Friday, January 23, 2009

Danilo Gallinari, An Italian New York Knicks Player Not Happy About The Italian Stereotyping.

A new addition to the New York Knicks is Italian basketball star, Danilo Gallinari. He's proven to be a great asset to the team including a fantastic game this past Monday where he scored his first NBA dunk. Wow, an Italian whose on the Knicks, now that's representing.

After he made this amazing shot, the announcer goes on to say Danilo's name with a fake and obnoxious Italian accent, practically making fun of his name. Then to add insult to injury the music that immediate plays is "That's Amore" and "Volare." According to reports, even the Knicks head coach (who is by the way also Italian-American) was annoyed by that move. Danilo himself, expressed a bit of unhappiness with the announcement and songs played, telling reporters he would have preferred something young and more updated. Other Italian journalists at the game were also surprised and said that this type of thing is what creates the Italian stereotype.

So, here we are once again talking about stereotypes and how other Americans just immediately put an Italian background into the ever so negative side of "well, you're Italian so you must like these songs and talk like you have a problem," of course all of which these people have seen in the media, so really can we blame them? They don't know any better. This is why we as Italian Americans must continue our efforts to fight this type of stereotyping. Now, Danilo is young and he's Italian, so I think having him on an American team is a wonderfully positive thing. We will continue to focus on his success with the New York Knicks. Auguri Danilo!

Read the full story here: Danilo Gallinari

1 comment:

Italian American Girl said...

One of our readers sent this link about Danilo's practice and a brief interview.

Thanks.

http://video.msg.com/Videos/New-York-Knicks/0WhgRS7zdPu6StZ6nG35tUhI24RRYRt_