Democratic candidate for NJ governor, Mikie Sherrill, and Republican candidate for NJ governor, Jack Ciattarelli
I am a liberal Italian American Democrat, and I am not endorsing either candidate. However, I want to point out what Mikie Sherrill is doing when she accuses Jack Ciattarelli, ab obviously Italian-looking Italian American, of being complicit in “killing thousands” of people. She is embracing Anti-Italian racism, which the mainstream media, run by members of my own party, engage in constantly in this state to control the state and to disempower Italians, who unlike me, usually vote Republican.
Democratic candidate for NJ governor, Mikie Sherrill, and Republican candidate for NJ governor, Jack Ciattarelli
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Well-Dressed Italian American Male…Must be a Gangster
Sherill is a progressive, unlike myself (I am a liberal, there is a difference). In her worldview, there are oppressive majorities and oppressed minorities. She embraces critical theory, DEI, affirmative action, and implicit bias theory. However, she only does so when it suits her. It is clear that she is playing on non-Italian New Jerseyans’ implicit bias of seeing an overtly Italian-looking man, in a suit, and thinking that “he is a mobster”. This is the result of many years of systemic racism in New Jersey against Italian Americans, often by progressive Democrats.
Whether she knows that she is doing this or not, her handlers certainly do. You show pictures of an Italian American man and accuse him, obliquely, of violence, and his poll numbers will go down. If he were an Anglo-white person, or a woman, like Sherrill, it would not work. If he were a traditional minority man, it would backfire. However, progressive Democrats systemically victimize Italian Americans for two reasons.
First, Italians are viewed as ideological enemies. Most are viewed as Republicans or sympathetic to Republicans. The rest of us are deemed as “not left enough”. We are often stigmatized as racists because we resent how New Jersey’s DEI and affirmative action system discriminates against us by excluding us, which reduces our ability to propagate our ideas in the media and academia, and even in politics.
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Open Season to Attack Italian Americans
The second reason why progressive Democrats go after us and purposefully disempower the Italo-Jerseyan minority is that it works. No one ever believes us in the wider population. Neither party ever speaks up against the systemic racism and discrimination against Italian Americans, especially men. Much of this is because of the U.S. government’s refusal to classify us as our own category. As a result, Italian American civil rights go nowhere in the State of New Jersey and when we sue for discrimination, we cannot even get lawyers, let alone judges, to take us seriously.
Columbus Day was not attacked because Colombo (the correct spelling of his name) did anything bad. The holiday was because Italian Americans were his chief defenders and we were, and are, politically weak. Also, hurting Columbus Day hurts us, and Italians as a voting bloc are viewed as utterly dangerous by the Democratic Party, especially by progressives.
Disempowering Italian Americans in the Garden State
The Democratic Party discriminates against us wherever it can. Look at how our state legislative and congressional districts are drawn specifically, in part, to reduce Italian American voting power, by unconstitutionally including unauthorized immigrants in the count for reapportionment and redistricting. I am a Democrat, but that does not stop the party from doing whatever it can to disempower me and other Italian Americans.
When it comes to Ciattarelli, I am not going to endorse him because he does nothing for us. He does not discriminate against us, but he does not support Italian American civil rights. I am not supporting him either. However, this Italo phobic dog-whistle has to be called out. Anytime, an authentic Italian who would defend Colombo and Italian American values, Democrat or Republican, shows up (unlike the “redeemer” Senate President), that person gets ignored, bullied, or in Ciattarelli’s case, implicitly called a mobster.
You probably do not believe me. Well, let us take it one step at a time. Ciattarelli was at the debate in a suit, looking very Italian. Non-Italian Americans and even some Italian Americans already have the preconceived notion, the implicit bias, that an Italian American man in a nice suit is a mobster. Then, Sherril says he is complicit in “killing thousands of people”. However, all the audience hears that Ciattarelli “killed people”. This is all about playing off of people’s deeply-ingrained fears of an Italian American man being a violent gangster. She purposefully engaged in race-based fearmongering by connecting a man’s physical features to a stereotype about a manner of dress amongst Italian mobsters with an “activating” phrase involving accusing the Italian American man of “killing thousands of people”. If he were black or Hispanic, she would have to drop out of the race. However, it works because he is Italian and this kind of stereotyping and systemic racial and ethnic discrimination is tolerated.
Editor's Note: Dr. Christopher Binetti is a political scientist and Italian American civil rights activist and president of the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, the Italian American Movement. He can be reached at cbinetti@terpmail.umd.edu, 732-549-2635, and 732-887-3914.
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