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Focus: Image & Identity
home >> Image & Identity >> Focus: Image & Identity Reports >> Fall 2003
NIAF monitors the depiction of Italian Americans in media sources including film, television, and print and remains committed to fighting the negative and inaccurate depictions of our ethnic group. We also strive to highlight the positive images of Italian Americans as well as our numerous contributions to the United States.
Fighting the Negative
NIAF continues to respond to stereotypical and negative images of Italian Americans on a wide front. Many of the incidents reflect the “typical” albeit regrettable depictions of Italian Americans as gangsters and/or as crude and undereducated individuals. While NIAF has addressed dozens of these types of incidents since our last report, a few items warrant special attention here.
The recent placement of signs in Brooklyn reading, “Leaving Brooklyn Fugheddaboudit” is of special interest to Italian Americans residing in the Northeast. While these signs were intended to promote the Borough of Brooklyn, they have nonetheless offended a considerable number of Italian Americans in the New York City area. NIAF wrote the Brooklyn Borough President asking that either the language be edited or the signs be removed. NIAF noted that this particular colloquial expression, “Fugheddaboudit,” is widely associated with Italian Americans in the media and reinforces a negative and demeaning stereotype about our group. Moreover, NIAF noted that not only Italian Americans were disturbed by the poor choice of words contained in the signs, but others outside of our community also expressed their dismay over this type of ethnic stereotyping. As NIAF awaits the Borough President’s response to our request, we are assembling a coalition of Italian American groups, local and national, to press the Borough to reconsider the language appearing on the signs. Instead of reverting to objectionable phrases, perhaps the borough officials may want to quote some notable Italian American from Brooklyn in their next round of promotional signs. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Penn State Coach Joe Paterno are just a couple of the numerous accomplished Italian Americans from Brooklyn that have contributed considerably to the United States.
Of equal concern was a recent political cartoon done by nationally syndicated cartoonist Pat Oliphant that included a clearly pejorative term for Italians. While political cartoons are intended to be forthright and probing, it was both shocking and appalling that newspapers would print this clearly offensive cartoon. NIAF responded on a number of levels including a letter to the editor of the Oregonian, which was one of the papers that ran the cartoon.
A recent television program, The Restaurant, appeared to offer some hope that Italian Americans would be portrayed in a positive light. A reality show, there were aspects of the program that resonated deeply within the Italian American community including the protagonist Rocco DiSpirito. It was refreshing to view DiSpirito, an Italian American with an unmistakable ethnic identity, appearing as intelligent, hard working, honest, and loving of his family. However, there were undertones that were, to say the least, questionable including a mixture of Italian American “characters” with all the trappings of the often stereotyped New York City Italian American. Especially disturbing was the inclusion of a table in the restaurant that was labeled “The Sopranos” with all the expected insinuations to thug behavior and criminal world connections.
Collective and Individual Efforts
The problem of ethnic stereotyping has not gone away, and groups including the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) continue to address the on-going problem. This battle is being fought on various fronts including:
Coalition Building: NIAF recently met with the National Voices, a coalition of organizations that represent various ethnic, racial, and religious groups, to discuss ways to end stereotyping and defamation of all groups and to encourage coalition building that would further this objective. National Voices demonstrates that NIAF has friends outside of the Italian American community who support our fight against ethnic stereotyping. Recently, our National Voices partner, the National Conference on Community and Justice (NCCJ) signed on to a NIAF letter to the editor criticizing the television program The Family.
Individual efforts: Historian Larry DiStasi continues to fight for an accurate history of Italian Americans, specifically as it relates to the treatment of Italian Americans during World War II. DiStatsi wrote Pearson Education, Inc., the publisher of college textbooks, noting that their text, while including the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, fails to mention the similar experiences endured by Italian Americans. DiStasi also addressed this issue with the editor of the U.S. News & World Report for their compilation of the "100 Top Events in US History," which also included the Japanese Internment as a top event yet failed to mention that “600,000 resident aliens of Italian descent nationwide were severely restricted as to movement and possessions, and were required to carry pink ID booklets under pain of internment.”
Also of note, Michael J. Polelle, Professor of Law at The John Marshall Law School, published an article “Racial and Ethnic Group Defamation: A Speech in Friendly Proposal” that appears in Boston College Third World Law Journal. The article specifically addresses the issue of ethnic discrimination against Italian Americans from a legalistic perspective.
Proactive Measures to Highlight the Positive
While NIAF continues to respond to negative depictions of Italian Americans, we also believe that Italian Americans must be proactive. As many are aware, the best way to end stereotyping of Italian Americans is through the promotion of the best of Italian American culture and heritage. But, we are challenged with educating the American public as well.
The most recent initiative undertaken by NIAF towards educating the American public was the launching of Milestones of the Italian American Experience, an interactive web-based timeline of Italian American history. It is hard to believe that this was never done prior. Italian Americans will never overcome stereotyping and defamation until our story is accurately told and the historical record is set straight. It needs to be told in classrooms from kindergarten through graduate programs. It needs to be integrated into the current curriculum of elementary, middle, and high schools while also being developed at the college level. Students need to learn more about Italians and Italian Americans aside from the chastised Christopher Columbus and the debase Al Capone. There’s a great deal more to the Italian American experience and Milestones is one effort towards demonstrating this.
Milestones, available on the web at www.niaf.org/milestones and on cd-rom, captures the richness of the Italian American experience and highlights the many valuable contributions and achievements Italian Americans have made in the United States. Topics vary from the artist Constantino Brumidi’s masterpieces in the United States Capitol to the legendary performances of Frank Sinatra. Milestones also addresses the adversities encountered by Italian Americans along the way, including the infamous Sacco and Vanzetti case as well as the unjust lynching of 11 Italian Americans in New Orleans in 1891. As an interactive research and educational tool, it promises to appeal to people of varied backgrounds, ages, and educational levels. We at NIAF also hope that Milestones would provide an opportunity for Italian Americans to explore and to reconnect with their special history. Milestones was authored by Dr. Salvatore J. LaGumina, professor emeritus and director of the Center for Italian American Studies at Nassau Community College, a recognized authority on Italian American history who has written several books and published numerous articles on the topic.
Italian American Heritage Month
October is Italian American Heritage Month and celebrations are being prepared around the nation. While we should be immersed in the activities surrounding our special month, Italian Americans are unfortunately distracted by the unfair need to justify our prerogative to celebrate the first Italian American, Christopher Columbus. Columbus Day is a holiday synonymous with Italian Americans on the same level that Irish Americans rightly celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day and African Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day. Revisionist historians and activists alike have clearly sought to vilify the name of Columbus by judging a person of the fifteen century with the values and standards of today. As ludicrous as this sounds, Italian Americans will inevitable encounter these types of criticism and objections to any celebration of Columbus. What is forgotten in all this commotion is Columbus Day is a day for all Americans to celebrate. Just as Martin Luther King is recognized in the month of January for compelling America to address its injustices and inequities, Columbus should be recognized as a man who connected the Atlantic World with Europe propelling an ensuing encounter that directly led to the establishment of a great nation, the United States of America. So as we approach Columbus Day, let us celebrate proudly in our Italian ancestry and equally in our country as Americans.
On Columbus Day and throughout Italian American Heritage Month in general, let’s also keep in mind that Italian Americans have a great deal to celebrate outside of this one great explorer. Let us not forget that America was explored by other Italians including John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto) and Giovanni da Verrazano and was named after an Italian, Amerigo Vespucci. From these individuals of 15th century through the present, United States history is brimming with the many valuable contributions of Italian Americans. This particular month presents an opportunity to reflect upon these contributions and to appreciate our special heritage.
We welcome your thoughts. Please send comments to:
John Marino
Manager, Research and Cultural Affairs
National Italian American Foundation
1860 19th Street NW
Washington, D.C. 20009
Direct: (202) 939 - 3115
email: jmarino@niaf.org
Help NIAF by enrolling to receive this free report via email. This reduces costs and increases efficiency at NIAF. To begin receiving the e-version of Focus: Image and Identity, please send an email to jmarino@niaf.org with your name and email address. Thank you!
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