As I call it, the greatest movie Scorsese never made…
With their weak command of idealistic American rhetoric, Italian attempts to get in on the era’s political trends were clumsy. For instance, to protest FBI investigations of the Mafia, mobster Joseph Colombo started the Italian-American Civil Rights League. (The trendy name was chosen at the suggestion of his attorney Barry Slotnick.) But the Don got rubbed out at a rally and the movement collapsed in embarrassment.
In an era when tacit understandings of how society should be organized were no longer good enough, inarticulate Italians were at a disadvantage in political struggles.
Thus, Italians (along with their fellow Catholic Poles) tended to be among the clearest losers from the 60s’ upheavals.
