Amongst the quotes on MM's page, Matthews says:
"The Italian-Americans [references a Giuliani profile in Newsweek] are the people that rub the graffiti off the walls when somebody puts it on the wall. They're the ones that won't move out of the neighborhood when it changes. They're the ones that really do fight for the city. They try to keep it straight and narrow. They are straight-and-narrow people. It seems to me it's a plus."It's little tiny, almost coded bits of bigotry like this that really bother me. First of all, it seems by saying "[t]hey're the ones that won't move out when [a neighborhood] changes," Matthews is saying Italians stick around when neighborhoods turn browner.
There are scant examples of Irish and German neighborhoods left in NYC, but there are still a lot of Italians. Part of the reason for this might be that Italians don't fit into mainstream American society as well because they're slightly less lily-white and a bit more Catholic than even the Irish. There's nothing wrong with that, and indeed, New Yorkers probably realize that better than anyone, which is why Italians stick around here more than other, older ethnic groups. Further, the Italians haven't been in the U.S. as long as other groups, and were only accepted as "mainstream" much later than the Irish,* English, Dutch, and Germans.
But it doesn't really matter what the reason is. Matthews' comment is idiotic. Plenty of people fight for the city, including Italians, blacks, whites, Latin Americans, Asians, and many other representatives of the hundreds of countries, cultures, and languages found here. That so many peoples are around is what makes New York special and unique.
* Don't forget, there was a time when the Irish were looked down upon as scum by society at large, and signs were posted saying "INNA," meaning Irish need not apply. The Irish became rather successful and accepted by the 20C, arguably culminating in the election of John F. Kennedy. There was Irish mob activity in New York as late as the 1970s.
