Anti-Italian bias on the NYC Council

(AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

In 2021, New York City awarded a contract to a company named Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping to do some work on various public properties. That didn’t wind up working out very well because business irregularities soon came to light leading to an investigation into claims of insurance fraud. The company wound up having to pay more than one million dollars in restitution to the city last year. That name cropped up again during a City Council budget meeting this week, but not just in terms of costs incurred by the city. One Council member, Democrat Chi Osse’, declared that the Dragonetti Brothers (who are Italian, in case you hadn’t guessed)never should have been awarded a contract in the first place because “that name alone should have been the first red flag.” This comment outraged the Italian Caucus on the Council, leading them to accuse Osse’ of anti-Italian bigotry. (Free Beacon)

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A Democratic member of the New York City Council is under fire for comments that members of the council’s Italian Caucus say were bigoted.

Democrat Chi Ossé said during a Monday council meeting that a business should have been disqualified from getting a city contract because of its name, which is Italian. The council was discussing Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping, a contractor that had to pay more than $1 million in restitution last year for insurance fraud.

“I just want to say on Dragonetti, that name alone should have been the first red flag in terms of contracting with the city,” Ossé said during the budget meeting.

Normally, when we hear about charges of racism and bigotry on the part of elected officials, they tend to deal with comments about non-white minorities. It’s most often Black and Hispanic people bringing the accusations, though this also applies to Asians, particularly when liberals are the ones doing the talking. But it’s been a while since I recall hearing anything about anti-Italian bigotry.

So was this remark really as bad as it sounded? Osse’ didn’t blatantly toss out any of the typical slurs that used to regularly be applied to Italians. (I won’t list them for you here, but you can read some online if you’re not familiar with them.) What he really said was “that name.” But the Italians on the Council said that was more than enough and they knew what he meant.

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The Councilman strongly disagreed. He claimed this his comment “had nothing to do with Italians.” He said he was referring to the company’s reputation already having been tarnished.

That excuse isn’t getting him off the hook, though. When Dragonetti Brothers Landscaping originally won the contract, they had not previously been in trouble for any fraudulent business practices. Those things only came to light after the work was underway. So either the Councilman was confused about the timeline or he really was implying that Italians shouldn’t receive city contracts. How can we say for sure?

What do know is that we’re still living in an era when everyone is just too easily offended. Everyone is ready to pounce on anything that they can spin as being potentially insensitive, particularly to politically favored classes. (Unfortunately for the Italians, they don’t qualify since they are typically lumped in generically with whites.) But as I’ve opined here many times in the past, when everything is racist, nothing is racist. And the word “racism” ceases to have any meaning. The Italians are just a bit late coming to the game.

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