Tuesday,
March 06,
"Donnellys"
are the Irish Sopranos
The
ANNOTICO Report
Apparently,
the Irish have their Testa Duras
along with the Italians.
This
Irish Journalist doesn't mind the "Donnelly's"
Two
big mistakes he makes.He doesn't Differentiate between :
(1) Positive,
Benign, and NEGATIVE STEREOTYPES
(2)
We don't claim a Negative Fact doesn't Exist!!!
We
just Resent the Persistent, Persevering PORTRAYAL
of the Group in that ONE WAY.
He
would Retort, Well we see those Groups with Some positive Portrayals
And
I answer: Look at the Disproportionality. Is THAT
Accurate or Truthful !!!!!!
What
ever happened to not Defaming a Nationality, Race, or Creed?
What
ever happened to Treating Everyone Else like you would like to be Treated ?
Commentary
I hate all
stereotypes. They have no place in literature.
Too
much? Must be the cranky Irish side of me. Or
the fiery Italian half. But at least I'm not drunk. Or
pining for pasta.
I mean, now.
Here's the problem: You can't universally denigrate and dismiss characters,
plotlines and whole bodies of work simply because some portions could be
labeled stereotypical.
Wide swaths of
literature and pop culture would be wiped out. No "Sopranos." No
"Departed." No "Fiddler on the Roof."
The latest drama
to get hit with the S-word is "The Black Donnellys"
(10 p.m. Mondays).
The story of four
Donnelly brothers' descent into
It's a
complicated plot, extremely violent by broadcast TV standards and dark to the
point of inky blackness.
Granted, many
stereotypical characterizations are lazy, ignorant or simply shameful -- when
applied to any group as a whole or when they merely rely on the most trite of chestnuts.
Stereotypes are a
problem when they are the sole representation of a group, class, race, whatever. They also make for bad literature when they
are embraced as a singular truth. But valid concern over such depictions is
taken to the extreme when it's applied to all representations that could be
broadly classified as stereotypical.
Hey, I'd be
screaming, too, if we only saw blacks as criminals. Or
Italians as mobsters. Or Irish as drunks, or cops, or
both.
But that's not
the case. We see black judges and doctors and felons. And
Irish and Italian lawyers and businessmen and, yes, wiseguys.
We even have gay mobsters (Vito Spatafore from
"The Sopranos"). Any portrayal comes down to context.
Yes, there are
aspects of all these stories that seem familiar. And the Irish experience
inherent in "The Black Donnellys" has been
portrayed before. But to say these "stereotypes" don't exist is
dishonest. Dishonesty is something we all can really hate.
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