I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!



If you look closely at the spinner rack in front of this store on Mulberry Street you will see a preponderance of Hollywood’s take on Italians. Hollywood has done a fairly good job of glorifying a ridiculously small segment of the population and consequently coloring many people’s view of Italians as a group.

What do I mean?

According to the United States census numbers, Italians are the 6th largest ethnic group in the US, clocking in with 15,638,348 Americans of Italian descent and according to the FBI website: The FBI estimates the size of the four IOC groups to be approximately 25,000 members and 250,000 affiliates worldwide. There are more than 3,000 members and affiliates in the United States.

3,000 as a percentage of 15,638,348 works out to .019%.

Yet strangely enough according to the Wikipedia entry on Italian Americans: To this day, Italian Americans are frequently associated with organized crime in the minds of most Americans, largely due to pervasive media stereotyping and a number of popular gangster movies (such as The Godfather and Goodfellas). A Zogby International survey revealed that 78 percent of teenagers 13 to 18 associated Italian Americans with either criminal activity or blue-collar work. A survey by the Response Analysis Corp. reported that 74 percent of adult Americans believe most Italian Americans have “some connection” to organized crime.[2]

Thanks Hollywood and thanks to idiots like the owner of this store who continue in perpetuating a myth.