The title is a direct quote from an article Melissa Crawley wrote about Mob Wives. I can only reply with, "Are you kidding me?!" Mob Wives is not documenting anything Italian except cafonismo. To even elevate it to anything more than trash television shocks the conscience.
But, in Crawley's infinite wisdom, she also goes on to tell us that the cast, "[Their] lives may reflect yet another all too familiar connection between crime and generations of Italians in America." So, not only is Mob Wives a documentary on what it means to be Italian- but it is also a documentary on the criminality of the Italian American community. After all, that's what "all too familiar connection" means right, Ms. Crawley?
I know I don't speak for myself when I say that I am an Italian and no one in my family has been involved with organized crime. Not. A. One. The worst thing anyone in my family ever did was get a speeding ticket. I know my family is the rule, and not the exception. Statistics back me up: .0078% of Italian Americans are in jail- that's 1,150 of a population of more than 15 million. Seems like that "all too familiar connection to criminality" is one the media cooked up- not reality. And by the way, of those 1,150 Italians in jail- not all of them have been incarcerated for organized crime.
So, to Melissa Crawley- stop speaking in sweeping generalizations about Italians. In fact, how dare you. In a "kinda nice" way, you basically stated that criminality is a fact all Italian Americans have to deal with. And as a result, we need the documentary Mob Wives to shed light on the criminal burden all Italians are under. If you were to say the same thing about African Americans, you'd be FIRED for promoting a stereotype. You have no right to belittle the Italian experience. And, if you truly want a "real" story told- how about you read about the victims of the Mob Wives' husbands.
Dislike what Ms. Crawley said? Give her a piece of your mind: staytuned2011@hotmail.com
Dear Greg,
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this article and all I can say is:
Oh perfect, what a blessing it is for Melissa Crawley, to offer us poor goombas her single narcissistic and narrow minded explanation of a culture in which she has had no actual dealings with, other than through the television. Clearly she has made the Media's version of the stereo-typical Italian American to fit her pre-existing and prejudicial viewpoint as she lacks the understanding of the layers and complexities in what is considered an acceptable lifestyle and an unacceptable lifestyle amongst Italian Americans.
Saying this show is actually a documentary because it "reflects the harsh truth of the Italian-American experience", a show that" reflects yet another all too familiar connection between crime and generations of Italians in America." is like saying the show SWAMP PEOPLE is akin to 'home movies' that reflect the harsh truth of the White Angelo Saxon Protestant Southerner's experience, a show that again reflects the all too familiar connection between generations of the defiantly uneducated and the hate infused Southern bigot.
Ms. Crawley should be reminded that while our ancestors of the Roman Republic were operating in a form of democracy that resembles our own, creating the language from which all languages spring and bringing cultural and technological advancement that continues to prosper most of the free world even today, her Anglo-Saxon ancestors were an agrarian culture that foraged in the marshes for food and used stones to make soup. Even King Arthur was subject to Rome and had not Rome invested their empire in the British Isles, they wouldn't have had much advancement due to the modern sophistication of the time, that Rome brought with it.
The tragedy in all this is that she has a PHD. in media studies from Macquarie University, which in Australia. If she is a native of that country and her only experience in Italian American culture is derived from the export of television, than perhaps we, as Americans of Italian origin have only ourselves to blame for for the tolerance of the stereotype to continue here in the United States.
Regardless, I am not omniscient and Ms. Crawley is clearly not thinking for the rest of us.
Cheers,
Nick
S. Nicholas Amendolare
deus x macchina
Writer/Producer/Director