People are paying attention to Scott Baio again for all the wrong reasons. He first harnessed the power of Twitter this fall when he mocked Obama supporters for driving crappy cars. Recognizing a good PR move when he sees one, he returned to the Tweets this week to post a photo of Michelle Obama with the caption “WOW He wakes up to this every morning.”
Baio has only a couple thousand followers on Twitter but many of them called it a low blow. A few even questioned whether the bashing was racist, and that’s when it got ugly (no pun intended). Observe Baio’s freakout in action:
Ignoring for a second that he totally played the “I have family acquaintances who are black” card, Scott Baio is all about his Italian heritage and has been for years.
First, he starred in A Wedding for Bella, alternatively billed as “My Big Fat Italian Wedding,” in which he plays an investment banker slash pastry chef who fulfills a dying Italian mother’s dream of seeing her daughter get married. The movie revels in being one big Italian-American stereotype.
Then:
Maybe it’s something about Italian culture, but that’s what we do. Break balls! I do it every day of my life.
True. He’s broken five balls already today and it’s barely 9 o’clock. Finally:
One of the best Italian restaurants in the city as far as my wife, Renee, and I are concerned is OlivA in Sherman Oaks. I grew up with my mom cooking Italian every day, so it’s tough to please me. What a lot of people consider Italian is really not even close, to me, and this place has absolutely delicious Italian food. It’s very homey, run by some Italian guys from Philly.
Italian guys — from Philly? Is that in Sicily? If not, how does that work given his newfound standards for ethnic heritage in the melting pot known as America?
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I am Italian and I talk like him but that does not mean that I am Italian-American. I do not call myself that. I am American because I was born here, I just happened to have Italian blood running through me. My dad grew up in Pittsburgh – a huge area for Italian and German immigrants. By being American does not mean you have to give up your heritage.
Maybe when he gets tired of “breaking balls”, and calling people racist or whatever he’s doing, he can finally bring me that plate of spaghetti.
Baio’s a more credible an arbitrator of racism than Al Sharpton is, and his is kind of a European view.
There are no African Europeans.
In fact the race classification system (Asian, Black, Caucasian -in alphabetical order) is a uniquely American invention.
Hispanic isn’t a race. Middle Eastern isn’t a race. Most Hispanics and Middle Easterns are Caucasian, but there are Asian Hispanics and Black Middle Easterners too.
Even the FBI statistics are horribly skewed by bad design.
There are Hispanic victims of hate crimes:
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/table1.html
But there is no Hispanic perpetrator column in there statistics.
There are only white offenders, and a self described Hispanic who beats another self described Hispanic while using racial slurs is classified as Hispanic victim/White Perpetrator.
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2006/table3.html
Recently, there was an study proving that wealthy and well educated whites suffer the highest rates of Autism… I can almost see the public service announcements now.
“Won’t you please… help the rich… help the educated… help the white?”
If this was any other minority being statistically proven to be a higher percentage victim, there’d be a billion dollar bailout for them.
http://autism.about.com/b/2010/01/06/autism-at-highest-rate-among-wealthy-white-college-educated.htm
You know that phrase, “I wanna BE somebody”? Well, sometimes it pays to be A BIT MORE SPECIFIC SCOTT BAIO I’M TALKING TO YOU SHUT UP OH LORD PLEASE.
The phrase “desperate quest for relevance” keeps leaping into mind whenever Scott Baio’s name comes up, which isn’t often.
Well, that’s it. I am taking down my Chachi poster!
Hmm, should I replace it with the Ralph Macchio one, or the John Schneider?
*fist bump* AAW!
My dad’s family is German, and my mom’s family is Italian, and we all lived in Pittsburgh before I went to grad school. With the strip district, being Italian actually can be a huge deal there. Just last week, we all went to the Italian bake shop to get ingredients for pignoli (because finding those ingredients is not trivial). Anyway, back on topic, I think one of the great things about America is that you don’t have to sacrifice your background to be classified as an “American.” And that’s one of the reasons I agree with Scott Baio that “African American” is a silly term. (The main reason is the fact that strictly speaking, Charlize Theron is African American. That goes to show exactly how descriptive and accurate THAT term is.) My grandmother’s Italian heritage is a huge part of who she is and who I am, but we’re both just plain ol’ Americans.
Oh, and it’s okay for me to dislike the term “African American” cause I had a black friend once. Or at least my boyfriend did. Or maybe it was my next door neighbor.
Anyway, I’m qualified.
I’m black and I agree with him about the African-American part. I hate that term and never use it. However, on the other hand, I did hear years ago that he was racist. Deceiver is the closest thing to a celebrity gossip site I read now, but years ago I used to read a couple of them regularly and I remember reading that he was introduced to a black woman at the Playboy mansion and he reportedly said she was very attractive, but too bad she was black.
As for what he said about Michelle Obama, I think that was out of line. I dislike her and her husband, but try to keep my criticism limited to their politics. Although, I understand it’s hard sometimes because she is such an atrocious dresser, I do find myself criticizing almost everything she wears.
Minnow, I would go with the John Schneider one. He was better looking then and still looks good now for his age..
Scott Baio is DESPERATE to keep his name & face in the news & as he apparently doesn’t have a real job or much of a life, thanks to Twitter, he gets to keep being fsemi-amous for a little while longer.
I second Foxy’s nomination of the John Schneider poster. That man is aging WELL.
Racial categories seem to range from peculiar to nonsensical to offensive. I remember when I first saw “Caucasian” on some test, I asked my mom why white people were called that. Probably the first time I knew there was a mountain range called a similar name. Still don’t really get the connection. Of course, I also didn’t get why I was called “white”, when my skin was more peachy-pink, and why black people were called “black” when most of them looked brown to me. I don’t know if that means I was a dumb little kid or just overly literal.
Pipe down, Chachi!
Actually, speaking of Charlize Theron and the “African American” thing, there was a guy who was an immigrant from South Africa who came to the US and applied for a scholarship for African Americans. He won the scholarship….until they saw that he was white. I think it resulted in a court case, since the scholarship was for African Americans, and he was literally…an African American.
He won, thank God.
Ah, the boondoggle of immigration. How many generations have to live in X before they are “from” X? Gisele BUNDCHEN isn’t exactly ethnically Brazilian, clearly the Afrikaans aren’t ethnically tribal Africans, and if you want to get REALLY technical, many Latin Americans aren’t really indigenous Central/South Americans. Egyptians are African, but most look and are culturally more similar to other Mediterranean nations.
Let’s follow Conan O’Brian’s example: we’re all people of Earth.
He seems to be taking career tips from Dustin Diamond.
Can a Chachi porn be far behind?
DO NOT WANT.
@Pearce: the same thing happened to one of my boyfriend’s classmates. I don’t know if he ended up winning his case though. Man, I forgot how ridiculous that story was…
African-africans. Where the heck did he come up with that? He just sounds silly.
Hee, Pearce.
Scott Baio, he is not Sancho.
I have to admit ‘African-European’ sure makes you think. But to think my older sister loved this guy for so many years. I bet Joanie is crying right now.
At least he’s good for a laugh.
So, my mom’s German and my dad is Cherokee. Does that make me a Native-German-American? He doesn’t really specify for those of us who are of two different nationalities. He’s really gotta start thinking these things through.
Freaking genius.
Thank you Scott, for giving us all “a thought to think about”.
Bo Duke wins over Chachi and Karate Kid. Although, give me the cast of “Outsiders” then and oh, wow.
@Owitzia – ever heard of Victory Hill in Monogohela? My grandparents came over and flew the US flag and refused to speak Italian because they were now Americans. I still cling to my heritage though. Does not make me any less of an American. I for one, am tired of all the hyphanated words. Why not just be American and call it a day?
I wonder how Biao got along with that Black woman (Victoria Rowell) he worked with in the Dick Van Dyke series DIAGNOSIS MURDER? Maybe he is a bit like Strom Thurmond, racist with the exception of his genitals?