Is the mob a bad Italian stereotype?

I have met people who are Italian who get deeply offended when anyone even mentions the mafia/mob. One family I grew up with who are Southern Italian either Neapolitan, Calabrese, or Sicilian refuse to watch anything on TV or a movie that shows anyone Italian being involved in OC or at least their father, mother, and grandparents are like this. Their sons who I grew up with are not like this.

But I have also met people who are Italian/Italian-American who said, "Well it exists." and are not offended. But they just find it amusing that a lot of Americans and other people get really into movies and TV shows like the Sopranos, the Godfather movies, etc.

I fall more into the second category. But I did find it more amusing in highschool when I told someone I am Italian since they asked if I have that heritage since I look Southern Italian. Then they jokingly said my family was going to put a horse's head into their bed like in the Godfather movie. I just laughed and said, "You watch too many movies." I then said how if something like that was going to happen hypothetically no matter what race or heritage the person was they would just do it, have someone else do it, and there would not be a "warning".

I have met Italian/Italian-American people who did tell me with confidence how relatives either close or distant were involved with stuff decades ago. But they themselves and their parents had no desire to get involved with it, and they only found out about this after the relative that was involved passed on, and people started talking.

If you are Italian or Italian American how do you feel about this subject?

Yes, it's every bit as offensive as saying that the Irish are drunks, or that the Jews are cheap, or that Blacks are lazy, or that Mexicans are cholos who work in car washes.

It exists, and God only knows I saw enough of it while I was growing up. But it should NEVER be a blanket statement about Italians or Italian Ameicans.

OK but what if you are talking to people who are open about how they had relatives who did this in the past? The people I mentioned in my first post who confided in me are also Italian/Italian-American, and when I mentioned how it was a stereotype they said, "Yeah well it happens or it happened that one of our relatives did happen to be involved but it's not like you see in movies or TV where it's all so open in those fictional TV shows or movies, and everyone knows about it."

That's a bit different than a blanket stereotype or someone claiming "All Italians/Italian-Americans are or were involved in the mob/OC", or really negative old stereotypes like "Italians give good haircuts, sell fish, make shoes, etc."

I have seen videos on youtube about the mob and the person who made them claimed to be Sicilian and claimed that everyone that's Sicilian can trace their ancestry back to someone who was involved in OC; but that is not true.

I believe it is true.

It makes Italians/Sicilians look weak, tbh. Can't get ahead the legit way, so you've got to cheat & run around in the shadows in order to stay afloat. Pretty pathetic. Italy has always been the pesky little brother of Western Europe, scraping & groveling in order to stay relevant.

As a Sicilian, I have no qualms with acknowledging it.

Carmela's right. There's never more than a few degrees of separation between a person of Sicilian descent and someone who was involved in the life on the Island at some point.

Personally, I don't care. You know who you are and what you are and people's opinions rarely can be changed.

The italian mob stereotype? also known as a " Guido "


Backcombed blowdried hair.
Wifebeater shirt
Gold chain with a cross
Velour designer tracksuit
White sneakers.
Over tanned
Gold rolex and a pinky ring
Heavy NY accent


lol

See now the Chicago mob guy stereotype is completely different

You see, Vito? You're admittedly not from New York, and those stereotypes jump right into your mind.

Not that you're alone, far from it. But it just goes to show how much the media depictions of Italian Americans still resonate with people.

They took Amos and Andy off the air. But Joey Trebbiani and Vinnie Barbarino are here to stay .

It's true to a certain degree. I think it depends on where you live and yes I know your a Bronx Guy I've heard you say that a few times on here but I bought my son a gold chain he rocks white sneakers and uses gel in his hair..so what's the big deal??

Most stereotypes are.

I was not even sure who those characters were? But I do not watch comedies/sitcom show on TV.

I did find this website when searching for them.

It's a shame it has not been updated in awhile.

http://www.italianaware.com/antiitaliancategories

Aren't all Italians in the mob? Like all Australians are convicts.

I don't believe it.

The majority of people from Sicily are just like everyone else, and not involved in crime.

The idea that "most people from Sicily" are or are related to someone who is involved in the mob is just as bad of a stereotype that "All or most Italians/Italian-Americans are involved in the mob".

Do the research the numbers don't add up in regards to the claim that if you are Sicilian or have a Sicilian heritage as a lot of Sicilian people moved to other regions of Italy or to the United States that this means you are related to someone who was in the mob either in Italy or the USA.

I do get tired of non-Italians or non-Italian American people believing the mob stereotype about us though.

Based on my personal experience I believe it's true. Also with that list of attributes of a "Guido" I can't help recalling that photo of Gotti Jr and his buddies all wearing wife beaters, gold chains, white sneakers as well as a photo of the Atlantic City crew dressed the same way

I would like to clarify a few things.

In the United States, from the late nineteenth century until the World War II, Italians were confined in the various Little Italy without integrating and then it is true that looked the Mafia with respect and that many honest Italians, if they weren't colluding at least pander the mafia.

After the end of World War II (where ten percent of the dead were Italian-Americans), many Italian-Americans have come out from the ghettos and integrated, then the fact of not only the Mafia became a hateful stereotype, but also that of with hair gel, tanning, gold chains and pinky rings. Not that the mobsters weren't looked so, but the mobsters not all the Italian-american.
It is now more probably that a commit a crime is a Latino or a black man, but you think are gang members are disorganized, while the Mafia is organized and more dangerous.
But this is wrong because the power that the Mafia had over time, has been mythologized, so to think that every Italian-American is a mobster, is easier than to say that many of the young blacks and Latinos, are part of the gangs, because say it would be considered racist.

Coming from Italy, we have never been the disturbing brother, or anyone, rather
we were a nation born from the oppression of a small statelet in the North (The Kingdom of Piedmont), which has forcibly annexed by the rest of Italy, especially in the South, was much better under the Bourbons that under the Savoy family.
So in the South were destroyed all the factories and infrastructure to promote the industrial triangle of Turin, Milan and Genoa.

So they took strength the Camorra, the Mafia, and the Ndrangheta.
The worst situation was, and is, in Calabria until the construction of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria was called the Third Island.
Even now, the three mafias to which they added a fourth: The Sacra Corona Unita, are ruling in Campania, Calabria, Sicily and Apulia.

I was born in the South, and I live in the city where born Raffaele Cutolo, the creator of the Nuova Camorra Organizzata , I don't want to say that in my region as well as in the south there is no organized crime, but also I want to say that even in the worst neighborhoods like Scampia or Zen in Palermo there are honest people that try with difficulty to live honestly.
But it is also true that only since the late 80's that the State really tried to fight the mafias and that there is still a long way to go.
 
I hope I was clear.