Taylor Street Archives

 

Isaiah and the American Dream

Vince Romano

May 2006

 

 “A day will come when you will smell land and there will be no land…and on that day Captain Ahab will beckon… ”

 

In Herman Melville’s classic tale of the great white whale, Moby Dick, the prophet, Isaiah, gives the above warning to Captain Ahab’s crew as they board the Pequod.  In this allegorical tale describing Captain Ahab’s quest of the white whale, Melville intentionally names the doomed ship the Pequod.  In the early struggle for dominance, power and wealth in the recently settled New England territory, the pilgrims and competing neighboring Indian tribes conspired to eliminate the Pequod tribe.  The Pequods suffered complete annihilation and extinction.  At the end of Melville’s tale, Isaiah’s prophesy is fulfilled.  Ishmael, the teller of tales, is the lone survivor.

 

Later, around the turn of the 20^th century, lured by the promise of the American Dream, immigrants (modern day pilgrims, if you will) began arriving from their European homelands.   The smell of land, in Isaiah’s prophesy, was replaced by the symbolic beckoning of the Statue of Liberty.  For one particular group, however, the promise of the American dream, as in the prophesy, would be elusive.  For many, it would be an empty promise left for their posterity to capture.

 

While others moved smoothly through the maze leading to the American Dream, for one group of immigrants, it remained an upstream battle to become participants in, rather than remaining servants to, that dream.  One ethnic group, legislated against by congress, singled out and demeaned by the media, virtually insulated from the executive suites, and denied access to any affirmative action programs, continues its upward struggle to achieve the promise their ancestors sought over a century ago. 

 

No other immigrant group, no other ethnic group, had been so maligned by the media as the Italian Americans.  The power of the media is unrivaled.  It played the dominant role in putting to death two men (Sacco and Venzetti)…executed even after others had confessed to the crime of which they had been accused.  The media played the dominant role in the New Orleans lynching of Italian-Americans who were dragged from their jail cells.  For some, the lynching took place despite having been found innocent in a court of law.  Accounts of that event depict Negroes, only two decades removed from the emancipation proclamation, participating in the dreaded lynching.  The largest group lynching known. 

 

Media events, such as Alistaire Cooke’s 15 week television series, America, controlled our thought process .  In one segment, America: The Immigrant, Alistaire Cooke is depicted drawing the names from the files of various immigrant groups from the Department of Immigration in Washington D.C.  From various files he randomly draws the names of renowned individuals as being representative of the contributions made by each of their ethnic groups.  For various ethnic groups he chooses a Supreme Court Justice, a musical composer, a politician, etc.  When he arrived at the file listing the Italian immigrants, the card he pulled out, as being representative of the contributions made by Italian Americans, was Alfonse Capone.  Not one voice cried, “Shame!” 

 

In addition to such overt and blatant assaults, as appeared on Mr. Alistair Cooke’s TV series, there are the insidious depictions, routinely made by the media, of Italian Americans as being synonymous with crime and decadence.    

 

There was no escape from this deadly combination of the media’s and the larger society’s perception of Italian-Americans that was being imposed upon us.  I despise you people with your greasy hair and your olive oil skin.*  The psychological genocide had its affect on Italian-Americans of all ages. Especially vulnerable were Italian-American youngsters in the process of fashioning their identities and self-concepts.  Equally devastating, the perceptions of our teachers were impacted by that same media.  Many Italian Americans, heeding the not so subtle message being delivered by the media, castrated the vowel from the end of their names. 

 

Jane Addams, as close to the patron saint of Taylor Street’s Little Italy; i.e., The Hull House Neighborhood, as one can be, recognized this phenomenon.  Allegedly, she was instrumental in Frank Cesario’s decision to anglicize his name to Frank Chesrow.  I suspect that many other Italian Americans who resided in the Jane Addams’ Hull House community were similarly advised.  Frank Chesrow, during WWII, rose to the rank of Colonel in the U.S. Army.  Other Italian Americans, who apparently had not castrated the vowel from the end of their names, were being herded into concentration camps.  As an aside, David Chase, producer of the TV series, The Sopranos, was also a Cesario before he too went through the castration ritual.

 

“There is no sight like that of an amputated spirit…they have no prosthetic for that, you know.”

 

The unrelenting attack by the media had taken its toll upon a people whose ancestors had both nurtured and passed on all that is now known as western civilization.  Despite an ancestry that is unequaled by any other group of immigrants, the psychological genocide had its impact upon the aspirations of our young.  In a 1970s federally sponsored study, Italian Americans occupied the bottom rung of the educational achievement ladder…they were the lowest of all European ethnic groups in educational attainment as measured by college enrollments.  Italian American surpassed only the Hispanics and Negroes. 

 

It is the mission of those of us who have the power to influence the media to exercise that power.  The misplaced challenges of the past must be reviewed and, where necessary, they must be discarded.  We can no longer demand of the media that they not print or film what is marketable and makes money for them…at least not in the capitalistic culture that is the foundation of our present society.  What we can and should insist upon, however, is a full and fair presentation in their works.  Their articles, their stories, their documentaries, etc…must be prefaced and seeded with certain unalterable truths.  Failure to do so distorts audience perceptions and hence, alters historical fact.  Shooting from the hip, here are a few

 

*The Godfather, Mario Puzo

 

of those underreported and unalterable truths that should be formalized into two minute capsules as a prologue to media events such as the Sopranos.   

1)      Organized crime was not an Italian/Sicilian phenomenon.  It has roots in the homelands of virtually every ethnic group that comprises the American landscape today.

2)      Organized crime existed in America long before the Italian-American emigrants arrived on these shores…perhaps as long ago as the first pilgrims.  The first organized effort to illegally usurp dominance, power and wealth was orchestrated by the pilgrims, our earliest immigrants…the first WASPS.  Perhaps, as Isaiah had prophesized, it was an omen of things to come. 

3)      Organized Crime in America was surely in existence when the “McCabes” and the “Mrs. Millers” founded frontier towns that were taken (extorted) from them by easterners whose off-springs now control and/or influence the board rooms of corporate America, Governors’ Mansions, and legislatures.  In reviewing the biographies of those icons, the media must explore and report beyond their tax advantaged Charitable Trusts…in the same manner that led them to dismiss the soup kitchens of the O’Banions and the Capones.   

4)      The prohibition day era gave rise to as many organized crime families as there were ethnic groups in the United States…including the behind the scenes WASP and “wanna be wasp”  communities.  In many cases, they and/or their offspring had and continue to attain positions of ambassadors, senators and presidents.

5)      Organized crime flourished because the political structure permitted it to flourish.  Therefore, by definition, the political structure, sequestered as it was, must be added to the long list of thriving organized crime families.

 

We, in turn, must be honest in our dealings with the media.  We must acknowledge that Italian Americans have and continue to be part of the organized crime phenomenon since becoming major players during the prohibition era.  We must accept and admit that, as in many other endeavors that required courage and talent, Italian Americans excelled in this trade as well. Hence, the Italian-American entry into organized crime should be acknowledged in the same manner as Joe DiMaggio, Rocky Marciano, Enrico Fermi, Lee Iacocca, Enrico Caruso, Arturo Toscanini, and a host of other notable achievers had received.  When the Bishop of New York was asked to explain the paradox of the head of the New York Diocese and the head of the Mafia family being brothers, he responded, “It’s not so odd, it just so happens that Italians are the best at whatever they do, regardless of their vocation.” 

 

This I believe.  The release of the Godfather did more the image of Italian Americans than the decades upon decades of protest from the combined efforts of Italian American councils throughout the United States.  Mario Puzo’s great American novel redirected America’s perception of Italian Americans.  The protests of the Italian American community over the release of Mario Puzo’s, The Godfather,” were misplaced.    Reread Puzo’s immortal lines and resurrect their meanings. Lines such as, “We’re all part of that same hypocrisy, senator.”  

 

Moving on to what I believe to be a more serious problem, we must inquire as to what caused Alistair Cooke and CBS television to overlook:

1. The Italian American who was the only enlisted man in WWII to win both the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross…the two highest awards given by this country for valor under fire?
2. The Italian American ace who, during WWII, broke Eddie Rickenbacker’s record of 26 kills?   
3. The multitude of first generation Italian Americans who were part of that “greatest generation.”  Young men who fought valiantly for this country only to be besmirched by Mr. Alistair Cooke’s nationwide TV presentation marinating the minds of the American people to believe that Alphonse Capone was representative of the contributions made by the Italian-American immigrant and their offspring.  Thanks to the dedication of men like Anthony Fornelli, we now have a museum that will document, for posterity, the valor of these young men which had obviously gone unheralded by the media.  A museum that will refute and rebuke the Alistair Cookes? 
4. The half- million Italian Americans who served in WWII.  From the beaches of the south Pacific to the skies over Europe, we earned our share of the nation’s highest awards.  The Congressional Medal of Honor alone was won by no less than two dozen Italian Americans.  We had no airports or bridges named after those Italian American heroes.  Those who made the ultimate Sacrifices were memorialized by family and neighbors.  Thousands upon thousands of gold stars hung from the windows in the Little Italies scattered throughout America. 

 

One must wonder what thoughts ran through the minds of those Italian American mothers who had lost their sons in the struggle to defeat America’s enemies or had their sons returned to them with their arms torn out or their legs blown off, when Alistair Cooke announced to the world that Alphonse Capone was representative of the contributions made to America by the Italian Americans.  They have no prosthetic for that, you know!

 

Although never in harms way, Enrico Fermi, the father of the atomic bomb, must be considered, along with the above mentioned war heroes, for his contributions.  Surely he would hold as high a place as any member of any ethnic group that one might ever conceive of being draw from the files, by Alistair Cooke, on that nationally viewed TV documentary.

 

We must confront and expose the de facto exercising of power that denigrates us while disreputable members of other ethnic groups are closeted and/or

 redefined by the media.

 

Besides our war heroes noted above, we had our share of politicians, musicians, scientists, athletes and entrepreneurs whose names Mr. Cooke could have drawn from the immigration files in Washington DC.  So how is it that Alistar Cooke chose Alphonse Capone as representative of the contributions made to this country by Italian-Americans?  Perhaps the more substantive question is, “Why did Alistair Cooke not use George “Bugs” Moran, Meyer Lansky, Bugsy Siegel, the Gusenberg brothers, Mickey Cohen, Whitey Bulger, Dutch Schultz, Arnold Rothstein, Dion O’Banion, Leopold and Loeb, Llewellyn “Murray the camel” Humphreys, John “Jake” Guzik, and a host of other notable and nefarious characters as being representative of their ethnic groups?  “Who gave the order?”

 

It is not just the failure of the media to report on the positive contributions of Italian-Americans or their zealousness in depicting Italian-Americans as being synonymous with organized crime that must be challenged.  We must confront and expose the de facto exercising of power that denigrates us while disreputable members of other ethnic groups are closeted and/or redefined by the media.  It is not just the words of our enemies that we must remember; it is their silence that must be remembered, as well.  

 

When their existence was threatened, our Roman ancestors built a navy and defeated the greatest naval power of its time…When their existence was threatened, our Roman ancestors transformed themselves into horsemen and outfought and outmaneuvered the best cavalry troops of its time…When their existence was threatened, our Roman ancestors conscripted legions of soldiers to match that of the invading hordes…When their existence was threatened, our Romans ancestors built alliances to neutralize and overcome that threat.  Perhaps the message here is that a Praetorian Guard of Italian American community leaders must be forged to control and neutralize the threat the media poses.  We must model what other successful groups have done.  While other ethnic groups boast of having upwards to 35,000 lobbyists, we, as Italian Americans have yet to launch a single lobbyist to petition, monitor and, where necessary, threaten congress and the media on our behalf.  (The honorable Congressman Frank Annunzio was the last of a breed.)

 

Perception is reality. Those who control the media control perception, promoting their version of reality. Since its inception, the Chicago Tribune had as its motto on its editorial page, the following, “The mission of a modern day newspaper is to shape and lead public opinion.”  During a media workshop, held at Triton College in suburban Chicago and attended by editors, TV executives, politicians and community leaders, the contention that the media simply reported the news was heatedly challenged.  Shortly after that disruptive workshop, the Chicago Tribune removed that motto from its editorial page. 

 

Queste e cosa nostra.