You chose: anti-defamation

  • Op-Eds
    Joey Skee(January 24, 2013)
    Wanna bet Philistine Italian-American “Leaders” become “Outraged,” Again?
  • NYU. Roberto Saviano - In Italy the best anti-mafia law in the world
    In the first of a series of commentaries by Italian-American intellectuals on Roberto Saviano's recent talk about Mafia at the New York University, George DeStefano holds that Italian American anti-defamationists outraged by Mafia movies and TV shows should adopt the Italian approach, choosing candid and historically-informed discourse rather than ethnic defensiveness.
  • Mafia 2 E3 2010 Made Man Trailer [HD]
    Several Italian-American organizations are staging an anti-defamation campaign against the videogame "Mafia II" on the ground that it offends and stereotypes Italian Americans as mafiosi. Here we present the argument against the game through the words of Andrè DiMino, Chief Media Executive and Immediate Past National President of UNICO National. In the next few days we shall investigate the opposing viewpont.
  • Editors’ Note: We do not doubt that the media can and have had a dilatory effect on how certain members of society may look upon others. We also realize that Italian Americans may indeed be the last punching bag for ethnic bigots in various venues. We also understand the outrage that some have expressed toward the MTV show “Jersey Shore.” What we do not understand is the truculent, vituperous, and visceral bile that has spewed forth from some people and local organizations against this program. In our opinion, two objections have proven to be thoughtful and well reasoned, regardless of whether one may agree or disagree with the reasoning offered. The first was the December program of Italics, the Italian American Magazine (now available at http://www.cuny.tv/series/italics/index.lasso), in which Andre DiMino, president of UNICO National, spoke quite eloquently to the issue at hand, underscoring what he saw as the major problems with this and other mediatic representations of Italian Americans. The second appears below, the Press Release that the National Italian American Foundation recently sent out to various news organizations and associations. We have decided to share it with our readers of i-Italy.org, precisely because of its temperate tone and acknowledgement that Italian America indeed is more pluralistic than others might think.
  • Art & Culture
    Joey Skee(February 09, 2010)
    The following lines come from an email sent to i-italy.org editors who, in turn, shared it with me. The words are quoted verbatim and in the order in which they were written, but recontextualized here as verse.
  • Op-Eds
    Fred Gardaphe(February 09, 2010)
    If you believe that the “Jersey Shore” show of MTV is really gangsters without guns, then you should do something about it. But since when have we become afraid of our youth? Since when has the public behavior of seven 20-something kids been something to pay attention to? This shows that kids don’t really know what it means to be Italian American outside of their family; it also shows that we probably don’t know our kids as well as we think we do. ... So don’t blame MTV; we have failed ourselves. We may think we have created Italian America, but we have yet to create Italian Americans.
  • I am not sure why mimicking the guido style is any better or worse than folks in a previous generation trying to be like James Dean or the pre-Godfather Marlon Brando. It is one generation’s rebellion against the previous generation. And it was the disobedience and unruly behavior, now “forgotten”, that helped to make Sinatra an icon for a particular generation. This rebellion is needed to move toward establishment of identity as a new group that is independent from the previous generation. It is outrageous that anyone should claim a specific topic is forbidden ground for interchange. It is in the reasoned discussions about such topics as guido culture that can help us as a community reach a consensus.

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