It's 2010 and Sambo is Italian. His name ends with a vowel and he resides in New Jersey. He gyms, he tans, he "hooks up". He's Italian and that's what Italians do. At least that's what MTV would like you to believe on their modern-day minstrel show, "Jersey Shore."Picture an Italian in your head, one that isn't saving princesses in "Super Mario Bros." or mixing cement shoes with Big Pussy on the "Sopranos." It's difficult isn't it? While 2008 brought the Black community President Barack Obama, 2009 brought the Italian community "Jersey Shore." As one set of stereotypes dissipates, another set resurfaces, and we Italians aren't happy about it.



Think about the original Minstrel Shows: black shoe polish on white faces with hair sticking straight out to represent the hair of Black folks, often called "kinky". Then there was the tapdancing; that signature dance that somehow made its way from plantations to nightclubs to entertain a white audience.

Now look at the Jersey Shore. Orange spray tans cover olive skin, with hair wax to smooth the natural "kink" to Italian hair. Then there's the "fist pump" -- beating the beat up from the new plantation called the beach to the nightclubs it houses. Maybe the historical undertones are fundamentally different, but by textbook definition MTV has crafted a minstrel show about Italians and it's racist and disrespectful. Some may argue that if Italians are doing this to themselves, then it's not a minstrel show after all. The film "Bamboozled" can explain away that discussion. If you can't picture an Italian without a NJ zip code, a machine gun, a spray tan or a pizzeria, then you have no idea what a true Italian looks like. The question is: have Italians ever been properly represented on TV or have they always been a minstrel show?



Kathy Iandoli is a third generation Italian-American who has resided in New Jersey since birth. She has never been in a tanning bed, will never purchase a Bumpit, and thinks "Guido" is a four-letter word. Kathy's family owned a home in the Jersey Shore, but she never required a special nickname to visit. She is currently a writer in the greater New York City area.