The ANNOTICO Report

This Essay by Dr. Messina explores the fact that there is significant
cross-disciplinary evidence that Italian Americans have occupied an
ambiguous identity in American society as stigmatized marginalized whites.

It also observes that, unfortunately, research examining the psychological
and social effects of ethnic racism, prejudice and stereotyping related to
Italian Americans is virtually nonexistent.

A vacuum that obviously must be addressed if one is to launch an informed
and effective campaign against Anti Defamation to convince the legion of
the oblivious.

Research like this funded by Major Italian American Organizations could far
better serve the Italian American Community, than donating MILLIONS to NON
Italian Charities, or on Scholarships to a favored few,( many not even
associated with the IA community) rather than the "greater good" of the IA
community.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE STIGMATIZATION OF ITALIAN AMERICANS
IN THE AMERICAN MEDIA

By Elizabeth G. Messina PhD, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Psychology,
Fordham University;
faculty member, Department of Psychiatry, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York

The Haworth Press, Inc.
Publisher of Scholarly and Professional Books and Journal

Abstract:

A central sociopolitical and psychological problem confronting Italian
Americans in the United States today is the media's relentless stereotyping
of Italian Americans as criminals who are in some way connected to Mafiosi.

These negative representations are controlling images because they are
created and perpetuated by dominant social institutions to make the ethnic
treatment of Italian Americans seem natural and normative.

Stereotypes of Italian Americans have strong negative connotations that
reflect the history of this identity group in the United States and in
Italy.

These historically based negative stereotypes underlie representations of
Italian Americans in the print and entertainment media today.

Such negative representations continue to disfigure and misrepresent
Italian Americans in American society.

There is now significant cross-disciplinary evidence that Italian Americans
have occupied an ambiguous identity in American society as stigmatized
marginalized whites.

Unfortunately, research examining the psychological and social effects of
ethnic racism, prejudice and stereotyping related to Italian Americans is
virtually nonexistent.

Italian Americans still remain conceptually invisible in psychological and
psychoanalytic research literature.

This essay represents an attempt to synthesize historical, sociological,
and psychoanalytic perspectives of Italian Americans with social
psychological research that has examined the nature of stereotyping and
prejudice.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: (a) to provide a brief overview of
the concepts of prejudice, stereotyping and racism in the scientific
literature as they pertain to Italian Americans, (b) to review the
historical roots of prejudice and stereotyping about Italian Americans
during the twentieth century that have impacted media portrayals of Italian
Americans today, (c) and lastly to demonstrate the ways in which Italian
Americans have been made to carry America's every sociological and
psychological shadow from the early days of industrial capitalism to the
postmodern era.

The Haworth Press, Inc.
DOI: 10.1300/J358v13n01_04
Copyright Year: 2004
Volume: 13 Issue: 1/2
ISSN: 0738-6176 Pub Date: 6/28/2004
Cost: $14

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