Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry during the War of 1812 reported: “We have met the enemy and they are ours”.

I’m sure everyone has heard this famous quote. As any self-respecting (i.e., self-educated) Italian American will tell you, it certainly applies to our community via the issue of proper media representation, notably in Hollywood.  

It has been a full year since the 50th anniversary of The Godfather. The unofficial kick-off was at last year’s Academy Award ceremony in March when the film’s director, Francis Ford Coppola, and two of the film’s stars, Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, received a standing ovation after a montage of the film. This didn’t quite become the big highlight in the show as intended, however: it was quickly followed, a short time later, with Will Smith storming on-stage to smack Chris Rock upside the head in front of millions of stunned viewers. The Slap Heard ‘Round the World!

If anything, Coppola, Pacino, and De Niro should have been slapped. Indeed, so should everyone in the audience who stood up and applauded. Why? Because that standing ovation was an official Seal of Approval for the film’s scandalous defamation of Italian culture, its permanent linkage of everything Italian with “crime.” The image of Cher slapping Nicholas Cage in 1987’s Moonstruck readily came to mind: “Snap out of it!”

Sound harsh? Not as harsh as watching a 120-year-old-stereotype of Italians saluted as art rather than as an insult.

One would think that, after an anniversary, as in real-life, a person either moves on or dies. Not The Godfather. I keep seeing it broadcast at least three or four times a month on cable, most often on AMC, aka the American Movie Channel. This merely deepens the idea that criminal behavior is the only thing which Italians brought with them to America.

Not music, despite our contributions to everything from the U.S. Marine Band (1804) and jazz (1890s) to Hollywood (Harry Warren and Henry Mancini) and American pop culture (Sinatra, Martin, Francis, Bennett, Madonna, Lady Gaga).

Not architecture, despite stone masons in Vermont, immigrants who built roads and skyscrapers, or Mario Ciampi (responsible for much of San Francisco) and Robert Venturi (considered a father of modern American architecture).

Not writers, despite Pietro Di Donato (whose Christ in Concrete beat out John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath as a Book of the Month selection in 1937), John Fante (novelist and screenwriter), Frances Winwar (born Vinciguerra, biographer and translator), and an army of Beat Poets (Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Gregory Corso and Diane Di Prima).

Not politicians, despite Fiorello LaGuardia (greatest big-city mayor of the 20th century), his protégé Vito Marcantonio (a major progressive) and our female ‘Roman triumvirate’: Ella Grasso (first governor elected in her own right), Geraldine Ferraro (first vice-presidential candidate on a major ticket), and Nancy Pelosi (first Speaker of the House).

Not great business giants, despite A.P. Giannini (Bank of America), Anthony Rossi (Tropicana Orange Juice), Amadeo Obici (Planter’s Peanuts), Antonio Pasin (Radio Flyer Red Wagon) and the Iacuzzi family of California (Jacuzzis).

No. Just criminals. Hollywood has declared it so. And who agrees with them? By now, practically the entire world.  Stand and applaud!

What is needed to reverse all of this is a clear-eyed view of the “enemy,” so to speak, which Commodore Perry eloquently identifies as “ours.”

By “ours,” I mean the Italian American business class, which rarely spends money on pro-Italian initiatives; the Italian American intelligentsia class, which currently relates Italian American history to Queer Theory and Black Studies; and, the Italian American artistic class, specifically actors, writers, and directors in Hollywood who continue to perpetuate the Big Lie – whether it’s Sylvester Stallone in his HULU series Tulsa King or Chazz Palminteri insisting that his Bronx Tale has nothing to do with mob stereotypes, as he alleges in a bizarre interview in Italian American Magazine.

That’s a lot of enemies – or, to use a less loaded term, misguided individuals.

Let the battle of ideas begin! Our business leaders, intelligentsia, and artists have all demonstrated, both now and in the past, their absolute unwillingness to challenge the status quo. Instead, they “go with the flow,” whatever it may be.

Battle Plan #1: Stop praising The Godfather. Acknowledge the harm that this one single film has done in distorting our history in America – our struggles and tragedies, our triumphs and successes. Those roots were noble, not criminal.

Our misguided friends should slap The Godfather, not those of us trying to emerge from the rubble of its cultural war.

But first, they need to look in a mirror and slap themselves. -BDC