Anti-Italian American prejudice persists

On Nov. 1, 1512, in Rome, Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes — a triumph of Western civilization — was unveiled. It revealed the depth and breadth of Italian culture, as specifically practiced by Italian men. On Nov. 1, 2019, in New York City, the film “The Irishman” was unveiled, revealing the corruption and violence of Italian culture, as specifically practiced by Italian men in America. Ah, progress!

Although Italian men (and women) have certainly displayed their genius centuries after the Sistine Chapel — in all fields of endeavors — you wouldn’t know it if Hollywood is your guide. Despite viewers’ constant, defensive protestations that they “don’t believe everything they see in the movies,” this latest film by Martin Scorsese merely reinforces a prejudice already revealed by a National Opinion Research Center poll taken in the mid-2000s: namely, that 75% of Americans associate a majority of Italian Americans with “being associated with, or connected to, organized crime.”

That poll was taken at the height of popularity of HBO’s “The Sopranos,” a drama series about the mob that ran for six seasons. There is no reason to believe that viewers have suddenly seen the light; indeed, the green-lighting of “The Irishman” — in an age of so-called respect for diversity — shows that antiItalian prejudice, dressed up as “art,” is still a hot commodity.

American journalists have long been wise to this hypocrisy. In 1958, editor and publisher Harry Golden Sr. wrote, “Has any ethnic group in this country, from the very beginning, had a worse press than the Italians? The Italian American has become the stereotype of the gangster. This is not only unfair, but untrue.”

In 1987, Chicago’s own Mike Royko coined the term “The Godfather Syndrome,” noting how anti-Italian media prejudice prevented one of our most gifted politicians, Mario Cuomo, from running for president.

If only Michelangelo were alive today to sculpt the “block-headed thinking” that dominates the minds of American filmmakers, actors and producers.