To the editors:
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It is amazing (and depressing) to see how effective the media’s constant Italian bashing has been in making these images palatable to mainstream America. Portrayals which are rightly deemed offensive to other Americans–Stepin Fetchit, the Frito Bandito, et al–are considered “fun” or “cute” when applied to Italians. Why the double standard? Bigotry is bigotry, regardless of who’s the target.
It’s not Williams or Rosenbaum’s fault; it’s largely the media’s myopia. Their collective stunted vision has also infected the perceptions which many Italian Americans have of themselves. In the current film A Bronx Tale, for example, Chazz Palminteri, who wrote and stars, has admitted in interviews that the character he plays, Sonny the philosophical (!) crime boss, never existed–he made him up. Perhaps Danny Aiello’s “unease” in his Breaking Legs role is a realization that such witless self-denigration has to stop.
Stone Park
