--- In AsburyPark@yahoogroups.com, "jerseyjohn99" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
>
> Gotta disagree with you there dfs. Italians are portrayed as
> criminals and terrorists far more than blacks, Latinos, or Arabs
> combined.
>
I don't think I said one group was negatively portrayed more than
another. If I did, I misspoke since I don't know that as a fact.
> I watched the cartoon "Shark Tale" with my kids, and I was more
> horrified at the Italian stereotypes than any episode of Sopranos.
> For me, the worst part of Sopranos is how they butcher the
beautiful
> Italian language. Everytime I hear "gabba-goo" or "stu-gatz" I
think
> of my illiterate grandmother, not third generation Americans who
are
> trying to maintain a semblance of their heritage.
Then you are like Carmela's mother in a past episode I happened to
watch again last night. Carmela took her to task for being
embarrassed over their Italian peasant heritage and trying to
impress long-time friends who are "educated and cultured" Italian
Americans. Carmela's mother also thought her grand daughter was
too "dark."
That reminds me of my family. My father's mother and father both
came from small towns around Bari. My grandfather's family
ws "light" but my grandmother's was "dark." Some children, including
my father, who although he was the spitting image of my grandfather,
has dark olive skin and eyes. My grandfather held that against him.
Last night my wife (who is also Italian) and I commented on this. We
laugh (with love) at our peasant background but make no excuses.
There is a reason we speak Italian the way we do and that is
precisely because of the slang that our forebearers spoke. They
didn't speak "book Italian" if they did not have schooling and many
did not. Do you know that up until WWII the Italian Army had to have
translators because many soldiers could not understand each other?
What you bring up is a classist attitude that existed in Italy for
hundreds of years, the culutured North keeping down the peasants of
the South. So I proudly say "gabba goul" instead "cappicola" and "oo
bockhaus" (back house) instead of "cabinet" for bathroom. I may be
a "cavone" but I know where I came from.
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