ANTI-ITALIANISM: Discrimination and
Defamation -The Persistence and Damage - Documentary
The ANNOTICO
Report
Leaders or
Members of any Italian American organization should make
arrangements to view the 30
minute documentary:
“ANTI-ITALIANISM,” Discrimination and Defamation in the
History of Italian Americans, at one of their next general meetings.
The film,
featuring Joe Piscopo and many others, presents
incisive discussions of a history of discrimination that included lynching and
racial bigotry, as well as the social and psychological effects of present-day
stereotyping in the media.
The film is a major step forward in creating greater awareness and
understanding of how Italians have been perceived in the
This
documentary was filmed in December 2004 at an international conference
organized by the Alberto Italian Studies Institute of Seton Hall University and
directed and produced by Emmy award-winning Paul Budline.
In
American history, Italian immigrants experienced many forms of discrimination
that were distinct from the traditional cases of prejudice against newcomers,
and were fueled by different motivations and manifestations.
Notwithstanding their documented accomplishments in American society, Italian
Americans continue to experience ethnic slurs and episodes of violence.
"Many Italians have thought that the best thing is simply ignore this and
to try to get along in American society" says William Connell, Executive
Producer of the documentary and organizer of the 2004 conference, "but
from my perspective as a historian, it seems that this tolerance just permits
these phenomena to continue, while it has also resulted in a great deal of
ignorance about the extent of this important history and the unfortunate ways
in which it survives today."
"Anti-Italianism" also do! cuments in an engaging way the
ongoing efforts of Italian Americans to confront media and
To obtain
a Copy of the Film contact the Institute's Director Prof.William
Connell at: << connelwi@shu.edu >>
It would Also be advisable to have someone read at the viewing, and
pass out copies of the following Speech.
Then
decide whether for the Community's good, orfor your Kids
good, whether they will have Pride or Shame in their Culture, and whether your
Kids will continue to be the Target of "Mafia" ridicule, and
if you want to be a part of the Solution.
Below is Dr. Alfano's speech at
the Seton Hall University Conference
THE PERSISTENCE AND
DAMAGE OF NEGATIVE IMAGERY
by Dr. Emanuele A. Alfano
The history of anti-Italian American bias manifests a blatant bigotry for the
past 100 years. Long before the entertainment media chose Italian Americans
as whipping boys the American press maligned them in news reports, columns and
in cartoons. With the advent of movies, radio and TV programming the
incidence of Italo-bashing has worsened. A
forth entity that continually smears is advertising, but the favorite media
outlet to stomp Italian Americans has been TV sitcoms.
If it ended today, this very instant, these sitcom images will haunt our lives
and our children's lives for decades to come. This darkened imagery will be
continually be impressed on
Due to syndication, programs produced years ago can be seen any day or night
somewhere on television. Unfortunately, these examples are not the exception,
but the common rule in portraying Americans of Italian descent.
Let's have a look at how Italian Americans are characterized on TV. At
first even Italian Americans might laugh, but shortly thereafter that laughter
may turn to tears.
The most popular themes for casting Italian American characters are
criminality, anti sociality and abandonment. We are all aware of
screenwriter's penchant to cast us as criminals and anti socials, but the more
subtle theme of abandonment has gone unnoticed.
On Happy Days Christmas episode it is revealed why Fonzie
hates Arthur Fonzarelli Sr. because he abandoned him
at 3 years of age.
In the TV show "Joan of
Gino's unruly behavior on
CBS had a program called '"You can't hurry love" featured a character
named Carlucci who had been abandoned by his father.
If we are not depicted as abandoning our children then we are the cause of
abandonment as was the storyline in the Batman T V animated film where it is
revealed that Robin' parents who were circus aerialists were killed when
"Tony Zucco" cut their high-wire.
Moving to films briefly, Steven Spielberg, the Italian American antagonist, did
not miss the opportunity to use the abandonment theme in "Saving Private
Ryan" where the Vin Diesel character was
abandoned by his Italian American dad and in "Jurasic
Park." where the lawyer runs from danger and leaves his children to their
fate; of course the lawyer had a vowel sounding surname. This movie moment
bears further scrutiny. Movie lawyers are usually cast as being from a
denomination other that Italian! Americans, but in this instance My' Spielberg curiously chose an Italian surname for the
coward who abandoned his children to save himself.
The sad and disturbing fact is that while images of other groups and
individuals are considered very carefully by producers, writers, actors and
advertisers Italian Americans have been left out of this politically correct
environment. Is it intentional? Is it malicious? Only those who engage in
defamatory can answer that question, but for certain they do not consider the
lasting harm in presenting the Italian culture in this negative fashion and the
public at large commonly sees this as acceptable.
Painting Italian Americans as socially unfit is commonplace on TV.
George COSTANZA of Seinfeld eats from garbage cans and accepts a discarded
urine soaked couch for his apartment. On the same show "Poppy" The
pizza guy never washes after using the lavatory.
Danny IMPERIALI, a former boyfriend of the Nanny is c! haracterized as a cheat, a low life Neanderthal type.
The Michael Jackson 'Moonwalker' video features a futuristic character beating
and stomping on a little girl, while he tells Michael that he wants to turn the
children of the world onto drugs; He wants the history books to spell his name
right. It's Frankie Lideo. He then spells it, L_
I_D_E_O
On a Family Ties episode, a teacher named TEDESCO is so despicable; that both
parents beat him up and warn that this 'scum' is not allowed in their home.
Tony TORTURRI, a mobster from a Nanny episode had to get rid of his MOTHER
because she talked too much.
In ABCs High Incidents, CARLUCCI asks a co-worker to attend a wedding with him.
She emphatically replies NO! She doesn't want to go to an Italian wedding
because there is too much yelling and screaming and someone always winds up
getting shot.
On "
A sloppily dressed school teacher, CAVARETTI is shown as an idiot on "You
Can't Hurry Love"
In a Nanny's episode Dr. Frankie CRUCETELLI boasts of spending the best six
years of his life in Jr. High School.
In the short term NBC sitcom, Mr. Rhodes featured a handsome young teacher from
Women of Italian ancestry, here and abroad, have in particular, been victimized
on both the large and small screens. Rarely is it seen that our women are
realistically represented. Instead the most commonly pictures painted are
of those who are tarnished in some way.
The Happy Days TUSCARDERO girls were raised in a low class environment and one
of them did time in prison for theft.
Mrs. SCAMPORELLI of
On the NBC hit sitcom "Wings", the cab driver Antonio SCARPACCI tells
his beautiful blond co-worker, that had she married him, she would have been
the first SCARPACCI woman with more hair above her nose than below it.
CBS's Johnny BAGO writing to his mother while on the run from the law remembers
that CONCETTA lost her virginity the same time that she lost her moustache.
On UPN's Platypus Man a woman described as "Miss
On "High Incidents", a program produced DreamWorks, the company of
Hollywood's King of Hypocrisy Steven Spielberg, a video is played by a groom
which shows his Italian American bride to-be having sex with his best man.
One of the most egregious insults was in a TV episode of The Golden Girls where
it was mused that Sicilian women get pregnant while crossing the streets
prompting the question, how? And the answer given,
"Narr! ow streets and cheap Chianti." Imagine the
outcry if the scenario had depicted a Jewish, Black, Hispanic or Asian women
similarly. Each of those groups would have shouted out with indignation, but
not a word of protest was heard from the Italian American Community. It
has been that continued silence that has given license to screenwriters to
produce more of the same materials that darken the image of our women. The
longer our silence is maintained the darker the cloud of ill repute will
grow. This has been only a single case, but our documentation of movies
and TV programming shows a clear pattern of casting Italian women as loose an
immoral.
What you've just read is a mere sampling of thousands of similar sitcom dialog
that we have on file.
One simply has to look at TV on any given day or hour of the week and you will
find a sinister or lowlife Individual of Italian extraction, an Italian
American man or woman, child or adult committing some ev!
il or anti-social deed.
The peoples of Italian and Italian lineage have been victimized by an
unprecedented pattern of slander and sadly some Italian Americans aid and abet
the detractors by turning deaf ears and blind eyes towards the defamatory that
should have been emphatically denounced.
The term negative stereotyping has long been outdated. Disdain and ridicule
have replaced negative stereotyping and we continue to tolerate it. The
sad truth is that Americans accept the intolerable images of Italian Americans
because Italian Americans themselves don't shout in indignation". Other
than a few passionate individuals, not a whimper is heard.
A headline of an article in the NY Post by Jack Newfield dated Feb.
4.1992. led with, "Prejudice against
Italian-Americans is the most tolerated intolerance." This was
written more than a decade ago, and nothing much has changed, in fact it may
have worsened.
Italians and Italian Americans should not tolerate this. All people of
good will, regardless of their ethnic background should reject these images. We
have the power to reverse this negative imagery, all
we need is the will to take a stand against negative stereotyping and the
effort to educate the pub! lic
about the media "perversion" of casting peoples of Italian
culture as ignoble. We must produce documentaries books, films and
programming exposing the total injustice of
A New York Times article published on March 9, 2004 by a Hollywood mogul who
claims to have battled Negative Stereotyping all his life said,
"We are in a race against time for the conscious mind of our young
people" and we need to teach them "the dangers of stereotyping, the
dangers of discrimination, the dangers of racial and religious hatred and
vengeful rage."
Those are the words of a DreamWorks producer of "Shark Tale", a film
that targets children with the lowest form of negative stereotyping. Those are
words of Steve Spielberg, the King of Hollywood Hypocrisy. If Mr. Spielberg and
his filmmaking cronies would understand the true consequences of infiltrating
the world of children with ima! ges and dialog that will evolve into discriminatory
practices, we'd surely have less intolerance.
I leave you with these thoughts, disease takes life, defamation ruins life,
don't tolerate it; speak out in defense of Italian American dignity. Remember
if you do nothing, say nothing you'll be nothing.
Dr. Emanuele A. Alfano
Exec. Director of IAOVC & National Chairman of the Anti Bias Committee of
UNICO National
973-429-7363
The above material was complied by Nick Addeo's Speranza and the Italian
American One Voice Coalition
The
ANNOTICO Reports are Archived at:
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Mia: www.italiamia.com (Community)