Saturday, November 18, 2006

Ethnic Stereotypes Thrive You Gotta Problem With That?- Constable- Daily Herald

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Burt Constable of the Chicago Daily Herald poses the question:

 

"Are our prejudices so ingrained that we don't realize the damage caused by stereotypes? Or are we so sophisticated that we can separate them from the way we live our lives?"

 

Well, I don't know about "ingrained", But let me suggest another way of asking the question, if I may.

 

Does the person who hurls the lance have ANY idea as to the pain he is inflicting on his victim (both the Individual and the Community) ???

 

And let me ask you: "Why does the ADL, [ the leader, but not the only organization in the Jewish Community that fights Stereotyping], have a Budget of $60 Million a year if Stereotypes are so benign?? Is the ADL stupid??

 

And if there is No harm in Slurs or Stereotypes, Why do you so obliquely refer to " the religious slur nickname of its Jewish mobster namesake". Aren't we "sophisticated" enuff , as you say, to handle the "uncensored" version ????  

 

 

ETHNIC STEREOTYPES THRIVE-- YOU GOTTA PROBLEM WITH THAT?

 

Daily Herald

By Burt Constable
Daily Herald Editorial Columnist
Saturday, November 18, 2006

 

The mobster comedy play performed last night and today at Rotolo Middle School in Batavia proves once again that the only group in America that it still is OK to make fun of are Italian-Americans  along with Christians, gays, women, the disabled, Republicans, Democrats, trailer-home residents, Muslims, rednecks, Jews, short people, Blacks, atheists, Mexicans, WASPs, Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, the Irish, Asians, people with albinism, athletes, military members, nerds, the Polish, native Americans, fraternity members, Scotsmen, cheerleaders, old people, Germans, the rich, the poor, teenagers, prisoners, suburbanites, actors, intellectuals, farmers, kids, the Fre n! ch, the British, the Amish, librarians, rappers, fashion models, fat people, Greeks, people with anorexia, fast-food workers, janitors, anyone from Kazakhstan, media members and white guys.

Whether a work of art offers insight or merely incites is a tricky question. Some read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and come away with profound respect for the slave character named Jim. Others decry the book for promoting racial slurs.

These are emotional issues. Thats why a middle-school play can become front-page news around the nation.

Dona De Sanctis, deputy executive director of the Order Sons of Italy in America, responds to my opening question with a tenacious ferocity.

There is not an Italian-American man or woman in America today who has not been asked, Are you in the mob? De Sanctis proclaims.

Studies show that nearly three out of four American adults link Italian-Americans to the mob, while FBI statistics estimate that only 0.0025 percent of Italian-Americans are involved in organized crime, De Sanctis notes. During the last half-century, less than 5 percent of people on the FBIs Most Wanted List have an Italian heritage.

De Sanctis group sends out a news release on Supreme Court nominations scolding that calling attention to Judge Samuel Alitos Italian heritage is  highly inappropriate. A few weeks later, it takes out a full-page ad in The New York Times thanking President Bush for nominating an Italian-American for only the second time in our history.

Her group promotes author Mario Puzos The Fortunate Pilgrim but not his classic The Godfather. It gets Pizza Hut to drop an advertisement considered offensive to Italian-Americans but cant bump The Sopranos off TV.

Everybody loves The Sopranos, says Gus Pagonis, manager of a Geneva restaurant called Bada Beef in Geneva. The eatery takes its name from the Bada Bing strip club on the TV show. Pagonis says customers like it.

It is what it is, Pagonis says.  [RAA: Yes, Gus, and Some people make Love "Greek Style" with KY Jelly :)]

A kids play draws protest for portraying fictional mobsters who end up being good guys, while Al Capones Hideaway & Steakhouse in St. Charles does very well selling meals bearing the names of real bad guys.

We dont glorify Al Capone, but hes a part of our history, says Bill Brooks III, general manager of the mob-themed eatery/museum. He shrugged off a complaint a few years back from the Order Sons of Italy in America. The company continues to sell Tommy Gun Vodka in a gun-shaped bottle despite complaints from the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.

Capones menu features a photograph of a dead mobster, fake bullet holes, a steak that cant be gunned down, and a shrimp dish that includes the religious slur nickname of its Jewish mobster namesake.

Ive looked right through it, Brooks says of all the things that might inflame some folks. Offensiveness, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder, says Brooks, who adds that his half-Polish heritage has opened him up to some barbs in his life.

As a disciple of just-deceased economist Milton Friedmans theories about individual freedoms, Brooks says consumers make the call about whether to see a play, read a book or eat at a restaurant.

We Americans, Brooks says, are smart enough to censor ourselves.

[RAA: Brooks, you're a Dum Polack; The FCC and the MPAA doesn't completely save us from ourselves, but they do  try to raise the level slightly above sewer level, all the way up to the "Animal House" level :) !!]

The questions remain: Are our prejudices so ingrained that we dont realize the damage caused by stereotypes? Or are we so sophisticated that we can separate them from the way we live our lives?

 

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