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| Right to Left: Keith Olbermann & Anthony Cumia |
Social media is a crazy place. One minute, you're looking at someone's pictures from a trip to Rome, the next you're yelling at Keith Olbermann (yes, that Keith Olbermann) for being anti-Italian.
Allow me to elaborate.
I grew up in New York City. My young adulthood happened to coincide with an extremely popular radio show: The Opie and Anthony Show. My friends and I would listen to it everyday and talk about it/reference it non-stop. Yes, it was “shock jock” radio. No, my religious high school wouldn't have approved.
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| Gregg "Opie" Hughes & Anthony Cumia circa 2000 |
Like countless other fans, I've felt like I have known the hosts for years. After all, they share personal stories with us each day. To that end, I knew Anthony was Italian – from New York. As a fellow Italian, his stories always hit close to home. The cultural similarities were there and I connected with that.
As an adult, I still listen to O&A's respective shows daily – even if I don't agree with everything they say. I also follow the hosts on Twitter, just to keep up-to-date. It was there, on Twitter, that the following caught my attention. In the midst of a feud between Opie and Keith Olbermann, Anthony was called a racist. To the average O&A fan, this is nothing new. Anthony really had nothing to do with this particular Twitter war. Then, someone alerted Olbermann to Anthony's full name: Anthony Cumia.
Olbermann:
"Is that his last name? Never had a chance, did he?"
There are few things that
last names consistently convey. In some countries, they may convey
family lineage. In others they may convey whether the person is male
or female.
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The one thing last names consistently convey, across borders and around the globe, is ethnicity. When I refer to a person as Sean MacDougal, you get an insight into the person's background. When I refer to a person as Joseph Zamboni, you get a different perspective.
We use these social cues all the time. Is it reasonable that Sean MacDougal is Irish or Scottish? Yes. Sure, he could be adopted or from mixed ancestry. But, someone (somewhere) in his life had a certain ethnic background associated with that last name.
So, when Anthony Cumia was called a racist by Keith Olbermann and Olbermann then said, “With a last name like that he never really had a chance.” Everyone agreed that Olbermann was calling Italians racists.
Then, I got involved and had this exchange with Olbermann:
To which he replied:
This statement was appallingly condescending. Not only did he insult my ethnicity, but now he was insulting my intelligence. I called him out on his BS. Anthony Cumia is clearly an Italian name.
This is how Olbermann replied:
So, the grand master of “intellectual bashing” was reducing his tweets down to scatological humor? Unlikely. What's more likely is Olbermann was going for an intellectual, tongue-in-cheek ethnic reference, particularly the ever popular stereotype of Italians being ignorant and/or intolerant of others. This stereotype has been popularized in Spike Lee's films.
Furthermore, Olbermann's explanation doesn't make sense. Anthony's name involves a slang term for semen. Therefore, he must have been bullied as a child. So, he became a racist. Huh?
The thing that really angered me was Olbermann's nonchalance about the issue. He dismissed what he said by playing coy and then demanded that I apologize to him. I wonder if he demanded that Jewish groups apologize to him after he made a Nazi salute at a journalism awards dinner :
I don't know what will happen to Keith Olbermann. He may be fined, he may issue an apology or he may just go on with no repercussions. I highly doubt he will get fired or suspended. That's where we are as a society. We have groups we can deride and we have groups that we can't. Italians aren't just a safe group to aim for – they are a preferred target. This dual system does nothing but breed animosity.
I'm all for eliminating political correctness. Oddly, today's society picks and chooses who gets PC protection. Some do, some don't - in arbitrary fashion. This approach forces people like me to fight for protection for my own kind, even when I think no one should be protected. The irony is sickening.
Paradoxically, Anthony Cumia would have probably made a comment similar to Olbermann's in a similar situation. However, and the distinction should be clearly made: Anthony would never back-peddle from the comment, pretend its connotations are not what he meant and then attempt reverse psychology. He would hit it head on, be honest about his assessment and move past it. What Olbermann did was intellectually dishonest and morally reprehensible.
But, I take comfort in knowing that Anthony Cumia probably has more viewers than Olbermann and that Olbermann couldn't hack it on MSNBC. Or Current TV. Current TV.
Thank you for this post. I could write a book about how many times I've had to defend my background to people, many of them close friends. People seem to think that Italian Americans are the only people capable of prejudice... When I try to explain otherwise, I am cut down and attacked. It is as if I have no right to present facts. It is sad and hurtful. In fact, I lost a close friend who refused to back down. : ( Of course media is responsible for the perceptions. Thank you for calling out Spike Lee, who is notorious for his negative depictions. Unfortunately, it is a fact that Italian Americans are the only "safe" group left to kick around. Btw, I've encountered bigots of all Ethnic backgrounds and races... When I point that out to people and add that my family actually worked to help minorities, I was told that we are the exception. Quotes-- "You're not like them"... "You don't consider yourself one of them, do you?", These people actually thought they were complimenting me!!!! lol. Unbelievable. In fact, my husband who is Jewish, has told me he has faced much less anti Semite comments.
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