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A television host invites an Italian American to come and speak about the potential negativity from something like “Jersey Shore,” and yet cannot help himself from making a silly, equally offensive remark at the closing of the episode.

Indigenous languages suppressed by a foreign imposed lingua franca have shown profound capacity to reinvigorate themselves. If the ‘dead national languages’ of Norway and Ireland can be revived; almost certainly the marginalized languages of Sicily and southern Italy can displace the Piedmontese imposed Tuscan lingua franca. Indeed, the displacement may already be in process. But, there is no reason to believe southern-Italian Americans will ever again hear the sounds of their historic mother tongues and know the history and culture embedded in those languages. They will continue to have their history and culture defined by mass-media and the American Tuscan-esque literati and teachers.

Going to see the Broadway hit "Jersey Boys" with an Italian and an American friend made me reflect on the representation of Italian Americans in show business and my personal history.

Editors’ Note: We do not doubt that the media can and have had a dilatory effect on how certain members of society may look upon others. We also realize that Italian Americans may indeed be the last punching bag for ethnic bigots in various venues. We also understand the outrage that some have expressed toward the MTV show “Jersey Shore.” What we do not understand is the truculent, vituperous, and visceral bile that has spewed forth from some people and local organizations against this program. In our opinion, two objections have proven to be thoughtful and well reasoned, regardless of whether one may agree or disagree with the reasoning offered. The first was the December program of Italics, the Italian American Magazine (now available at http://www.cuny.tv/series/italics/index.lasso), in which Andre DiMino, president of UNICO National, spoke quite eloquently to the issue at hand, underscoring what he saw as the major problems with this and other mediatic representations of Italian Americans. The second appears below, the Press Release that the National Italian American Foundation recently sent out to various news organizations and associations. We have decided to share it with our readers of i-Italy.org, precisely because of its temperate tone and acknowledgement that Italian America indeed is more pluralistic than others might think.