Ethnic groups slate shows

Press, 16 August 1989, Page 19

Ethnic groups slate shows

NZPA-AP New York Television’s "The Golden Girls” and the box-office smash “Mississippi Burning” have been given Golden Pit awards for negative stereotyping, by a coalition of ethnic groups.

"We want the producers of this material to be more sensitive. In their, quest to entertain, they often contribute to negative stereotyping,” William Fugazy, honorary chairman of the National Ethnic Coalition of Organisations, said recently. “Mississippi Burning,” a drama about the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers, was cited for “downplaying the role of blacks... and portraying them as helpless during the civil rights struggle.” A spokesman for Orion Pictures did not return a phone call seeking reaction. “The Golden Girls” was cited for the “constant barrage of negative ‘ltalian and Sicilian diatribes” spoken by the Italian character Sofia Petrillo. "Golden Girls” media representative Merry Aronson had no comment on the charge. The organisation, representing 66 ethnic heritage groups, also cited the television series, “Growing Pains,” for the “semiliterate Italian character Richard ‘Boner’ Stabone”; Recycled Paper Products of Chicago, for a St Patrick’s Day card depicting a drunken bishop vomiting into a toilet; “Licence To Kill,” the new James Bond film, for portraying its drug kingpin bad guy as a Hispanic.