I-Italy (Italian/American Digital Project -IADP) http://www.i-italy.org  is overall an excellent idea that I proposed to Anthony Tamburri, about 7 years ago at Lunch at the Cafe Del Rey in Los Angeles CA. Tamburri is now the Dean of the Calandra Institute, a prime sponsor of the IADP. 

But I must ask, What are they thinking when they enlist Johnny DeCarlo as a Commentator/Blogger, that appears nothing more than a self promoting site for his Bonnie & Clyde's Catering, specializing in Meatballs business...no kidding.  The Blog is described as "Italian-American life as seen through the eyes of the under-30 generation, from the unique perspective of New Jersey". 

DeCarlo in his earlier versions was a  PROUD "Jersey Goomba" and "Guido", but after taking a lot of flack switched to "Johnny Italian" 
If IADP wants a REAL Goomba or Guido, Get Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino from "Jersey Shore" rather than a poor substitution

Below are a few excerpts from DeCarlo's posts on H - ITAM (History - Italian American) hosted by MSU, and comprised mostly of Italian American Academics. How this avowed Anti- Intellect managed to sneak in is a Mystery. 

A few of the many Replies to DeCarlos Pro Goomba-Guido Rants are noted at the bottom from Mike Pisano, Paul Rosetti,Editor, ItalianTribune, and Prof Ben Lawton.

....And that's why most goombas like shows like The Sopranos and movies like GoodFellas, because they can relate to the goomba image.
It's not that the goomba is relating to the gangster part, which is the part that is doing the crimes. If an Italian takes offense to the word
goomba or guido, it's because they don't understand what being a goomba is. It's because they aren't one. They think you are calling them a gangster wannabe or something. [RAA: Really, I wonder why,since they "relate" to the gangster ]

Misconception of  "Goombas and Guidos" 
Johnny DeCarlo writting as JohnnyItalian@aol.com on Mon, 16 Aug 2004  on H-Net Discussion Group; H-ITAM

....The people that do the real harm to the Italian heritage are not the happy-go-lucky Goombas, or the actors that play them, but rather the
uptight "holier than thou" activists who go around protesting every portrayal of Italians on TV and in the movies because they don't live up to THEIR standards. They protest EVERYTHING from Tony Micelli to Tony Soprano and everything in between.

As if someone being happy with their economic and social status is bad for society because they aren't a doctor or a professional. Or just because a guy may be concerned with his clothes and his car, he is considered stupid... Or if he wears a gold chain he is trying to emulate a mobster and he's "low-class." Or because I speak in Italian-American slang and not the formal language I am a "bastardization" of my culture! Wrong, wrong, wrong. And sad.

People who look down on Goombas are just insecure with themselves and their background and try to distance themselves from their middle class roots and are very assimilated to the dry-as-toast American meatloaf-eating society. They turn their heritage on and off like a radio when they see fit. When they feel it's appropriate to be "ethnic" they will act that way, but they will "tone it down" in certain situations. They are so afraid of people prejudging them based on their last name and thinking they are buffoons or in the Mafia.
They can't relate to guys like me because automatically we are dismissed as losers because we aren't into opera or fine arts! I am not a thug and I am not a bad person because I like to put myself out there all the time and say "take it or leave it."

There are all different types of Italians, all who practice different lifestyles and concentrate on a particular part of the nationality.
There are European-Italians (meaning Italians currently living in Italy), Italians born in Europe now living in America (I call them Italian-Italians),there are the nonGoombas who may be Italian but just aren't obvious and outgoing about it like I am (your regular Italian-Americans). 
And then you have your Americanized-Italians who I call Meddigans. [Also referred to as "Wonder Bread", don't ask] Those who are so American that they don't even know where their family surname originates from. 
Finally, of course you have your Goombas and Guidos like me. In the world we live in, everyone judges everyone else and that's just the way it is. I say, as long as you aren't hurting anyone, to each his own.

And lighten up!! Enough with the Soprano protests. As I personally display the Goomba subculture everyday.....

You know, and I know that Mr. DeCarlo does not represent the majority of self respecting Italian Americans, and we both know that there is a "goomba" cult of people out there, (perpetuated by shows such as the Sopranos), most of whom have no clue about our illustrious history. They know and emulate Tony Soprano and Vito Corleone, but they have never heard of Fillipo Mazzei and William Paca.

According to the Fifth Amendment, Mr. DeCarlo has every right to watch and enjoy the entertainment of his choice. He also has every right to refer to himself as a "goomba and guido". He obviously takes pleasure in being negatively stereotyped and acting like a buffoon, and he is entitled to do so. We can laugh at him and use him as an example to educate others. He negatively stereotypes African Americans in order to attempt to make his point. Maybe if he grew up in a multi-racial/cultural neighborhood like Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn where I came from, he would know better.

The "Italian Tribune" has consistently published articles that promote and uplift our heritage. Each week I learn something new that makes me prouder to be an Italian American. I guess Mr. DeCarlo was not aware of the newspaper's content when he submitted his letter to them. I can't wait to read the next issue of "Pasta Fazool", the local publication that carried his letter. (I don't write in Italian but I always thought it was spelled "Fagioli"). You learn something every day.

Mr. DeCarlo emphasizes that he and most of his friends are not "Harvard educated", and I assume that means that they did not attend college, but are hard working people who are plumbers, carpenters, and mechanics. To use this as an excuse to justify his conduct embarrasses and offends me more than anything else.

My father was not even High School educated. At 15 years of age, he started working as a truck driver, a job he had until he died. He joined the Navy and served his country in between the world wars. He provided for his family, often working overtime in order to save up for a new baseball glove for me or my brother. When he couldn't afford to pay my college tuition after I graduated from high school, I got a full time job and obtained my degree (Pace U., not Harvard) by attending evening classes, and I am proud to say that I was the first college graduate in my family, but I am prouder to say that my father was a hard working Italian American man who valued his family, heritage, and traditions. To insinuate that being a hard working laborer entitles you to emulate gangsters and buffoons, desecrates his memory.

Mr. DeCarlo invites us to check out Lodi, NJ, his mecca of "goombadom". I lived in Lodi for the first 2 1/2 years of my married life, and met and know many proud Italian Americans who live there. Since several of my favorite restaurants and food stores are in Lodi, I often make the 10 mile trip. Sometimes I go Little Italy in NYC and pass by 69 Mott Street, the building that my Mother was born in. The point I am making is that I know Italian American neighborhoods and I also know that not all of the residents are "goombas" as described by Mr. DeCarlo.

Many of us, me included, were educated about negative stereotyping. Hopefully, Mr. DeCarlo will be educated as well. In the meantime he is
entitled to be a "goomba" and act the part of a buffoon if he pleases; our Constitution allows him to do so, and while not agreeing with him, I respect his rights. Someday, he may wonder why he was passed over for a promotion, job, apartment, etc. Maybe the boss or landlord said: "fugheddabout the wop with the guinea-tee, let him hang out with all the other goombas"

Mike Pisano

Dear Michael - It is good to see that other Italian Americans share the views of the Italian Tribune. 
I rejected Mr. DeCarlo's manuscript for publication because I did not feel it conveyed the sort of image we are trying to build
for the Italian American community. It was refreshing to read that you agreed with our position. I look forward to hearing from you 
in the future. (Pisano is a good name, many Pisanos in my family!)

Best wishes,Paul Rosetti,Editor, Italian Tribune; 427 Bloomfield Avenue; Newark, New Jersey 07107; (973) 485-6000 phone
www.ItalianTribune.com       paul.rosetti@italiantribune.com

...I trust you realize that when Blacks call each other "nigger" this is a deliberate slap in the face of middle class good taste, be it white
or black. They are saying, in essence, you have enslaved and oppressed and rejected us for centuries? Fine. Vangu!! Or, if you prefer, in
Ebonics, Yo mama!  By the same token, I presume you do realize that you are doing the same thing when you adopt the goombah name and  identity? In other words, it is one thing to analyze a cultural phenomenon, and another to advocate a particular behavior.

You live, apparently, in a goombah community where, being a goombah is socially acceptable. Fine. But many Italian Americans live in
non-goombah communities and there the distinction between good guy goombah and Goodfellas or Sopranos is less immediately clear. You know you aren't a Soprano or a Goodfella, but the good citizens of West Lafayette, Indiana, do not. Every semester I poll my students and every semester I get the same answer. My students-including Italian Americans-believe that (up to)  80% of Italian Americans are connected with the Mafia.

"Who cares?" you say. Well, you should. If not for yourself, for you children, your nephews and nieces, etc. When they apply to go to Harvard
or NYU or Rutgers or Purdue, will they get in, or will the registrar react subconsciously and scratch their name from the list? When they
apply for the Wall Street job, will the broker hesitate because she fears that they might be connected and thus be a danger to her and to
her firm?

Again,... if you lived in a vacuum no one could gainsay you. But you don't. You live in a community, in a society and your actions affect those around you. You say you love your heritage,but by your behavior you are hurting at least some of those who share that heritage.
 

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