Originally Posted By: klydon1
I think a far more nefarious image of Italians is portrayed in mobster films.



As an outsider, I'd have to agree with you on this point.

Doesn't absolve Spike at all.

I read an article about Spike and Italians..and I sent an email to one of the organizations quoted in the piece. I posed some of the questions to him that I've posed in this thread.

I got a good response. Here are two sites that serve to educate people about Italian history and to combat media stereotypes about Italian Americans.


http://www.italic.org/index.php

http://www.stereotypethis.com/index.php


In so many words, the gist of what he told me was that there are media watchdog groups that speak out against Italian stereotypes, but media outlets are generally not going to cover the stories targeting powerful interests .Spike is somewhat of a polarizing media figure so stories involving him are approved by editors at media outlets.


What's interesting was that in my email, I mentioned a big studio children's CARTOON that had Mafia "joke" in it and I questioned whether the organization had spoken out against that...he directed me to details of them speaking out against that ...but again...powerful interests ....fewer stories about them calling out Spielberg and "Shark Tale".

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