Sicilian Culture: The News & Views: Email Writing Campaign to MOMA Sopranos Exhibit

Sicilian Culture

The People, The History, The Culture

The News & Views
(February 3, 2001)
Email Writing Campaign to MOMA Sopranos Exhibit
Arts and Leisure Desk; Section 2, Television & Radio, Page 31, Column 1
Subject: Email Writing Campaign to MOMA Sopranos Exhibit
Date: 2/3/2001 4:51:22 PM Eastern Standard Time
To: The RAA Network
To those who may be unaware, MOMA (Museum of Modern Art) in NY is featuring an Exhibit on the Sopranos! Such an arrogant indignity in the face of opposition from all Major Italian American Organizations and a the Community in general.
More letters for MOMA...including one from Flavio Belli the Director of the Joseph Carrier Gallery at the Columbus Centre here in Toronto and as well a proposal from Dona De Sanctis, the Director of Research and Cultural Affairs at the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) in Washington... (unfortunately the proposal by NIAF was refused by MOMA!), Caliendo and Bonaffini and others continue to write to MOMA
If you'd like to write to MOMA... Stacy_Herbert@moma.org

From: "Flavio Belli"
Date: Sabato, 27 gennaio 2001 10:34 AM
To: "Herbert, Stacy" <Stacy_Herbert@moma.org>
Well, shame on you for falling into the trap of selling your soul for cash. I have heard the Sopranos described as television's most recent Amos & Andy. It is a hateful depiction of Italians and promotes hurtful, degrading stereotyping and bigotry. I am attending the NY Art Expo in March and will boycott the MoMA and encourage fellow exhibitors to do the same. I will raise the subject of the screening the Sopranos episodes at every opportunity and express my feelings in the strongest terms that the museum is doing a terrible disservice to millions of Italians and setting a terrible precedent for spreading hate in the guise of entertainment.. You should take a hard look at your participation in spreading this hate and seriously review the way this program describes an entire community in North America. Much has been written on this subject and you should really do your homework before buying into something which can only represent a sad and permanent stain on the MoMA's institutional record.

January 24, 2001
Laurence Kardish
Curator, Film Department
Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd Street
New York, NY 10019
Dear Mr. Kardish:
The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) is a non-profit organization in Washington, DC, dedicated to preserving the heritage of an estimated 20 million Americans of Italian descent, the nation's fifth largest ethnic group. We fund scholarships, internships, conferences and other programs, and promotes closer cultural and economic ties with Italy.
I write to ask for your help. Recently we learned that MOMA is planning a film exhibit of "The Sopranos" next month that will end with a discussion on February 12 between David Chase and Ken Auletta. It occurred to me that your audience might be interested in hearing how Italian Americans view "The Sopranos."
For that reason, I wonder if you would consider having two representatives from the most important Italian American organizations also participate in this discussion. I would represent the NIAF and the other person could be John Dabbene, national president of the Commission for Social Justice, an arm of the Order Sons of Italy in America.
Mr. Dabbene, a retired engineer, is one of the most respected leaders in our community. I have heard him speak and know him to be eloquent, reasonable, and persuasive without ever being strident. Neither of us is confrontational.
Forgive my forwardness in making this request, but our inclusion in this discussion would give your audience much to think about. It also would go a long way toward soothing the ruffled feelings of many Italian Americans who are upset by MOMA's "Soprano" exhibition.
As it turns out both Mr. Dabbene and I will be in Manhattan on February 12 for discussions with HBO about ways to better balance the portrayal of Italian Americans on television. I can be reached at 202-387-0600 and eagerly await your thoughts.
Yours truly,
Dona De Sanctis, Ph.D.
Director, Research and Cultural Affairs

This following letter was sent to Ken Auletta ( an apparantly pro Soprano journalist who will participate in a panal discussion of the Sopranos at the "Exhibition" .
Dear Mr. Auletta:
I recently browsed the website for the MOMA on the Internet. On that website at www.moma.org/staticfilmvideo/programs/feb_sopranos.htm it is related that you will be discussing the HBO series, The Sopranos, with its creator, David Chase. Furthermore, the MOMA site reveals that you are the media writer for the New Yorker magazine. Seeing this information raises several issues for me about this apparent public forum. Please indulge my curiosity at least to the limit of continuing to read my letter. I would certainly be gratified if you could respond. The foundation for my curiosity rests on your family name. If my presumption is correct, then you share my Italian-American heritage.
Will you be leading the discussion? If so, then please read on. During your discussion with Mr. Chase will you be representing the New Yorker or will you be a free agent; able and willing to represent yourself and the heritage that your name represents? If the latter, then I would hope you would engage Mr. Chase in a dialog that explores the perception of many educated and articulate media observers that the Sopranos is merely an obscene exploitation of negative cultural stereotypes for personal financial gain.
Public tolerance to this particular cultural stereotyping is disturbingly high. Shallow thinkers who dismiss my concern have likened this program to Amos 'n Andy. Such comparisons often coincide with the admonition, "It is just entertainment." Either is just bigotry. Yet a distinction I see is that one is clearly caricature with a comic foundation whilst the Sopranos passes itself off as drama and is founded on vice and violence. Ignorant people do not see the distinction between racism and bigotry. Racism has, by and large, been de-bunked. However, bigotry and prejudice, whether aimed at races or at cultural groups, is as rampant as ever. This type of media exploitation serves predominantly to exacerbate and perpetuate bigotry and prejudice against Americans of Italian descent.
I take my name with me everywhere I go, into every social, academic, and professional pursuit I endeavor. It never escapes my attention when someone stiffens, raises an eyebrow, squirms or makes some wisecrack upon hearing my name. It is discouraging when this happens. I then have a sense that I must overcome some insidious and unfounded preconception that the reacting individual may have. Such preconception surfaces solely due to the sound of my name! I must tolerate the bigotry that the reaction represents. Mr. Chase has done nothing to reduce the instances where I, and 20 million other Italian-Americans, have such an experience.
I regret that I cannot attend this forum and observe how it unfolds. I lead a rather parochial life here in North Carolina, so I must admit that I am not familiar with your work. I will try to pick up a copy or two of the esteemed periodical you represent and to read your work. Foremost on my mind will be to assess whether your association with the media is one based upon exploitation or upon a more abstract pursuit - stewardship of media virtue. Or should we accept media virtue in American society as an oxymoron?
Sincerely,
Martin V. Mancuso

Ms. Herbert,
Just the other day, I received your mass-produced letter in defense of The Sopranos film exhibition; a letter I noticed you've sent to many other Italian-American activists. It is my immediate goal to reflect how dangerously naive your thinking is on the matter. I will here quote what you have written, and then give my own response:
"It is not our intent to offend anyone and we do not believe the program is anti-Italian-American." While it might not be your personal intent to offend anyone, MOMA's actions certainly HAVE offended many members of the Italian-American community. To deny this fact is to deny being ethnically sensitive, for the sake of "art".
Furthermore, it is totally arrogant, on your part, to say "we do not believe the program is anti-Italian-American". The "dominant culture" of Anglo-society has no right to feel a certain way for others. You might not personally be aware, but racism has maintained such an ugly presence in America precisely because, at one time or another, the "dominant culture" wasn't offended by such images as Step-n-Fetchit or Frito the Bandito. And who is representitive of the "dominant culture" this time? The Museum of Modern Art!
"The creator of the series is Italian-American as are many of the principals involved in the making of the series." My response to you is--- OF COURSE THEY ARE! The only way these "pimps" can make big money is by "whoring" their ethnicity! I'm assuming that you're an intelligent adult, Ms. Herbert, so does that make it right?
"MOMA identifies The Sopranos as a program about an American family, with problems and situations that are encountered throughout contemporary American life." Would you please READ what you have just stated! The above quote describes The Sopranos as being no different than, say, a Norman Rockwell painting.
Question: Why then isn't the HBO program about a family called "The Smiths"?
Answer: Because this particular program, "The Sopranos", is totally antithetical to good, wholesome Americana. Once again, Italian-Americans are put on public display representing everything "bad" in American life. We have been depicted in this manner for well over a century, and, quite frankly, we are sick of it! This so-called "film exhibition" should not only offend me, as an Italian-American, but it should also offend any other fair-minded individual who believes in "the golden rule". "As with any great epic, the program depicts truths that can be applied to society in general, rather than to a specific ethnic group."
Ms. Herbert, this is a tremendously shaky and borderline racist quote. First of all, "The Sopranos" is not a great epic; it's the modern replacement of the TV show "Wiseguy". Secondly, what societal truths can this television program possibly purport? That most people who live in the suburbs (regardless of ethnicity) are drug dealers? Or just Italian-American ones?
Ms. Herbert, the public demonization of the Italian in America is not a new occurance. The Museum of Modern Art is only a new outlet for such demonization, and must, therefore, be combatted for as long as this shameful "exhibition" is on display and condoned without reproach. Prior to this, it was mainly the newspapers and the media who defamed Italian-Americans. Unfortunately, now we must also be on the alert for museums who hide their societal racism under the guise of "art".
Cristogianni Scarano Borsella

Many members of IAOV have written to you about the Soprano's exhibit and now add my comments to theirs. I only ask that you don't send me the same generic letter you sent to others in our Organization.
David Chase and the other Italian cast members may be Italian but they're not ITALIAN Anyone who ridicules his Heritage is a disgrace to that Heritage. To use this as a reason to run this exhibit is ignorant and defames my Italian Heritage. What David Chase and the others have done is use their Italian Heritage to line their pockets and MOMA has bought into this. Instead of running this exhibit I suggest you run one showing the vast amount of things that Italians have done for this country and for the world
Yours truly,
Rosalie Caliendo
Brooklyn NY

Luigi Bonaffini wrote:
Ms. Herbert
Your form letter did not address any of the concerns I expressed about the Soprano exhibit, and it frankly adds insult to injury.
I do not know whether it was you who wrote this letter, or whether you were just the official sender. I am assuming that you are an intelligent person, and as such I ask you to please listen to what you are saying.
"The Sopranos is an epic series about middle-class family life in America at the turn of the century. It records the daily domestic drama of a nuclear family living the grand bourgeois life in the New Jersey suburbs."
The Sopranos is an epic series about middle-class family life? I do not know any middle-class family made up of murdererers and gangsters, do you? This statement alone is so patently absurd as to be shocking, to say the least. Has anyone at MOMA actually read this letter, besides the person who wrote it?
"It is not our intent to offend anyone and we do not believe the program is anti-Italian-American." As someone who has for a long time been fighting against the defamation of Italian Americans, I can tell with authority that the people who do something to offend you, when taken to task for it, ALWAYS say "It is not our intent to offend anyone." Whether it is your intent or not, you are offending a lot a people, but even more insulting is your position that you can be the arbiter of what is or is not offensive to Italian Americans. Would you mind telling me who elected you to that post?
"The creator of the series is Italian-American as are many of the principals involved in the making of the series" Please, Ms Herbert, do not even try to let MOMA hide behind these people. These are people who have decided that making money and being successful is a lot more important than preserving their heritage or their human dignity. You must know that every ethnic group has them, so let us get serious. Don't you know that they were barred from the Columbus Day Parade? Don't you know that The Sopranos has been condemned by every major Italian American organization in the country?
Your exhibit is a slap in the face to the 25 million honest and hard-working Italian Americans living in this country, and your justification is so lame and so openly disingenous that it really forces one to ask the ultimate question. How much did the people involved with the Sopranos contribute to MOMA?
Luigi Bonaffini
Professor of Italian
Brooklyn College

HOME

Search || News & Views || People || History || Region || Language || Food || Cinema || Links || Contact Info