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Anti-Stereotyping Activities
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home >> Image & Identity >> Combatting Stereotyping >> Past NIAF Anti-Stereotyping Activities
- U.S. CONGRESSWOMAN MARGE ROUKEMA'S RESOLUTION
The NIAF has written to 100 Members of Congress and also joined a coalition of Italian American organizations that support a Sense of Congress Resolution introduced on Capitol Hill May 23 by Rep. Marge Roukema (R-NJ). In it, she urges the entertainment industry to "stop the negative and unfair stereotyping of Italian Americans and present Italian Americans in a more balanced and positive manner."
A Sense of Congress Resolution carries no legislative authority, but when passed, expresses an opinion of Congress. To date, the resolution's co-sponsors are Reps. John LaFalce (D-NY); Connie Morella ( R -MD); Felix Grucci ( R-NY); John Duncan (R-TN); William Coyne ( D-PA); Nick Lampson (D-TX); Rosa DeLauro (D-CT); William Pascrell (D-NJ); Michael Capuano (D-MA); Frank Mascara (D-PA); Danny Davis (D-IL); David Bonior (D-MI); Philip English (R-PA) and Peter DeFazio (D-OR)
Coalition members include: the Order Sons of Italy in America, the Conference of Presidents of Major Italian American Organizations, the Italian American One Voice Committee, the Italian American Task Force on Defamation, Unico National and the Italian American Democratic Leadership Council. All are urging their members to write their U.S. Representatives and Senators asking them to support the Roukema Resolution.
CONGRESS HOTLINE
Need the name, address and phone number of your senators or representative? Call Capitol Hill at 202/224-3121 and give the operator your zip code.
In March, the NIAF released the results of a national poll of almost 1,300 teen-agers of different racial, religious, and ethnic groups. Commissioned from Zogby International, the poll asked them to assign TV and movie roles to people of different heritages. Italian Americans and Arab Americans fared the worst, with 78 percent of the teens casting Italian Americans as either crime bosses (44 percent) or restaurant workers (34 percent) while Arab Americans were largely seen as either convenience store clerks (49 percent) or terrorists (34 percent).
When Italian American teens were asked if their ethnic heritage was accurately portrayed on television or in the movies, 46 percent agreed and nearly 30 percent said they were proud of their television image.
The NIAF study, the first of its kind, generated enormous media interest and helped the Foundation prove that television and the movies do indeed influence the perception people have of Italian Americans. [For a copy of the report's executive summary, send a stamped , self-addressed envelope to Zogby Study, NIAF Research Department, 1860 - 19th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20009.] or for our online version go here.
The unflattering stereotypes of Italian Americans as poorly educated and criminally inclined that dominate the HBO series, "The Sopranos" fly in the face of statistical evidence about Italian Americans, the NIAF charged in a press release sent to more than 2,500 newsrooms nationally, timed to the third season premiere of the series March 4.
Using information from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the 1990 U.S. Census the NIAF found that:
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Italian Americans have constituted little more than five percent or 26 of the 458 fugitives on the FBI's Most Wanted List over the past 50 years. No Italian Americans are currently on the list.
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Two-thirds of the six million Italian Americans in the U.S. labor force are employed in white-collar positions as physicians, attorneys, educators, managers and executives, according to the 1990 U.S. Census.
The release also informed the media about a study last year from the Italic Studies Institute in Floral Park, New York that reviewed 1,078 Hollywood films with Italian or Italian American characters from 1928 to 2000. An overwhelming 73 percent portray Italians in a negative light as boors, bigots, or gangsters. But of all the films featuring Italian American criminals, only 14 percent were based on the lives of actual people.
The NIAF media effort generated enormous response, including more than 20 radio and television interviews, and newspaper stories coast-to-coast. Educating the media is the first step in changing the stereotype.
Do the stereotypes found in "The Sopranos" hurt real-life Italian Americans? The question was debated May 15 by a panel of experts that included Camille Paglia, leading author and academician; James Wolcott, columnist, Vanity Fair Magazine; Bill Tonelli, assistant managing editor, Rolling Stone Magazine; Ted Grippo, chairman of AIDA; Dr. Elizabeth Messina, Fordham University psychologist and Dr. Joseph Scelsa of Queens College (CUNY).
The NIAF panel, which drew 400 people and considerable media attention, was broadcast by C-Span June 2 coast-to-coast. And an estimated 250 thousand people saw "This Is America with Dennis Wholey," a PBS talk show, that devoted an hour to the stereotyping of Italian Americans with guests Gay Talese, Congressman Rick Lazio, NY Post columnist Linda Stasi, actors Philip Bosco and Paul Borghese, and the NIAF's Dona De Sanctis. The program will be re-broadcast in August.
To combat the stereotyping of Italian American women, the NIAF worked with a team of eight other Italian American organizations and the Italian Cultural Institute of New York organizing the panel discussion, "Italian American Women in the Media: Fact versus Fiction" at the Italian Cultural Institute March 3.
The panel included Laura Savini, a popular television personality; Dr. Dawn Esposito, a sociologist; Valerie Franco, an independent film maker and the NIAF's Dona De Sanctis. Before a standing-room-only audience, they led a lively discussion that explored the relentless stereotyping of Italian American women either as earth mothers or dumb brunettes.
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