Food and Stereotypes

I enjoyed Nikke Finke’s Sept. 16 article “Not Your Typical Wise Guy,” about actor Ray Liotta--except for the ethnic slurs.

Referring to the half-Italian, half-Scottish/Irish actor, Finke writes that Liotta is not from “a big ethnic family with spaghetti stains on their collars and cabbage smells in their clothes.” Now really, if the article were about Eddie Murphy, would Finke have written that he was not from a family with watermelon stains on their collars and fried chicken smells in their clothes? I doubt it.

No ethnic group or race deserves that type of treatment. Ethnic stereotyping is insidious and destructive and has no place in The Times.

DIANE OLIVO

Oceanside