Mulberry Street, New York City, Circa 1900
I’ve never been a flag waver. While I am deeply thankful that I was born in the United States, I’d never make the statement, “proud to be an American,” because that indicates ─ to me, at least ─ that it’s an accomplishment I did something to earn.
Instead, I consider myself “lucky to be an American,” whereas I think it’s my father, born in Sicily, and having had to make his way into the country, and then having to work to become a citizen of it, who can rightfully use the word “proud.”
His birth on that island categorizes me as a first-generation “Italian-American”, yet I’ve never dwelled much on this label, either. I mostly remember I’m ‘Italian-American’ to the rest of the country when I struggle to get knots out of the thick, dark hair that’s been passed down to me by my Mediterranean ancestors. Or, on thinking back to when I was a little girl, and my mother made pasta sauce on Sundays, as my father sang along to scratchy old Caruso recordings. I confess I did become a soccer fan who always supported Forza Azzurri, because I loved my father and uncles, and they were avid soccer fans who always cheered for Italy during the World Cup. But I never even learned to speak Italian until well into my twenties, as my parents spoke English at home, and only broke out their Sicilian dialect as a “code” when they wanted to say something to each other they hoped their children wouldn’t be able to decipher.
So, with all of these indicators of my woeful lack of nationalism and ethnic pride, (and in fact, because of my writing name, it’s often assumed that my background is Greek), why am I so ticked off at the non-stop ethnic slurs against Italian-Americans uttered by a loud-mouthed radio host, named Curtis Sliwa?
Well, there are several reasons, not the least of which is because they’re so lightly dismissed by everyone. In this country, where every slogan, term, and offhand utterance is microscopically examined as to whether or not it bears any hint of racism, homophobia, or sexism, it’s always been politically correct ─ moreover, enjoyable to many ─ for talk show hosts, stand up comics, and of course, Hollywood, to smear every Italian-American with some measure of Mafia.
News Flash to the World: There do exist Italian-Americans who don’t have ‘Movie Brooklyn’ accents, don’t chew gum with their mouths open, don’t wear cheap black leather trousers, and who, by the time they reach the age of twenty, feel grown-up enough to call themselves, ‘Joseph’, or ‘Joe’, rather than ‘Joey’. Guess what else? There are far more Italian-Americans who are teachers, lawyers, doctors, librarians, and even house painters, than they are Mafia kingpins.
Radio kicked Don Imus (who at one point, was on the same radio station as Curtis Sliwa) off the air because of his “nappy-headed” commentary about the Rutgers University Women’s Basketball Team, but if they’d had white skin and names like Gina Lollabridgida, he could have called them “Mafia Princesses” and even the FCC would have chuckled. And because Italian-Americans are white-skinned, and so firmly at ease in their position on the American landscape, we’d be bad sports, wouldn’t we, if we couldn’t put up with a joke or two?
Maybe my so very deeply-entrenched, way over-the-top ethnic pride is at fault for my taking umbrage with Sliwa’s remark that on Staten Island, again in reference to Italian-Americans, he could, “swing a dead cat” over his head “and every fifth person” he’d hit would be “organized crime.”
When Sliwa was asked by two of his radio show fans, Republican City Council members Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo to go to Staten Island and apologize for that commentary, he did so by going to Arrochar Friendship Club in South Beach, and allowed himself to be paddled by “Italian grandma,” Mrs. Cammarata, who also playfully shoved soap in his mouth. Mrs. Cammarata was chosen to administer Sliwa’s punishment, “because of her sense of humor.” She called Sliwa “a gentleman.”
“Sometimes we don’t mean things the way they come out,” Mrs. Cammarata said.
“Every fifth person would mean you have to have close to 100,000 people in organized crime on Staten Island, and there aren’t that many people left in the mob,” he later was reported to have said in his recant.
Perhaps, but he didn’t say that on the radio.
Sliwa ended his ‘apology’ by asking the gathered, laughing senior citizens, “Where‘s the cannolis?”
Like I said, it’s the failing of my fierce ethnocentricity that blinds me to the ‘humor’ in this. And it was even less funny to me when I heard that Mr. Sliwa accused the Italian-American Museum in New York City’s Little Italy of being backed by the mob.
This time his rant was as a result of the 475,000 dollars Senator Charles Schumer earmarked from the Obama administration stimulus package to improve and expand the Italian-American Museum in Little Italy in NYC.
Granted, one can argue that close to half a million dollars to refurbish an ethnic museum is a pork barrel project, and during this time of fiscal emergency, it’s one that perhaps shouldn’t be indulged.
Although, having said that, when Robert Ciofalo of the Italian-American Museum was questioned about this grant, his comment was, “We were once the recipients of a one million dollar grant, too. But the way these grants work, we had to first put in one million dollars worth of improvements and then apply to be paid back the designated monies. Well, who’s going to lend us one million dollars to do work, and then wait for the government to pay us back? Needless to say, that was one million dollars we never got to see. We’ll see what happens with this.”
The argument that the grant might be an inappropriate appropriation at this time, and Mr. Ciofalo’s response to that argument, are both worth intelligent consideration. What’s not intelligent is this commentary by Mr. Sliwa:
“Uh, the Italian-American Museum in Little Italy? What the hell is that?
I mean, what do you need an Italian-American Museum in Little Italy for?”
And this commentary by Mr. Sliwa:
And plus, what do we need to be spending federal tax dollars? You go to the Italian-American Museum, you make a contribution. Or, you have an enforcer there from the Genovese, Gambino, Lucchese, Colombo, Bonanno crime families who forces you to pay a contribution.”
The fact that the Mafioso Italian-American stereotype is so prevalent in the United States says more about the preferences of Americans in general, and not just Italian Americans. Let’s take Al Pacino, for example ─ he’s practically worshipped for his role in The Godfather, but woefully disregarded for his shining, stellar portrayal of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. In fact, he may have played Michael Corleone, but Al Pacino was apparently in no hurry to be photographed with real-life Mafia princess, Victoria Gotti, after a preview screening of MOV, because he is said to feel that the antics of Gotti and her three sons are a bigger blight on the ethnic group’s dignity than the Mafia films in which he’s acted. (And, I guess everybody’s has to make a living, right?)
And the fact that the stereotype is so prevalent is exactly why we do need an Italian-American Museum. There has to be another reference besides Coppola and Scorsese films to the contributions of Italian immigrants to American society.
For example, it’s not widely known that Italian-American soldiers during WWII went undercover in Sicily to help overthrow the Mussolini regime and the Mafia. Think about that. From one perspective, it’s almost treasonous. From another, it’s downright foolhardy. But either way, it took a lot of guts.
Does Curtis know about that, I wonder?
Does he know that although Japanese-Americans were “compensated” for their interment during that same war, many Italian-Americans were considered “enemy-aliens” and were also “relocated” , also lost properties, etc., but were never compensated?
Curtis doesn’t know and Curtis doesn’t care.
And another reason I find this so ─ to quote Curtis again ─ “annoying, annoying, annoying”, is because there was a time in my girlhood, as I traversed the NYC subway system in order to get to work at the Diamond Exchange on 6th Avenue, when Curtis Sliwa was someone I admired. Yep, I thought Curtis was a New York hero, but here goes yet another girlish dream crushed. Curtis turned out to be just as phony as some of the diamonds a few of the more nefarious merchants were hawking back in the day. Now he’s nothing but a blowhard on a radio show, whose crusade is not really to rescue New York, but an agenda of self-aggrandizement. Because if he really were all for New York, he’d speak rationally and kindly about all its citizens and appreciate the things that Italian-Americans have contributed to his city and the boroughs surrounding it. Things you don’t think about, like Barnes and Noble, for example, and much, much more, all of which can be learned about in the museum which he’s mocked.
At the very least, Curtis, you should give us credit for New York pizza. I’ve lived out here on the west coast of the country for several years now, have met transplanted New York Jews, Asians, Blacks, and every other ethnic group you can imagine, and they all rhapsodize about how much they miss New York pizza. People don’t come to the Big Apple to taste the apples, Curtis, they come to taste the pizza.
Well, ‘wise guys’ make deals, Curtis, they don’t make pizza. My uncles made New York pizza, and had the misshapen fingernails and flour in their lungs to prove it. They wore white aprons, not diamond stickpins and pinky rings. They were proud of those aprons, proud of their heritage, and proud of their new country and city.
And they no sooner would have sat down and had an espresso with a ‘wise guy’ than they would have sat down and had one with you, Curtis.
Yet, you trivialize your hateful rhetoric by saying you’re “half Italian,” yourself. If President Obama used the word “nigger” and tried to excuse it by saying he was half Black himself, should we all be okay with it?
But, I’ll go with your premise, Curtis, and bastardize an old Groucho Marx joke by asking:
So, at which half of you do I get to throw the dead cat?
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Patricia will be PROUDLY speaking at the Italian-American Museum in NYC’s Little Italy, on June 7, 2009, from 2:00- 4:00 p.m. She just might wear her blue soccer jersey, too.
Last 5 posts by Patricia Volonakis Davis
- A Girl, a Boy, and a Fountain - July 1st, 2010
- Podcast Interview with James Redford: “I Ask Myself ─ Even if Nothing Comes of It, Will it Enrich My Life by My Having Spent Time on It?’” - June 24th, 2010
- Podcast Interview with author Scott James: “People Don’t Want the Government in their Bedrooms” - March 4th, 2010
- Catching Up with Some of Our Previous Podcast Interviewees - March 3rd, 2010
- Podcast Interview with Michael Larsen & Elizabeth Pomada - February 3rd, 2010
Last 5 posts by Patricia Volonakis Davis
- A Girl, a Boy, and a Fountain - July 1st, 2010
- Podcast Interview with James Redford: “I Ask Myself ─ Even if Nothing Comes of It, Will it Enrich My Life by My Having Spent Time on It?’” - June 24th, 2010
- Podcast Interview with author Scott James: “People Don’t Want the Government in their Bedrooms” - March 4th, 2010
- Catching Up with Some of Our Previous Podcast Interviewees - March 3rd, 2010
- Podcast Interview with Michael Larsen & Elizabeth Pomada - February 3rd, 2010
Thanks for your comments, A!
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This Curtis guy sounds like a real jerk! Great post, I loved reading it.
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Note: I just received this email from Mr. Richard Annotico, of the Annotico Report. It is a tremendous effort and I would like to share some excerpts of his article with you all. Mr. Annotico can be reached at the addresses printed at the end of his article which is below.
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Curtis Sliwa Does “Mea Culpa” on Anti -Italian Broadcast -Why???
The ANNOTICO Report
Curtis Sliwa, currently a Conservative Radio Talk show Host, started out as a high school suspendee, Mc Donald’s night manager, and then vigilante founder of the “Guardian Angels.” He is an admitted serial hoaxer and liar, who refuses to open his books [501(c)(3)] to show where his onations go, lives in a $1.5 million condo in New York, and is a great sel -aggrandizer, and ─ oh yes ─ I almost forgot ─ a Champion Pickle Eater.
On February 26, 2009, Curtis Sliwa, who says he is Polish-Italian, a member of the Assyrian Church of the East, (Chaldean), but raised in the shadow of Orthodox Judaism, launched an anti-Italian rant, that included accusing the Italian-American Museum in New York City’s Little Italy of being backed by the mob.
Later on March 30, Sliwa accepted an invitation to visit the Italian American Museum, after which he wrote a letter of Apology. (See below)
Sliwas’ parents, Chester and Francesca, he a merchant mariner, she a dental technician, are seldom referred to in his activities. I see no Silwa’s association with ANY Italian, Polish, or Chaldean Associations or Events. I did find it curious that Guardian Angels Website could be read in English or Hebrew.! http://www.guardianangels.org/curtis.html I can only struggle in Yiddish and Italian.
And then Sliwa’s apologies became clear. Curtis Sliwa is not only an “attention whore”, he is an aspiring politician, and had filed papers with the Republican Party in 2008 to run for New York’s 13th Congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives ( Staten Island )
Sliwa Could Be Jewish Favorite In Race For Vito’s Seat From The NY Jewish Week, By Adam Dickter, May 29,2008:
“Curtis Sliwa isn’t Jewish. But you’d be hard pressed to find a more passionate defender of Israel, and just about any other Jewish cause. And he’s probably been the guest of honor at more Jewish institution dinners than many a Jewish politician…”
So the report today that Sliwa sent a letter to the Staten Island Republican chairman expressing interest in the race to succeed scandal-plagued Rep. Vito Fossella should generate some excitement in the borough’s growing Jewish community…….
….As of the 2002 Jewish Community Study, about 12 percent of the overall population of [Staten Island is Jewish]. That number has likely increased with an influx of Russian-speaking Jewish immigrants, who tend to be conservative voters.
http://jewish-politics-ny.com/2008/05/29/sliwa-could-be-jewish-favorite-in-race-for-vitos-seat/
Nevertheless, Staten Island (Richmond County) has a higher percentage of Italian-Americans than any other county in the US 37.7%
Except, even the Republicans didn’t consider Sliwa a serious candidate, and endorsed Frank Powers, but Powers died of a heart attack on June 22, 2009. Robert Straniere was selected to replace Powers, and ran and was trounced by Democrat Michael McMahon who had routed Steve Harrison in the Democratic primary.
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April 5th, 2009
Dr. Joseph Scelsa
President and Executive Director Italian American Museum
155 Mulberry Street
New York, NY 10013
Dr. Scelsa,
First of all I wanted to thank you for hosting me at the Italian-American Museum in Little Italy last Monday. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the tour, which I found incredibly insightful and educational, but the hospitality that you and so many other prominent members of the Italian-American community displayed. As you know, I’m a proud descendant of Italian immigrants and can certainly appreciate the difficulties our ancestors went through and have an enormous amount of respect for how they were able to persevere and thrive. My trip to the museum only deepened that appreciation and I thank you for the opportunity; it’s one that all Italian-Americans and indeed all New Yorkers of any ethnicity shouldn’t miss. I look forward to many future visits and I appreciate the lengths you’re going to in keeping the spirit of Little Italy (which is disappearing all too quickly) alive.
Additionally, I want to make clear that my comments several months ago, referencing the money that the museum was slated to receive in the Omnibus spending bill wasn’t intended to offend Italian-Americans or take anything away from the great work the museum has done. While it’s certainly true that I don’t support spending federal tax money on private museums, I have nothing but respect for the work the museum does and hope it continues to thrive. I certainly wouldn’t want any of my comments to be construed as my having negative feelings toward the museum or the Italian-American community as a whole. The Italian-American museum is one of the finest examples highlighting the positive side of the Italian-American community that I’ve ever seen. For me to even mention the degenerate gangsters that have tried to have me killed several times, in the same sentence was an attempt at parody and I’m sorry you were offended. It’s something that certainly won’t be repeated and I thank you for the understanding and warmth that the leadership of the Italian-American community has demonstrated.
Yours truly,
Curtis Sliwa
P.S. Thanks again for the chance to see Frank Serpico’s pistol. I always enjoy seeing pistols whenever they’re not pointed at me.
[Note: Mr. Sliwa has admitted to faking several heroic subway rescues, including thwarting a mugging and rape, and as a victim of a kidnapping:
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/11/26/nyregion/police-union-to-sue-sliwa-over-hoaxes.html ]
The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives*) on:
Blog: http://www.AnnoticoReport.com
Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com * [Formerly Italy at St Louis]
Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com *
Topix.net: http://www.topix.net/world/italy
Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net
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It’s nice that your back on the www! Loved your article, too!
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yet another very well written article. i think not enough people think about what they say when they say it.
ps – i really DO miss that NY pizza. mmm… i fantasize it every now and again.
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Wow! That’s great Margy! They would love the visit, I’m sure. They are currently collecting finds for the earthquake victims in Italy.
Polack jokes- I remember them. In fact, Curtis Sliwa is half-Polish, and makes comments about that, too. So you can say he’s an equal opportunity offender. ; D
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Good for you, Patricia! As a Polish-American, let’s see I can relate completely to your thoughts and feelings. I remember “Polak” jokes, which ranked as much as I’m sure these ridiculous mobster references offend you (and rightly so). I’m surprised and disappointed they persist to this day. I don’t know when I’ll be in New York City next (I’m a bit closer to it, though, in Boston) but I’ll make a point of visiting the Italian-American museum once I’m there1
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Mille grazie, Antonia. I agree that it’s best he should be most often ignored.He thrive son this kind of attention. ( I believe the term is ‘publicity whore.’) However, in this case, he was practically slanderous and that is not acceptable. He needs to issue an apology to the IA Museum.
Best wishes, and best of luck in all you do,
Patricia
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Mille grazie, Antonia. I agree that it’s best he should be most often ignored.He thrive son this kind of attention. ( I belive the term is ‘publicity whore.’) However, in this case, he was practically slanderous and that is not acceptable. He needs to issue an apology to the IA Museum.
Best wishes, and best of luck in all you do,
Patricia
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brava, patricia. i have been ignoring curtis for some time but was not aware of his recent remarks. thanks for bringing them to my attention as i will continue to ignore this “half italian”. grazie
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brava, patricia. i have been ignoring curtis for some time so i was not aware of his recent remarks. thanks for bringing it to my attention as i will continue to ignore this “half italian” .
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I think people are as much responsible for his success as he is. The best way to stop a person like this is to IGNORE them. In this case, I didn’t because I wanted to turn the tables on him. I was able to give the museum a plug and some public support and sympathy BECAUSE of his childish remarks. So, two can play the game. Nonetheless, Frank, you raise VERY good points.
I hope to see you at the museum when I speak in June.
Best wishes,
Patricia
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Thank you, Margaret, and I hope I get to meet him (and you, too!) when I speak at the museum in June. I’m very much looking forward to it.
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Thank you, Dean. I am very aware of your excellent work and admire it.
I don’t listen to Sliwa’s program, either. This came to my attention through Margaret Fon’s FB protest about it. And the exact point is whether he was trying to be funny or not, it’s simply not at all funny.
I used to take the subways from Brooklyn to work in Manhattan when Sliwa had the ‘Guardian Angels.’ A very young woman at the time, he seemed brave and romantic to me. Sadly, he has an agenda like most other politicians.
I hope I can extend to you an invitation to the Italian-American Museum when I speak about my book on the 7 of June. I will be discussing the Italians in Greece during World War II and the contributions they made to the Ionian Islands. They were considered by the Greeks to be “benevolent conquerors.”
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Thank you and I hope I get to meet him (and you, too!) when I speak at the museum in June.
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Thank you, Margaret. I extend you the same compliment on your blog http://www.italianamericangirl.com
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Excellent article and well written. Bravo Patricia! I wasn’t aware of this until you brought it to my attention. I never was a regular listener of Curtis Sliwa’s radio program anyway.
Having grown up in Brooklyn and residing in Staten Island for a number of years, I can tell you first hand that Sliwa is off the mark. I hope he was trying to be funny, but I suspect he wasn’t. I knew Sliwa somewhat in Brooklyn in the ’70s and ’80s– he went to school with my brother and I covered him and the Guardian Angels as a reporter for the local paper — and he always (outwardly at least) seemed to be a champion of Italian-Americans.
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To find our more on Sliwa’s lying ways, go to http://www.therightperspective.org and look up Sleez wah files. Interviews with the former founder of the Staten Island Chapter of the G.A. and Police Chief of Halifax N.S. Canada.
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Sliwa has been doing his “Slip Mahoney” act from the Bowery Boys for so long that this degenerate liar and media shyster thinks he really is that character. His whole persona is built around the so called shooting that took place, but was really a publicity stunt to garner ratings for his radio program. He is so sick, that he thinks the really is a “crimefighrter”. He is a functional illiterate who plays on people’s nostalgia for a mythical NYC. Think, “opening scene in ‘Angels with dirty faces” with Cagney and Bogart. Kids playing on the sidewalk, the Irish Catholic Priest,Pat O’Brien, hop scotch, the woman looking out the tenement window, ect” This media shyster has manipulated the media with lies and fabrications. How come he doesn’t admit that he sold the rights to the G.A. to a pro wrestler, Ray Taylor, aka,”the Big Boss Man”? Or tried to get a Curtis Sliwa “action figure doll” made? Or what happened to the building Guiliani gave him for free on the lower east side to use as a headquarters, but never did? Did he illegally sell it? To put it bluntly, since he is so obsessed with organized crime, why didn’t he become a cop? Ans: because being a media shyster and admitted degenerate liar beats working for a living! Send this degenerate liar back to the sewers of Canarsie Brooklyn where he came from. Falsifing crime reports is a felony, Curtis! Who’s a criminal?
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Great article, btw…Vinny Ignizio is a good friend of mine!
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Well said and written Patricia.
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