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Wednesday, June 25th, 2008
Posted by Niki Sullivan @ 03:13:59 pm
I was just forwarded an e-mail from the Italian Club of Seattle. Turns out, they weren't too happy with the state Democrats video (posted below), which includes photos of Dino Rossi and the theme song from "The Sopranos." The club wants the video to be yanked and Dwight Pelz, state Democratic chairman, to step down. They sent Gregoire a letter detailing their feelings. "We understand that in this gubernatorial election, various claims will be made by candidates and interested parties against the other candidate. However, a recent online video posted by the Washington State Democratic Party attempting to associate Dino Rossi with criminal activity through the use of negative ethnic stereotyping is beyond offensive. Whether the State Democratic Party thought it clever to link Rossi to Italian-American criminals through the use of a popular mobster TV show is irrelevant; it is distasteful, and it is racist. Governor Gregoire, we believe we have your sympathy when we assert that using someone's ethnic heritage as a negative should not be condoned in this campaign." If you recall, Gregoire's campaign recently sent out a letter from the Anti-Defamation League denouncing the BIAW for likening environmentalists to Nazis (three months ago). I guess turnabout is fair play. Here's the full text of the letter:
UPDATE: The state party edited the video Wednesday evening to remove the offending music. Here's what party spokesman Kelly Steele said:
Categories: Governor, Campaign news
• 9 comments
COMMENTS:
Right on. When I saw this video earlier today, when you first linked to it, I was shocked. I have no idea how they didn't think this was racist. That was my first reaction.
Maybe being from the Massachusetts, where there's still Irish-Italian tension between Southie and the North End in Boston, I am a little more aware of this sort of thing. But it shouldn't take a rocket scientist.
Official state party ethnic slur hits as "fair play"? What if the state Republican Party had run a clip of Gregoire bringing First Mike a beer to the "All in the Family" theme "Those were the Days." Oh yeah, then it would be sexist, demeaning, politically incorrect and just plain wrong.
As an Italian-American, I find the association between all Italians and the Mafia racist and offensive. Would the state Democratic party, if Barak Obama were not a Democrat, think it would be appropriate to associate him with various African-American racist characteristics? There is no difference, a racist association for one group isn't any different or more offensive than any other simply because of skin color.
We now go to Dino, speaking at a Rotary Lunch two days ago ...
"Sin taxes are so easy to raise," (Rossi) said. "But they are already so high they are one of the highest in the nation. If we raised them anymore, Tony Soprano would want to get some of that action." "Tony Soprano would want to get some of the action." http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/news/20792829.html Hopefully Mr. DiJulio will quickly submit a statement asking Mr. Rossi to step down.
Oh, pudge. What Rossi did was clearly worse--he invoked Tony Soprano by name, where the Democrats only played the music. "Get some of that action" is classic mob movie dialogue, making the connection even stronger.
Shame on Dino Rossi for slandering Italian Americans like this. Comments are not allowed from anonymous visitors. Please login or register to comment. |
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Niki Sullivan covers Tacoma city government. Before coming to Tacoma, she covered state government in Oregon. She is a regular contributor to the GritCity blog. Email Niki Local politics links
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