New York’s Italian Americans Fume as Mamdani Delivers Second Slight

Italian Americans are fuming over what they see as the latest insult from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who rejected their permit for an event and now excluded historic Little Italy from a map of immigrant enclaves. The map featured several neighborhoods such as Chinatown, Little Pakistan, and Little Palestine. In a statement, the Italian American Civil Rights League, IACRL, blasted the absence of Little Italy. The group said that Mr. Mamdani’s office rejected its permit for Unity Day, an event focused on combatting anti-Italian stereotypes, and now left them off the map. The president of the IACRL, Mike Crispi, said, “This is not a clerical error.”“Little Italy is sacred ground,” Mr. Crispi added. “It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is.”Mr. Crispi blasted Mr. Mamdani’s office for finding “room for every fashionable progressive constituency” except for Little Italy.”A Republican member of the New York City Council, Inna Vernikov, wrote on X, “A win for TOLERANCE & EQUITY! Each time, Mamdani gets more & more creative on how to shun certain groups. This time, he has figuratively wiped out Italians, Jews & the Irish aka ‘the privileged white colonialist oppressors’ politically opposed to him. What a great mayor for ALL New Yorkers!”The founder of Defend Forgotten America, Jenn Pellegrino, wrote on X, “Italian Americans helped build New York City. Erasing Little Italy from the map is a disgrace — and we will not let the radical left wipe away our history.”Congresswoman Lisa McClain, of Michigan, wrote on X, “Communists always try to dictate which cultures and histories are allowed to be celebrated, and which ones get erased. In America, we have the freedom to reflect on the entirety of our history without permission from the state.”Mr. Mamdani’s office has responded to the criticism, telling the New York Post that the map was supposed to highlight “neighborhoods in New York City that have substantial foreign-born populations from regions and countries around the world.”In the 1920s, when Little Italy spanned roughly 30 to 40 blocks, census data showed that roughly half of the people living in the neighborhood identified as Italian American. Over the course of the last century, the enclave has shrunk to only roughly five blocks as the cost of living rose. A 2011 United States Community Survey found that just 5 percent of the people living in the area identified as Italian American. While the population of Italians living in Little Italy has plummeted, critics questioned why the map did not highlight any Irish neighborhoods or areas that have large Jewish populations.

New York’s Italian Americans Fume as Mamdani Delivers Second Slight

New York’s Italian Americans Fume as Mamdani Delivers Second Slight

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