One Italian-American, hold the Italian
Apparently, Robert de Niro is one of the most despicable Italian-Americans in history. His movie roles perpetuate Mob stereotypes, you see.
Not the writers who came up with the stories. Not the directors or producers. Just as the vast majority of the moviegoing public blames Tom Cruise if the Last Samurai was horrible, the Sons blame Robert de Niro. You go after the face. You go after the person that the public will recognize.
I actually have to take a second out here and express a small amount of happiness that the Last Samurai came around: it did give thousands of people the opportunity to be idiots: "We're supposed to believe that Tom Cruise plays a Japansese guy? What other crap is Hollywood going to force down our throats next!?" They all get a Silver Way to Go award.
So what does the Sons of Italy's complaint boil down to?
Those movies make us look bad.
No Italian-American out there actually does like brewing up giant vats of spaghetti, none of them ever say fuhgeddaboutit, no Italian-American matriarch is overweight, and no ripped-up Son of Sicily ever tried to strong-arm anybody else.
It seems pretty telling, though, when Italians are essentially calling Italian-Americans' anti-stereotyping crusade bunk. That's the actual country Italy. They're even more Italian than Italian-American groups.
The highlighting quote: "Our history has good and bad bits. You cannot just deny the past. And after all, it is only cinema."
The Sons could learn a lot from that dude. They're not going to get anybody to change their perception of Italian-Americans by yelling "That's not fair!" You should see from watching the news that emphatically denying whatever tarnished past you might have gets you less credibility, if anything.
I was at a Whole Foods a while ago, waiting for my turn in the meat line (mmmm... smoked ham). I happened to glance to my right just as a ripped-up black guy with giant dreds sauntered up to a decorative barrel full of prepackaged cornbread. His eyes illuminated with delight; he pulled his ridiculously attractive (also black) girlfriend over and exclaimed, "Awww, corn-breeEEEeezy!"
Oh, SNAP! A black dude that likes cornbread! A stereotype in real life! The most amazing this was that I didn't think he was a dumbass!
A more clear-cut perspective: How about a Caucasian-American group singling out negative portrayals of white slave owners in Civil War-era films? "They're always portrayed as uncaring and cruel taskmasters who beat their slaves unmercifully and didn't treat them as human beings when the plain fact is that the vast majority of slave owners cared deeply about their slaves."
The obvious response: Hey, white guys, it happened.
The only way the Sons of Italy could have any credibility in this argument of theirs is if they also stumped to erase negative portrayals of cops, politicians, rich people, and drunks in film, too. There are always gonna be dirty cops in movies; there will always be Italian Mafiosi, too.
Your crusade against mob stereotyping did achieve something, however- now Italian-Americans are known for being mobsters and whiners.
At the bottom of the National Italian American Foundation Stereotyping 2001 list: "A thumbs down to Robert de Niro, who appeared in the film Out on my Feet about boxer Vinnie Curto, who was also involved in organized crime."
Seriously... an Italian named Vinnie? How overdone is THAT?
But wait... de Niro's an Honoree in your Hall of Fame? Pick one, guys.
And dude... Robert Davi? That guy plays even MORE knikky thugs than de Niro does!
No, I don't know what "knikky" means.
posted by Scotty 2-shots at 8:13 PM
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Have you washed your hands lately?
My new hero:
Yarr... do I look tough, or what?
Scott LoBaido, a New York artist, found out that some crappy old art place was showing a piece entitled The Holy Virgin Mary, didn't like the use of pornographic images and elephant dung in the piece, and proceeded to fling horse manure at the museum's facade.
Way to stand up for what you believe in! Some assholes slander one of the icons of your faith, let 'em know what you think! Don't take that sitting down! It's totally lame that some gallery curators refused to put up your art just because of your politics. Those are probably the same flower-growing left-winging turkeys who put up that Virgin Mary crap to begin with.
You didn't like it when they defamed an icon that you believed in, so you threw a temper tantrum; but somehow you expect people to not behave the same way with your art? At least when gallery owners refused to show your work, you didn't end up covered in paint. Or feces. You even said it yourself: "I'm very patriotic and I use my artwork as a soapbox." If you can use yours as a soapbox, why can't they?
And really, Scott. Go the extra mile. It was elephant dung on the Virgin Mary; you were caught with horse manure under your fingernails. Be precise, man, you knew the arrest report was going to make that stuff public.
Either everybody has freedom in art to express themselves, or nobody does. If you can't take it when other people produce art that you don't agree with, then your crap doesn't deserve my respect.
But you are consistent- the inspirational words of your Agenda echo the same hollow rhetoric a typical politician's speech does.
Solid resume of billboards, too. And building facades. Good idea, getting yourself in the news for stumping the Republican ticket. Changing the world, one flower bed at a time.
All that trouble and you still spell his name wrong.
What pisses me off is that these are the guys who've taken things like loving the country, being proud of the United States and "being a Patriot" and turned them into these self-righteous, pedestal-climbing screw-you symbols.
Now when I put an American Flag sticker on my car because I love this country, people think that I hate gays, blindly support authority (so long as it KICKS ASS!) and don't give a crap about the rest of the world. People can always think whatever they want, but when they steal my symbol and pervert it to represent any form of intolerance, it makes me want to drown puppies. French puppies. French anti-war frisbee-throwing hippie puppies.
And incidentally, the reason we don't execute in 14 days is because of things like this.
posted by Scotty 2-shots at 8:45 PM
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