I grew up in New Jersey, close to NYC and vividly remember protests of Italian-Americans against the cancellation of the Columbus Day Parade in NYC. This happened close to 20 years ago and still goes on today in other communities. I couldn’t help thinking to myself then if we just shouldn’t have a parade for Mussolini as well. Now, a story from the NYTimes brings to light the Italian-American movement at CUNY to enforce affirmative action – for Italian American professors. Since 1981, when CUNY started to become more race-conscious in hiring, Italian-American professorships did rise – however, not as quickly as Black and Latino. In a university system where 70% of the students are Black, Latino, or Asian, 54% of the professors are still white – even after 30 years of improvement. If anyone should remain outraged it should be the Black, Latino, and Asian professors.

The other thing I remember Italian-American’s protesting is The Sopranos. Really? The greatest TV series of all time? How about protesting Jersey Shore instead? (full disclosure – I never actually watched Jersey Shore but spent many a summer down there and could see how Italian American’s could be shown in a bad light). I hope I don’t need to tell Italian Americans who may be reading this that I had a lot of Italian American friends growing up so I couldn’t be racist against them.