Christopher Columbus

(Washington, D.C. – June 12, 2020) – The National Italian American Foundation (NIAF) Board of Directors are united in their protest of the vandalization of the Christopher Columbus statues in Boston, Mass.; Minneapolis, Minn.; Richmond, Va.; and many other cities....

I’m not generally in favor of destroying historical statues or monuments—I’d prefer to see more of them, and more from recent times, too--but even if all the remaining monuments to him were to be destroyed, Columbus would still be with...

Terzo e ultimo articolo di una serie

You can make film after film and T.V. show after T.V. show focusing on every negative stereotype and caricature of Italian-Americans with impunity, and you can continue to ignore the great contributions Italian Americans have made to our society, as...

The number of Italian Americans who hold themselves apart from the Columbus standard bearers is substantial. That we do not have a public voice is not for the lack of trying. There are academics, journalists, and independent scholars pursuing the...

To judge and mock an entire ethnic group is the worst kind of stereotype mongering. It’s the equivalent of using the hated N- word to describe an entire race. It’s even worse when the denigration comes from within the group.

Italian Americans have become the worst of ourselves. We made Columbus into the representative for the vestiges of a vanishing identity. Interestingly, perhaps subconsciously, we have selected someone whose conquests align with an ultra-masculine identity we deem as authentically Italian...

In this case, Anthony Tamburri discusses the Calandra Institute’s stated policy of neutrality and how the Institute’s neutral position was mis-represented by the phrase, “Calandra is not supporting Columbus,” and nothing more. Hence the politics of omission!

As a collective community, with many shared experiences, do we, Italian/Americans, need a unifying myth? During this historical moment, of deep alienation and ethnic insecurity, the answer seems to be – yes! All myths are artificial creations of the human...