My Big Friggin' Stereotype

Now that Jersey Shore Season 2 has ended, Viacom could not help themselves but dole out another pitiful reality program that portrays Italian Americans as shallow, materialistic pieces of trash.

The latest tome in their canon of diminishing returns is My Big Friggin' Wedding, a reality show that follows four couples as they plan out the biggest day in their young guido lives. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of drinking, embarrassing revelations, and gross generalizations.

There's even a token character of color thrown into the mix, a Haitian man named Danny. He's mostly there to show how others react to his skin color.

"My grandmother was crying hysterical, for months, because I was marrying a Haitian," his to-be bride admits.

"My family is making him feel like he's gonna steal something as soon as he walks in. Like, please."

Italian people were once smeared in popular movies and cable TV as vicious mobsters like Henry Hill, Michael Corleone, and the titular anti-hero, Tony Soprano. Now they have Snooki and her residual popularity in shows like My Big Friggin' Wedding.

Staten Island's population is roughly 35 percent Italian. And while there are many Italians on the Island who run businesses, fight fires, change oil, give root canals, and practice law - we don't know any mobsters or tanorexics.

As the AP points out, an Italian American group in Fairfield, New Jersey has called the new show a "big racist stereotype of Italian-Americans.”

"Stereotyping and slurring young Italian Americans means big, big bucks for bottom-feeder networks like MTV and VH1," reads a statement from UNICO, the Fairfield-based Italian American organization.

But where is the outrage in Richmond County - or have we ceded our identity to the Juicy Couture mall culture.

Of course we can just wait until this whole reality fad washes over, but by then how much damage will be done?