedial courses, and catch up!!!

LoDico digs herself a deeper hole, when she uses "Beyonce" as a moral and linguistic arbiter, and then waves the banner of "free speech", not even recognizing  that "defamation" is NOT protected speech.

The article is followed by Letters to the Editor by Professor Samuel Noumoff, Department of Political Science, and  Rob Salerno, Cultural Studies.
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W-WORD STILL HAS STING

The Montreal Gazette
Bill Brownstein
April 16, 2004

Maria Francesca LoDico has created a flap. LoDico decided to cover the recent McGill University conference on Mordecai Richler by writing a satirical piece in the style of the late Montreal author.

LoDico's Viva Richleriano, published in the March 25 issue of the McGill Reporter, contained pejorative references to the Italian community. She used the W-word. But she assumed she was on safe ground because she is Italian Canadian and because she had prefaced her story with a warning about the irreverence of the content.

She assumed wrong. All heck broke loose. Feelings were frayed in both the academic and Italian communities. An apology was published in the next edition of the Reporter.

LoDico insists she meant no harm. She claims she used the W-word to describe the accent of a non-Italian actor unsuccessfully trying to assume the role of an Italian at the Richler conference.

"It was simply meant to be tongue-in-cheek, like everything else I had written in the story," says LoDico, a freelance writer who works for McGill-Queens University Press. "I didn't think I'd stir up such a huge controversy."

Naive or not, it is LoDico's contention that the best way to deal with pejorative stereotypes is for the offended communities to appropriate these words and make them their own. "I believe this is how we can divest these words of their negative and offensive implications," she explains.

"I understand the history of (W-word). It's my legacy, too. I empathize with all those who have been so offended by it. But I also feel the best way to deal with it is to re-invent it for ourselves."

This is a similar tack taken by other communities and touches on the issue of what is verboten and what is permissible dialogue in politically correct times.

Unless one harbours a death wish, it's not considered wise to use the N, W, Q, K, C or F-words to describe folks when one is not part of the communities these letters reference. Of course, members from these referenced communities often delight in describing themselves in these seemingly derogatory terms.

Listen to a sampling of rap tunes. Turn on the telly. Chances are excellent you'll hear these words, mostly uttered by those from the referenced groups.

While non-African-Americans or Canadians tend to avoid their use, you hear performers like Beyonce using supposedly taboo words, LoDico says. "What is necessary nowadays is a cultural debate or discussion about the politics of language and identity."

Before society becomes so (F-word) PC that we forgo basic liberties, like freedom of speech.

In fact, such is the theme of a piece LoDico plans to write for the Reporter - if they'll print it.

bbrownst@thegazette.canwest.com

Montreal Gazette - canada.com network
http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/columnists/
story.html?id=df9bf6ac-a876-492b-9076-87067c21051f
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McGill University
The Reporter
April 8, 2004

To The Editor:

Permit me to express my profound disappointment and outrage at the license taken in your recent article by Maria Francesca LoDico on the Mordecai Richler Symposium held at McGill (The Reporter, March 25, 2004). I cannot but assume that you gave careful consideration to including the word "wop." I have read and reread the article in search of some contextual, literary, cultural or other redemptive quality to this word.

Scatological or derisive language has found a place in our culture, but always tempered by being seen as a literary device within the context of changing, but acceptable, societal norms. Do understand that this is no disguised plea for political correctness, nor an attempt to limit freedom of expression, but rather one person's point of view, mine, that it is absolutely unacceptable to employ "wop" when describing an attempt to find a person to read a text in accent.

The most benign defence may be the author's feeble attempt to simulate Richler's "take-no-prisoners" humour. Should this be her defence, one thing is for certain: she ain't no Richler! There is little humour in gratuitous insult.

I am of course left wondering if that lengthy list of expletives used to describe members of the Afro-Canadian or Jewish communities would have been so glibly inserted.

I leave it to the reflection of the author, Maria Francesca LoDico, to judge whether this derision, or possibly self-derision, speaks more to her self-image than it does to the Symposium.Ms. LoDico and the Reporter owe us all an apology.

Sam Noumoff
Professor
Department of Political Science
Letter
http://www.mcgill.ca/reporter/14/letter/
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The McGill Daily
April 8, 2004

McGill Reporter, You can’t just run around Calling people Wops anymore!

Italians may have become mainstream over the last few decades, but we still face racial discrimination and ethnic slurs even in the twentieth century.

Case in point: The McGill Reporter’s latest issue. In its story about the recent conference on Mordecai Richler hosted at the Faculty Club, Maria Francesca LoDico writes about the author’s success in Italy under the breaker title “Wop-ing It Up.” And that’s not all. She describes how actor Gil Bellows appeared “‘in character’ as an Italian: that’s right, folks, Bellows read the paper with a wop accent.”

Yes, I see the irony in complaining about the cultural insensitivity of a story about a “politically incorrect” author. But Richler’s storytelling doesn’t excuse our University newspaper – or the University that the newspaper is supposed to be a mouthpiece for – from promoting racist words like “wop” or stereotypes like all Italians are stupid, closed-minded bigots (“a typically Italian ideology – the ideology of political incorrectness” – Matteo Codignola, quoted in story).

For those who don’t know, “wop” is a derogatory term for Italians of approximately the same weight as “kike,” “spic,” or “chink” for Jews, Hispanics, or Chinese. It stands for “without papers,” an accusation made against millions of Italians who came to North America, particularly after the Second World War. While Italians may refer to each other as “wops” privately and in jest, it is not a word to be used as a substitute for “Italian” in a professional setting.

Italians have made great strides in business, government, and society, making discrimination against us seem invisible. But stereotyping is still prevalent; just look at all the dumb or criminal Italian characters on TV and in film.

One would expect that the official newspaper of a multicultural university in a cosmopolitan city would know better.

Rob Salerno
U2 Political Science and Cultural Studies

The McGill Daily: Letters to the editor: your final complaints of the semester
http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=2704
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