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NIAF Picks & Pans
home >> Image & Identity >> Picks & Pans >> Spring 2004
THUMBS UP TO:
The National Coalition Against Racial, Religious and Ethnic Stereotyping (CARRES), a national coalition of ethnic organizations, for writing to Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks expressing serious concerns about reported stereotyping and gangster elements in their forthcoming children's movie Shark Tale. The CARRES coalition was founded in January 2004 by four of the nation's leading Italian American organizations: the Columbus Citizens Foundation, the National Italian American Foundation, the Order Sons of Italy in America (OSIA), and UNICO National. These founding members are joined by more than 20 other organizations that represent a variety of ethnic groups including Italian Americans.
The DreamWorks website describes Shark Tale as "a gangster comedy" that features sharks as mafia characters with Italian names that belong to the "Five Families." CARRES has opened a dialogue with Dream Works and continues to petition them to remove the Italian element from the nefarious characters in this film.
CARRES notes that this animated film is particularly harmful because it will be marketed to children and promises to perpetuate negative stereotypes of Italian Americans to another generation of Americans. Appealing directly to Spielberg because of his reputation of seeking to advance religious sensitivity and tolerance, CARRES hopes that this same commitment to sensitivity and tolerance will be extended to Italian Americans.
NIAF asks its supporters and all individuals who are concerned with ethnic stereotyping to contact Steven Spielberg and Dream Works, expressing their alarm.
Please write to:
Steven Spielberg
Att: Jennifer Gonring, Corporate Affairs
DreamWorks SKG
331 North Maple Drive (#200)
Beverly Hills, CA 90210
For additional background information, please see www.sharktale.com.
Vicki Vasilopoulos, freelance writer and former NIAF grant winner for her article, "O.K., What About Sharks Is So Italian?" that appeared in The New York Times. Vasilopoulos notes that many people are not pleased with Steven Spielberg and Dream Work's upcoming film Shark Tale. Discussing the historic trend of negative and stereotypical images of Italian Americans in television and film, she also discusses how this discontent has created a deeper sense of solidarity in the Italian American community and a united front against Shark Tale. Contact: vickiv34@comcast.net.
Gregory Kane, writer for The Baltimore Sun, for his article, "Italian American Stereotypes Rank at Top of U.S. bias list." During an interview with OSIA's Dona DeSanctis regarding the Shark Tale film, Kane eloquently notes that "Our zeal for stereotyping Italian Americans is like an addiction. We won't call it that, not even in this age when folks are running around saying you can get addicted to anything: chocolate, video games, sex, even Big Macs and fries. Everything, it seems, but the thing we're truly addicted to - the stereotype of the Italian American as mobster." Kane's comments underline the degree to which Italian American stereotyping is ingrained in, and accepted by, American society. Contact: greg.kane@baltsun.com.
Terry Byrne, writer for The Boston Herald, for her article, "The Sweepers brushes aside Italian American stereotyping." Bryne discusses the buzz surrounding the opening in Boston of The Sweepers, a play by John Picardi. Picardi, a NIAF grant winner, incorporates accurate and positive images of Italian Americans in his plays. Bryne quotes Picardi as saying "Seventy percent of Americans think all Italians are connected to the Mafia. In movies and on TV, when Italians are not gangsters, they're working-class buffoons. I'm trying to show my own Italian-American experience." The Sweepers and Seven Rabbits are two of a series of ten plays that Picardi is writing that chronicles the Italian American experience in each decade of the 20th century. Contact: The Boston Herald, One Herald Square, PO Box 2096 Boston, MA 02106.
THUMBS DOWN:
Public Broadcasting System (PBS) for its marketing strategy of the series, The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance. NIAF objected to PBS's playing of the mafia card by linking the Medici dynasty with the mafia, and advancing an assumption which suggests that there is a continuity of criminality within the Italian people and that criminality is a component of the Italian character. NIAF noted that what could have been a valuable historical resource was instead a tainted program with clearly defaming overtures. NIAF recommended that future PBS programming avoid the lure of the mafia mystique. Contact: Pat Mitchell, president and CEO, Public Broadcasting System, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314.
A special thanks for creating awareness of the issues goes to: Manny Alfano, Dominic Candelero, Dona De Sanctis and Bill Connell.
Your clippings, reports, and concerns can also be sent to:
The National Italian American Foundation
Attention: John Marino
1860 19th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20009
Or by email at: anti-defamation@niaf.org.
If you would like to receive NIAF's occasional report, Focus: Image and Identity, which addresses anti-defamation issues, please email John Marino at jmarino@niaf.org.
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