Anger as Mamdani Snubs Italian Americans on Columbus Day

Mayor Zohran Mamdani has further aggravated strained relations with New York’s Italian-American community Monday by failing to attend Columbus Day events.Mayor Zohran Mamdani did not respond to several invites from Italian-American groups and declined others, including one to lead Manhattan’s Columbus Day Parade, leaving other officials, including City Council Speaker Julie Menin, who led Brooklyn’s Columbus Day Parade on Saturday, to mark the holiday.“Mamdani clearly hates Europeans, especially white New Yorkers,” former New York City Council member Robert Holden posted on X. “First, he snubbed German-Americans at the Steuben Day Parade. Then Polish-Americans at last week’s Pulaski Day Parade. Now Italian-Americans on Columbus Day. What does that tell you? I call it racism, plain and simple.”The most prominent official to march at this year’s parade was Governor Kathy Hochul. She carried a banner alongside fellow Democrats including New York Attorney General Letitia James, flanked on all sides by rope-wielding aides who prevented the press corps or members of the public from approaching.In July, the Mayor’s Office rankled Italian-American groups by circulating an official map of New York’s Immigrant Enclaves as part of its tourism campaign around the World Cup that omitted both Manhattan’s Little Italy neighborhood and The Bronx’s Arthur Avenue. Staten Island Borough President Vito Fossella scolded the mayor for those omissions and others, including his island’s Sri Lankan population and Borough Park’s Jewish community in Brooklyn in a statement. “Ignorance is not a good ingredient for highlighting the sacrifices of so many who built this City and gave so much,” Mr. Fossella, who is Italian-American, said. “Willful ignorance, however, is a deliberate failure to honor the history of my family and millions of others.The mayor promised to update the document, saying it was created in 2023.Mr. Mamdani’s reluctance to march this week also echoes his refusal to lead the Israel Day parade last summer, which rolled under the theme “Proud Americans, Proud Zionists.” The mayor has taken a similarly activist stance against Columbus. Back in 2020, in one of his last posts as a private citizen, Mr. Mamdani posted a photo of himself making an obscene gesture at a statue of Christopher Columbus at Astoria, Queens. Days later he won the Democrat primary to represent the district in the New York State Assembly.Mr. Mamdani’s father, Columbia University professor of anthropology and political analyst Mahmood Mamdani, wrote about the Italian explorer in his book examining the relationship between nationalism and colonialism, Neither Settler nor Native. The elder Mr. Mamdani defines Columbus’ legacy as one of exploiting indigenous people, one that stands as an early example of the settler/colonizer dynamic his son alleges against Israel.“Zohran Mamdani can produce a hundred videos praising Italian Americans, but until he acknowledges the disrespect he has shown our community and apologizes, his words are meaningless,” Italian American Civil Rights League president Mike Crispi said.

Anger as Mamdani Snubs Italian Americans on Columbus Day

Anger as Mamdani Snubs Italian Americans on Columbus Day

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