Ok, I think I have waited long enough to get the first blog out of the way. The reason for the website is, no other group wanted to take up the issues or the causes that I felt were extremely pressing for the Italian American community. There is no excuse, nor is there valid justification for traditional Italian American groups to stand idly by as people begin to take pot-shots at us. And every time they take those shots, they take just another piece of our true identity with them. We can no longer allow that to happen. We need to begin to defend our heritage.
First on the list is a pre-teen kid with a wildly popular video series on youtube. He is a disgrace to all of us, and just feeds into every stereotypical perception people have about Italian Americans. He needs to be stopped immediately; his nonsense has gone on far too long. And while I do respect other people's opinions, do not tell me he has 'freedom of speech' to say what he wants. It is hate speech which does not state opinion or fact. Together, we can have him removed from youtube. To help move that process along, I have provided links to both the video and the complaint form. On my own, I have completed about ten of the forms...which doesn't seem to work. However, I am sure if we fill out hundreds of them, youtube ( which is owned by Google) will have no choice but to stop him.
Now, before everyone says, ' The guy who runs Italian Aware is bitter and angry and out of his mind....' I'm really not. I love my culture and my heritage, and have dedicated most of my site to promoting Italian culture. Every week, you can see a bunch of new articles about various places in Italy or America that deal heavily with our culture. However, a great deal of effectively promoting our culture is defending it, and I hope that I have all of your support. I am also open to new things that are offensive towards Italians, that I may have missed when establishing the site. Feel free to let me know...
I like your site.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to tell you, I think there is a feedback loop between the inaccurate portrayal of Italians in the media and many Italians themselves.
What I mean is an Italian young man grows up watching movies like the GodFather and programs like The Sopranos and, for whatever reasons, starts to imitate the stereotypes. This imitation then feeds the stereotype, and so on, and so on; until the stereotype becomes the archetype?
Just a thought.
I like your site and find it very interesting to browse.
Maybe you can consider analyzing other stereotypes in the media for other groups as well, and thereby make your site appeal to a wider audience? Who knows, maybe it will be an enlightening journey.