"She's prejudiced against Italians; can you believe it?"

"You goddamn guineas really make me laugh..." - Moe Greene, The Godfather

Chris here...Jim's out picking tomatoes and Rob's out on his "Daily Worker' delivery route...

Now that every last blogger has weighed in on Imus--I think I even saw a few postings from Guantanamo Bay detainees--and the NY Times has put the story on the front page, allow me to indulge...I'm encouraged to see many--most--people responding with level heads; that while insulting, "God's other son" Don Imus' comments weren't overtly racist...besides which, prejudice, not racism, would be a more appropriate representation...I don't think the I-man was advocating segregation, after all, and the word racist is so inflammatory that it's the first phrase to be flung for effect.

Haven't we been through this before? Doesn't anyone ever get tired of it? Didn't Spike Lee break down the walls of racism with his rant in 'Do the Right Thing' twenty years ago? To wit...

"Dago, garlic-breath, guinea, pizza-slingin', spaghetti-bendin', Vic Damone, Perry Como, Luciano Pavarotti, Sole Mio, nonsingin' motherfucker."

"You gold-teeth-gold-chain-wearin', fried-chicken-and-biscuit-eatin', monkey, ape, baboon, big thigh, fast-runnin', three-hundred-sixty-degree-basketball-dunkin' spade, moulignon."

Wasn't 'Borat' hailed as a cultural awakening from our old bigoted ways? It seems as long as there are profits and prestige in "fighting" racism, even the most benign offenses won't go unnoticed. So we can all comfortably laugh at 'genuine chocolate-face' in the context of a comedy, but get too carried away in your descriptive riffing, and watch out, Mr. Hymie-town himself, Jesse Jackson, and his lovable sidekick Al Sharpton will come a-knockin'.

But there's an even wider issue...a double-standard: socially acceptable prejudice. I don't want to sound too sensitive, but it seems like people can get away with saying anything they want when it comes to gooks, jesus-freaks, uuh, sorry, to Asians, christians, Italians, or any of the old-wave immigrants...the two big no-no's are blacks and Jews...why is that? Michael Richards gets lambasted for saying nigger and Mad Mel blackballed for drunkenly asking someone if they're "a jew"...

A perfect example is the esteemed Hollywood gossip/insider movie site Hollywood Elsewhere, where the blogger Jeff Wells regularly degrades and mocks Italians...what other respected online publication would repeatedly print the word "guinea" or "goomba"?

Italians may no longer be oppressed in this country and opportunities may not be denied to me because my name ends in a vowel (except the presidency)...but then the -bergs and -wiczes aren't very disadvantaged either, and I don't recall any tolerance when God's chosen people are concerned. Is it their history of persecution? If we're keeping this discussion confined to the US, then the Japanese have more of a beef than our kosher brethren.

I would never promote bigotry, but if words like kike or, I don't know, spic were up for grabs we'd at least be living in a society of equal-opportunity offenders.

I think Joe Pesci said it best in 'Goodfellas' "...prejudiced against Italians. Can you believe it? In this day and age being prejudiced against Italians?"

In this day and age...and that was supposed to be 30 years ago. Prejudice will never be stamped out until it is an equal offense regardless of race. To be fair, the northeast is filled with its share of stereotypical Italians--I cringe at my 7th grade photo with gold chains and a sweatsuit--but then every ethnicity has its stereotypical contingent...that's how stereotypes are born.

I'm afraid most people would feel safe saying or even printing "guinea", "goomba", and "wop" without fear of serious reprisal. As a person of Italian heritage I can tell you these words are hardly stinging, but they are extremely narrow-minded and promote an atmosphere of bigotry that has very soft boundaries...one false word and it's curtains...Imus is learning that the hard way and when, if, Jeff Wells ever reaches mainstream, he will too.

With regards to these Rutgers ho's, er, basketball players, what's left to be said? Their appearances were mocked and they were denigrated. Take away the fact that these words originated with a crusty, white mummified brute--albeit a pretty smart and funny one--and most people would still be offended, but only because the essence of the comment insulted their appearance. Akin to being called ugly, it should be their egos that are bruised, not their pride or self-worth.

But do I give a shit? No. We often joke inappropriately with close friends, and I think anyone like Imus who has been on radio for, what, 80 years, forgets there's even an audience listening sometimes. When the sun grows to become a red giant and engulfs the earth in a few billions years, or the ice caps melt and we're all drowned by flailing polar bears (whichever happens first) no one will remember...ambulance chasers and opportunists like Sharpton will never go away; the rest of us should maintain some perspective.

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