1. John De Matteo Reviews Maria Laurino's - 8/18/01

In “Were you Always Italian, ”Maria Laurino describes her upbringing when, 
with the ‘encouragement‘ of her parents, she hides her ethnicity.  As an 
adult she tries to unearth her Italian heritage and astutely asks, “Can one 
really escape their ethnicity?” and “How do you recapture the past when your 
knowledge is limited and has been molded by others?”

Ms. Laurino’s realizes one cannot escape their ethnicity.  On the other hand 
Ms.Laurino demonstrates that one cannot recapture their past when their 
‘knowledge is limited and has been molded by others,’  Her efforts to undo 
these limitations constitute a ‘too little - too late.’

Ms. Laurino’s limitations are apparent by her choice of subjects she presents
: Clothes, Words, Rome, but most of all Bensonhurst.  She never examines 
Italian her American heritage in a larger context, e.g., she focuses on 
65,000 Italian Americans in Bensonhurst. Are they typical of the other 16 
million Italian Americans? 

To her credit she wonders if the press media may have molded these Italian 
Americans.  This focus on Bensonhurst might be of value is she were to go 
beyond the stereotypic picture of this community.  As in most stereotypic 
portrayals there is an element of ‘truth’ but she fails to put this ‘truth’ 
into context.  What percentage of this community fits this stereotypic mold? 
Why does this behavior exist? How does this community compare with other 
‘working-class’ communities?   These questions are left unanswered. 

An examination of Ms. Laurino’s background explains how her ‘knowledge has 
been limited and molded by others.’  During her formidable years, Ms. Laurino 
and her parents make every effort to disassociate themselves from their 
Italian roots.  Her parents moved into a suburban neighborhood, and in the 
process intentionally closed the door to their heritage. Most Italian 
Americans who migrated to this country understood that, if their children 
were to be ‘successful,’ some of the ‘old ways’ had to be put aside.  For 
Ms. Laurino’s parents all of the ‘old ways’ were to be discarded. Ms.Laurino 
states,  “When I was a child, we tried to mask our susceptibility to shame by 
keeping our ethnic detail under lock and key.”    Those are troublesome 
words.  We see the consequences in the author’s writings. 

As an adult, Ms. Laurino becomes a writer for the New York Times and a 
speechwriter for Mayor Dinkins – her political leanings are obvious. She 
feels a compassion for Afro-Americans – an admirable quality, however, one is 
left to wonder, ‘how about other minority groups?’  She travels to Italy and 
makes it a point to limit her travels to Rome and north thereof. She makes no 
effort to visit the small southern Italian villages of her grandparents until 
her more recent trips. Is this change an indication that Ms.Laurino is 
starting to appreciate the people of L’Aventura?  After reading “Were you 
Always Italian,” I would say, ‘too little - too late.’ 

Maria praises Mario Cuomo but finds it necessary to dismiss other Italian 
American politicians such as LaGuardia and Marcantonio.  As an Italian 
American from New York City during the era of these gentlemen, aware of their 
accomplishment and personally assisted by Marcantonio, I would suggest Ms. 
Laurino do her ‘homework.’   These were great Italian Americans!  Come to 
think of it, I cannot find any Italian American in this book other than Cuomo 
that Ms. Laurino applauds. 

Laurino’s first encounter with the Bensonhurst working class was during the 
racial conflict in 1989.  Her next two visits to Bensonhurst were seven years 
apart.  What precipitated Ms. Laurino’s initial visit was her role as a 
reporter covering the murder a black youth, Yusuf Hawkins, by white ethnics 
mostly Italian. 

White on black murder or black on white is nothing new to New York City, 
however, this time what ensued was a media event that seemed to place the 
blame for racial conflicts in this country at the feet of this Italian 
American community.  AlSharpton, chose the occasion of this incident, to lead 
a march of blacks into Bensonhurst.  .  The media’s storyline was that it was 
unsafe for blacks to go to Bensonhurst because these Italian Americans were 
bigots and murders.  I am sorry to say that Ms.Laurino’s study does little to 
undo this perception.  Let me compare the media’s and Ms. Laurino's positions 
with that taken from another book on the same subject. 

Color of his Skin - The Murder of Yusuf Hawkins and TheTrial of Bensonhurst 
was written by John De Santis.  The book’s cover has an endorsement by Spike 
Lee and its Introduction is by Alan Dershowitz.  The title of the book, and 
the contributions by  these gentlemen, should make it clear that this book is 
not a whitewash of the perpetrators of this crime or of the Bensonhurst 
community. 

Excerpts from Dershowitz follow.   “ The question of whether the murder of 
the quiet black teenager was ‘racially motivated’ crime oversimplifies a 
complex contemporary issue.  (My underlining.)  At one level, of course, the 
crime was racially motivated; ….At another level, Hawkins was killed because 
he was seen as dangerous and unwanted outsider.  There can be little doubt 
that those who organized the bat-wielding crowd that eventually cornered 
Hawkins and his friend were laying for drug-dealing blacks and Hispanics who 
were believed to be coming to Bensonhurst to ‘kick some white ass.’  Hawkins 
and his friends were in the wrong place – and the wrong race- at the wrong 
time.  Hawkins was the victim of mistaken identity, but the reason for the 
mistake was the color of his skin.”

The mass media took the position that this crime was simply a white on black 
murder in Bensonhurst.  Likewise, Ms. Laurino says nothing of the ‘complex 
contemporary issue’. She does state that the community suggested that it was 
a case of mistaken identity, “…and by time Modello recognized their mistake, 
it was too late.”   As a matter of court record, as DeSantis makes clear, 
this murder was a case of mistaken identity.  (Note DeSantis does not 
question whether this murder had racial overtones – neither do I, but it was 
a case of mistaken identity.)  Ms. Laurino goes on to describe Hawkins 
murderer as a ‘mentally slow young man named Joey  Fama.’ The fact is that 
Fama was more than mentally slow, he had suffered two brain-damaging 
accidents. 

The mass media painted a picture of a white lynch mob whose agenda it was to 
keep blacks out of Bensonhurst.  Ms. Laurino does nothing to dispel this 
picture.  De Santis points out that this ‘lynch mob’ had a black member, 
Russell Gibbons, who was not at the scene of the murder simply because he 
remained behind to take care of his boom radio.  DeSantis points out that one 
of Modello parents was Jewish.  these facts were ignored the media AND Ms. 
Laurino. 
. 
Dershowitz continues. “ The Hawkins tragedy involved only a small number of 
residents of each community who reflect the extremes of ethnocentricity. 
Kids who would gather with bats and guns to keep – even black drug dealers 
who were ‘dating’ one of ‘their’ women – out of their neighborhood are not 
typical of Bensonhurst.  Nor is Al Sharpton – who preaches a gospel of black 
superiority and white exclusion –typical of Bedford-Stuyvesant.” 

What does Ms. Laurino have to say?   Except for a few isolated statements Ms. 
Laurino paints a picture of Bensonhurst that is right out of the print media 
and Hollywood.  Here are few examples of her media broadbrush.   “As I 
witnessed generations of entrenched Italian American hatred: old women shook 
their heads and muttered in disgust as marchers passed by, young men tried to 
hurl their bodies pass the restraints, the veins on their foreheads bulging
like earthworms after a rain.”  She continues,. “As ItalianAmerican, I was 
conflicted, unable to articulate my deep embarrassment.  … The brutal honesty 
of Bensonhurst’s public rage kept me spell bound. … All this ‘confirms that 
Bensonhurst was  a cauldron of racial hatred……   they refused to accept 
blame for their entrenched bigotry.”  And it goes on and on.  It was like 
reading the newspaper and or going to the movies.  We Italian Americans were 
more fairly treated by Dershowitz and DeSantis.

It seems to me a fair-minded reporter would ask why this particular murder 
was made into a media event? If an Italian American man had been murdered in 
Harlem would the media, much less city officials, have condoned a march into 
Harlem?  A scrupulous reporter would put Bensonhurst racial hatred in context 
with other working class white neighborhoods.  Or is hatred against Blacks a 
case of there was Columbus and then there was Bensonhurst? 

Ms. Laurino reports Bensonhurst whites see jobs disappearing, schools less 
safe, neighborhoods less safe.   Their easy answer is it is the 
Blacks,Hispanics.  Admittedly the wrong answer.  But what differentiates 
these Italian Americans from other groups throughout the history of this 
country who decried the newest immigrants? 

Ms. Laurino goes on to paint a picture of Bensomhurst straight out of 
Saturday Night Live.  I do not deny these youths exist but what happen to the 
children of my Bensonhurst cousins.  We have a lawyer, dentist, engineer, 
etc.  All of my cousins children are either college graduates or slated for 
college. 

Ms. Laurino finds it “out of kilter with textbook theories of assimilation, 
that one hundred years later, a group of Italian Americans (City University 
teachers) in the premier urban melting pot, many with doctoral degrees, went 
to court to document their struggle to integrate into American society, 
asking to be included in the category of Americans considered ‘nonwhite.’” 
She goes to point that Italian Americans will denounce affirmative action but 
these instructors had no problem accepting affirmative action. 

As someone with two degrees from the City University I think Ms. Laurino has 
failed again to research the situation beyond the media broadbrush.  City 
University has a history of discrimination against Italian American faulty 
and students.  Queens College, part of City University, has been charged for 
decades with discrimination against the Catholic faculty.  Attempts to 
achieve equality were met with stonewalling tactics.  There was no other 
option other than to seek legal recourse.  Later court hearings found the 
charges of discrimination to be a fact.  Chancellor Kibbee said,   “We are 
concerned here with the City’s largest minority and one which, like other 
minorities, has over time suffered the degrading effects of bigotry, 
misunderstanding and neglect.”   Ms. Laurino chooses to ridicule CUNY Italian 
American professors who had no other choice but to resort to affirmative 
action but ignores the history of discrimination at this school. 

I will not bore you with the hypocrisy I encountered at CUNY- except one 
experience is so recent.  A few months back I attended my graduation class’ 
fiftieth anniversary.  Much of the keynote speaker’s speech had to with the 
battle against anti-Semitism and the Civil Rights movement at the school.  He 
said noted of the discrimination of Italian Americans at the school, instead 
there was the usual gratuitous inaccurate Mafia remark. 

If one is to examine one’s roots, the first and foremost requirement is to 
gather scholarly background information.  Ms. Laurino may have made a sincere 
to discover her Italian roots but she did so without the proper background 
necessary to do the job.   She remains a New York times reporter and a 
Dinkins speechwriter.

John De Matteo

2. swross@sprynet.com - 8/20/01

The plaintive comments below should be sufficient response to those who still 
do not see our I-A youth being affected by the I-A Negative Stereotyping 
onslaught.
======================================================
Sender:    swross@sprynet.com
In Response to: 
John De Matteo Reviews Maria Laurino's "Were You Always an Italian"?

Though I have bought her book, I have not read it.  After glimpsing the first 
few pages of it I knew it would not even come close in examining any issues 
that relate to me or my experiences in New York.  I am currently a CUNY 
student in Manhattan for a year now entering my final year at present. 

I  have encountered numerous defamatory experiences from faculty involving 
statements made about Italian-Americans or Italians and am continually 
observing them as the trade-off for bolstering the African-American 
community.  I cannot wait to finish this course of study and leave New York 
City, and especially CUNY with all its overt race consciousness and its 
attempt to reconcile the city's racial problems with diverting the blame to 
the Italian community. 

It is no wonder that HBO/Sopranos and so much negative media come out of 
New York since it's the main bastion of media and publishing for the 
country.  Freedom of speech or press, yes but the total lack of proper 
academics afforded this city is damaging to Italian-Americans both within it and 
especially from elsewhere.

I-As are conformed to be associated with New York Italian characteristics 
that don't apply there much less elsewhere. 

This focus on the "quick buck"  is very damaging to the nation, and always at 
someone else's expense, namely the innocent.