One man against the "Mafia Minstrel Show": Solo "Sopranos" wank
(Please note: the author of this article is well within his rights to not enjoy "The Sopranos" and not want to watch it. However, I still think this article is incredibly, incredibly wanky.)

Steve Antonuccio wants us to know that any American of Italian descent making money off a novel, movie, or TV show about the Mafia is a RACE TRAITOR!!! and are defaming their heritage! Also, how the "Sopranos" has irrevocably riven the Italian-American community!

The Legacy of the Mafia Minstel Show
by
Steve Antonuccio

Which, of course, was not inspired in any way, shape, or form by the fact that there actually is/was an Italian Mafia.

...My daughter comes homes from school, about the same time The Sopranos was released on HBO, complaining that some kids at school were teasing her and calling her "Mafia Girl."

As if hateful bullying or teasing someone because they're different is anything new.

   I wish I could say that things have gotten better for Italian Americans and how they are portrayed in popular television and film in the last 70 years, but unfortunately I think it has actually gotten worse.  What I call the Mafia Minstrel Show, actors in olive skin face playing mobster for the benefit of those people who lust for violence and racism, is now as insidious as lice.

"Olive skin face"? Now I'm imagining the entire cast of "The Sopranos" as being black actors who're made up to look Italian, ala "White Girls"...

Let's see...

Most of the "Sopranos" cast... TOTALLY NOT ITALIAN! They just play them on the TV show!

Several notable cast members in "The Godfather" films, among them Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, and Francis Ford Coppola's various and sundry family members... TOTALLY NOT ITALIAN! (Actually, De Niro is 3/4 Irish, 1/4 Italian, so he is MOSTLY NOT ITALIAN!)

Chazz Palminteri, who wrote and starred in "A Bronx Tale" AS A MOBSTER... TOTALLY NOT ITALIAN!

  Thanks to our friends at HBO, the Mafia Minstrel Show has been legitimized as a mainstream genre, not unlike westerns or love stories.

Uh, it was legitimized in the early 70's with "The Godfather" film, if not earlier.

So why has the Mafia Minstrel Show survived for the past 70 years?  It is very simple, IT MAKES MONEY!!!!!

And it's about rich, powerful crime families, which people would be fascinated with no matter if the crime families in question were Italians, Germans, or Martians from outer space. 

I remember reading the obituary for Mario Puzo.  It listed the sales of his books, his wonderful novel about Italian American immigrants, The Fortunate Pilgrim, had sold maybe 10,000 copies and The Godfather, a novel that featured the Mafia Minstrel Show, had sold 15 million copies.  Mario Puzo, a man who admitted he had never known a gangster before he wrote The Godfather, obviously was given a lot of cash to write a novel about the Mafia Minstrel Show.  Just like David Chase, a man who originally wanted to tell a simple story about his relationship with his Mother, was given a lot of cash to add gangsters, gratuitous sex, and gratuitous violence to turn his simple story into something completely different. Both men talented Italian American storytellers, both men seduced by the almighty dollar into selling out their heritage.

Personally, I find this guy's insinuations that Italian-American writers/actors who merely write about or play a mobster are "selling out their heritage" rather disturbing. It screams of "RACE TRAIT0R!!11!111!" to me. I also wonder if he would find movies about non-Italian gangs ("Gangs of New York", "Road to Perdition") as offensive as "The Godfather" or "The Sopranos". After all, aren't those films just as prejudiced against the poor Irish mobsters immigrants?

Article can be found here: http://www.uvm.edu/~arosa/antonuccio.html