Shark Tale: The Complete Story

"If Shark Tale is so offensive, why are Italian American actors participating in its production?"

Two points. In psychological, academic and other circles, there's a popular term called "self-fulfilling prophecy." It refers to the internalization of negative images within individuals which they absorb from others or society at large. In short, many Italian Americans have been fed so much negative garbage about their heritage via Hollywood that they themselves have come to accept the images as valid and accurate depictions.

We've also observed that most Italian Americans who participate in the promotion of or have willingly accepted the mobster/crude slob imagery are usually the ones who have the weakest grasp of authentic Italic heritage.

We wish our second point could be in regard to complaints we've heard from Italian American actors who, due to ethnic typecast, are forced to take mobster roles if they want to work. But in this case, it can't. De Niro and the rest of the crew are not starving young actors crawling up the ladder. Their long-established fame is such that they can pick, choose, or even dictate their parts. So secondly, we can only state that some people simply have no problems strip-mining their heritage for big bucks. Our view of our "Hollywood brethren" can be viewed at sucker.htm.