You chose: anti-defamation

Art & Culture

Guidos on MTV: Tangled Up in the Feedback Loop

Donald Tricarico*(February 05, 2010)

Why has MTV produced a youth culture reality show that showcases Guido and Italian identity? Guido offers a symbol that specifically identifies the brand; Italian ethnicity makes the brand more salient. Guido combines a commodified youth party culture with a style that has street culture roots. [...] Guido is a struggle for recognition and respect by an age fraction that privileges consumption rather than formal education, reflecting class differences in an ethnic culture that continues to evolve in metropolitan New York City and throughout the Northeast. [...] Youth may turn more to ethnicity to authenticate their cool and preserve privileged insider status as in Hip Hop. However, this is denied by a vocal anti-defamation position that reduces Guido to a category of ethnic prejudice. It is my view that this slights a vernacular Italian American culture that ironically is better defined as a challenge to generalizations and stereotypes that underpin historic ethnic slurs.

Op-Eds

Dialogue and Debate, Part two: An Italian-American Controversy

Fred Gardaphe(January 09, 2010)

Editorial Note: On January 21 (10am) the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute will host a colloquium entitled "Guido: An Italian-American Youth Style." Guest speakers include Professor Donald Tricarico, a sociologist who has been studying the "guido culture" for a number of years, and Mr. Jonny DeCarlo, a self-professed guido and a freelance writer. Born out of the MTV reality show “Jersey Shore” and the subsequent anti-defamation charges by national Italian-American organizations, the colloquium proposes an objective, intellectual investigation of this component of Italian-American youth, which is often ignored or misunderstood. Some exponents of the Italian-American community have objected to the Calandra Institute holding such colloquium at all, seeing it as a "legitimation" of the guido lifestyle, ultimately playing into the hands of MTV and those whe defame Italian Americans. Critics have singled out, among others, Fred Gardaphe, Distinguised Professor of Italian American Studies, for supporting the Calandra Institue's initiative and stating in a Time Magazine interview that the wave of negative response to Jersey Shore come from what he calls "irony deficiency" in the Italian-American community. Here are Professor Gardaphe's responses to his critics and all those who believe in boycotting intellectual investigations.