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Anti-Italianism: Discrimination and Defamation in the History of Italian Americans

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This is an excellent documentary video of a conference on the history of defamation and discrimination of Italian Americans that was held at Seton Hall University in New Jersey in December 2004. It is an educational and informative documentary with a run time of about 27:30. The comments by participants, many of whom are highly educated and respected in their fields of expertise, speak directly to an issue that has been considered taboo by many Americans of Italian heritage.

It is refreshing to see that the Italian American community is finding its voice and is speaking out about the defamatory undertone of television shows like the wildly popular fictional drama series "The Sopranos". As one of the participants explains, while "The Sopranos" is entertaining and well produced, it is an unfortunate that it purports to represent the Italian American family. "That's not my Italian American family and it's not the Italian American family of the people I grew up with", says Dr. Susanna Tardi of William Patterson University.

The video also touches upon the animated feature "Shark Tale", created by Dreamworks LLC. Many of the characters in this big screen cartoon are stereotypes of Italian American mobsters, with names that are clearly of Italian origin. Jerome Krase, Ph.D from City University of New York explains how distraught he was when he looked more closely at what he thought was just an innocent cartoon about marine life. To his dismay, he began to realize the pernicious message this cartoon delivers to younger children who absorb these characterizations subconsciously.

What's even more revealing in this video are some of the observations made by politicians such as Paul DiGaetano, former Member, New Jersey State Assembly and The Honorable Bill Pascrell, U.S. House of Representatives. Congressman Pascrell says in genuine disbelief that he was surprised at the attitudes held by members of the United States Congress toward Italian Americans. This is a stunning revelation about how elected representatives of the American people regard the fifth largest ethnic group in America!

On the bright side, it was nice to see a popular Italian American actor, Joe Piscopo of Saturday Night Live fame, attend the conference and speak up and encourage more media productions that highlight the positive images of Italian Americans. And as we know, there are tons and tons of these images that we could talk about. Joe talks about his Bloomfield Avenue project that he says would make his Italian parents and grandparents very proud. Way to go, Joe!

Without doubt, this is an educational documentary that is well worth seeing. In fact, I have watched this video over 6 times and I continue to learn something each time I see it. It will expand your views and raise awareness about the treatment of Italian Americans in the popular media. There's finally a video in documentary form that rebuts the prejudicial notion that Americans of Italian heritage are "bimbos, bozos and buffoons", something which the media has practiced preaching for well over a century. The video concludes that Italian Americans have vowed to protest negative media images of this extraordinary ethnic group wherever they may arise. Sempre Avanti!

As Austin Powers would say, "Yeah, Baby, Yeah!"

The Documentary of the 2004 Seton Hall Conference on Anti Italianism provides the most complete factual information as to the hardhsips Italian immigrants faced upon their arrival in America. The little known history of Italian immigrant lynchings is discussed in detail by one of the foremost experts on the subject