The Name of the Guido. A Case Study in Italian/American Identity Politics

Italian/American “official” reactions to MTV’s 2010 reality show "Jersey Shore" were not unique. They were reminiscent of the many protests that the professionals of “anti-defamation politics” had staged over the years against the film and media industry for the Mafia-centerd representation of Italian Americans—from "The Godfather" to "Shark Tales" and "The Sopranos." In all these past (and basically unsuccessful) efforts we see the invocation of the censor’s hand, and an avid desire to sit in the cutting room with some ethnic-political scissors at hand. In what follows I shall propose a general interpretation of the behavior and discoursive style of the Italian/American ethnic-political elites (or the prominenti, to use an Italian-Americanism) as it emerged on that occasion.