Kids' view of the Mob

Through my research of film portrayals of the mob, I found a lot of valuable information about The Godfather, the Sopranos, and other representations of Italians geared toward the adult demographic. However, I've recently found some interesting representations of the Italian mob stereotype, although more subtle, that are directed toward children. Enter Nicky Deuce. The book Nicky Deuce: Welcome to the Family, tells the story of a quiet suburban schoolboy whose summer plans suddenly take a turn. Nicholas normally attends a pricey summer camp involving water skiing, canoeing, and sailing. However, the camp's sewer main breaks and Nicholas is forced to make new summer plans. Instead of attending a camp for the children of successful socialites, he gets dropped onto the mean streets of Brooklyn to spend the summer with his Grandma Tutti and Uncle Frankie...and "badabing!,-- he gets a fast lesson in goomba culture and turns overngiht from Nicholas Borelli II into Nicky Deuce". While critics say the book is a great tale of a summer-in-the-city adventure, it's slightly alarming that a novel for the 5th-6th grade age group exposes Nicky's family as mobsters. As if it's inevitable that any Italian relatives would be the mobbed-up type. 

Another example that the Italian American community scrutinized is that of the villians in the Dreamworks animated movie Shark Tale. One, a shark with the name Don Lino, is voiced by Robert De Niro. “The Sopranos” actors Michael Imperioli and Vincent Pastore also portray criminal characters, and filmmaker Martin Scorsese lends his voice to a sneaky blowfish. The movie seems pretty harmless, but the fact that just the voices and last names of Italians can convey villanous activity is pretty telling. Interestingly, the Research Analysis Corporation of New Jersey found that 74% of all Americans link Italian surnames to crime. Yet, according to the FBI, even at the height of the Mafia's power, no more than 5,000 out of the 15 million Italian-Americans have ever been associated with the Mafia or any other crime group. People may think that many youngsters don't make the immediate connection that all Italians are mobsters when they read Nicky Deuce or watch Shark Tale, but kids are also a lot smarter than we realize.