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“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Guido Education, Employment and Italian American culture.”

“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Guido Education, Employment and Italian American culture.”

Tom Verso (February 23, 2010)

Jersey Shore Reality – Numbers tell the story of Italian American youths ignored by their seniors, under educated and marginal employed. Staring into a cultural abyss, they turn to alcohol, sex and carnival to escape the reality of their oblivion.

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Preface
 
In a Youtube video posted on H-ItAm, Mr. John Fratta makes an appeal for Italian Americans to come together and condemn the depiction of Italian Americans on the ‘Jersey Shore” program. 

 
While I absolutely and unequivocally embrace the spirit that moves Mr. Fratta, nevertheless he, like so many other Italian Americans, has embraced the myth of highly successful Italian Americans in professional fields like, science, law, medicine, scholarship, etc.  In turn, this alleged ‘reality’ is being misrepresented by negative media characterizations.
 
Of course, Italian Americans have many anecdotal successes of which we are rightly proud, such as two Supreme Court Justices. But, as a whole, according to scientific Census Department statistics, our people are not well educated and therefore cannot be a significant presents in intellectual and professional fields. 
 
Moreover, while under education was not a significant economic problem for Italian Americans in the 20th century, it bodes unmitigated economic and cultural disaster in the 21st.  To my mind, we should accept the ‘reality’ of the under educated, marginally employed, culturally devoid Italian American youth depicted on Jersey Shore, and ask ourselves: “What are we going to do about - not the program - our at-risk children?”
 
The purpose of this note is to revisit once again on this blog the ‘facts’ about Italian American education and ponder the implications of those facts for the Italian American youth and Italian American culture (assuming there is and will continue to be such a thing beyond literati Italiophile publications).
 
Guido generations
 
The name ‘Guido’ has come to characterize the ‘20 something’ generation of Italian Americans.  US Census data provides an approximation of that generation with data on the age group 18-34 for the period 2006-2008.
 
As the chart below shows, the median age for the whole Italian American population is 35.  Accordingly, fully half of Italian Americans fall roughly into the current Guido generation or will be coming into that generational cohort in the foreseeable future.
  
    
For details and documentation, please see:
 
“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Age, Gender & Generations
 
“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Definitions, Methods & Raw Data
 
Also, for a demographic breakdown of the Guido generation by states, regions and metro areas please see: “Italian Americans by the Numbers: Guido Demographics
 
Education
 
According to the latest US Census Department statistics covering the Years 2006-08, Italian American education attainment is as follows:
 
                            
 
For details and documentation, please see:
 
“Italian Americans by the Numbers – Education: Who will educate our children?
 
“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Definitions, Methods & Raw Data
 
Clearly, with only 12% attaining graduate degrees, Italian Americans are largely excluded from the K-12 teaching profession (teaching our children), Medicine, Law, Professorships (teaching our children), senior corporate management (often requiring a MBA or other post-graduate education), and all other professions requiring graduate education.
 
Employment and Income
 
Nevertheless, while Italian Americans have not established themselves prominently in prestigious professional positions, they have though their historic ‘work-ethic’ managed to earn fairly good incomes.  The average (mean) income for Italian Americans and Americans as a whole is as follows:
 
 
 
 
 
See: “Italian Americans by the Numbers – Income, Earnings & Poverty
 
“Italian Americans by the Numbers: Definitions, Methods & Raw Data
 
This fairly high income comes from working high wage non-professional jobs in manufacturing, construction and other trades.  For example, the Rochester NY ‘metro-area’, with approximately 200,000 Italian Americans, up to the 1990s was an international manufacturing center for companies like Kodak, Xerox, General Motors, Bausch and Lamb, etc.  Italian Americans by the tens of thousands went directly from high school (indeed – ‘off the boat’) into the factories, the many small companies that serviced the corporations, and the construction trades building factories, houses, stores, etc.
 
However, since the 1990s, American manufacturing jobs have been moving to foreign countries.  According to Bureau of Labor statistics, in 1998 there were approximately 18 million manufacturing jobs in the US.  Today, there are 12 million and the numbers are expected to shirk more in the coming years, with corresponding shirking wage rates for those left.  Also, with the loss of manufacturing jobs there is corresponding reduction in various trades such as machining, construction, and other jobs not requiring college education.
 
This loss of manufacturing and related jobs is going to significantly affect the earning potential of the current and coming Guido generations.  Unless there is a significant increase in their levels of college education over and above previous generations of Italian Americans, they will not be able to attain the same standard of living of the previous generations.
 
Culture
 
Those concerned about the perpetuation of Italian American culture should be asking themselves where today’s Italian American children are going to learn the history and culture of the Italian people.  Absolutely -  they are not going to learn it in public schools and colleges.  Previous articles on this blog have documented the complete absence of anything remotely Italian American or Italian history and culture in public schools and colleges.  Please see:
 
“To Educate Italian American Children or Not?”
 
“Fighting the Better Fight”
 
Conclusion
 
In sum, there is a preponderance of objective verifiable data clearly indicating that Italian American youth are ‘at-risk’ intellectually, vocationally and culturally.  The problem is not television, movies or media generally.  The problem is us!  Older generations of Italian Americans have ignored the intellectual, vocational and cultural education of their children. 
 
Because elders found good paying jobs without much education, they assumed their children would do the same. That’s not true.
 
Because elders learned their Italian history and culture without formal education from experiences and oral histories in “Little Italy, they thought their children would learn the same in suburbs without school curriculums.  That’s not true.
 
Italian American youth need intensive formal vocational, professional and cultural education.  Marginal education can no longer support the post-WW II suburban middle class life style.  And, as the above age distribution chart indicates, the “Little Italy” generations are largely gone, and with them the oral cultural histories and traditions.
 
I have viewed over seven hours of “Jersey Shore” programming.  Using recordings, I could pause, rerun and carefully study the nuances of the Guido characters.  I have no quarrel with MTV.  Indeed, I appreciate that they have foisted into my consciousness the ‘reality’ of our youth. 
 
Yes!  Of course, for entertainment there is much hyperbole.  Hyperbole is the essence of drama and comedy.  Hyperbole exaggerates but does not negate reality.  Looking past the hyperbolic and listening carefully for the nuances, I see the reality of our youth: undereducated, marginally employed, culturally devoid, desperately trying to cope with the abyss and searching for an identity.  They know they are Italian.  They are proud to be Italian.  They feel Italian, but they don’t know what it means to be Italian.
 
In the documentary film “Valentino: the Last Emperor”, the word Valentino used over and over again, like all the great Italian maestros back to the Romans - “Beauty.”  Beauty defined his purpose, meaning in life, his very being.  Similarly, Guidos are preoccupied with beauty.  But, they have no craft to express beauty, no sense of artistic tradition, and no knowledge of their aesthetic heritage.  Accordingly, they don’t know how to constructively channel the very aesthetic passions that is so much apart of Italian history and culture – indeed, its essence.  Instead beauty is reduced to an adolescent sex toy in a carnival act.
 
We should not be protesting MTV for featuring Italian American youths.  We should be protesting our education system for ignoring our youth.  The common refrain heard among protesters is that other ethnic groups are not featured in media like Italian Americans.  But, there is no protesting about education systems that celibate other ethnic groups and ignore Italian Americans. Public schools and colleges offer a full array of history, literature and art course about many ethnic groups and literally nothing about Italian Americans.  See:
 
“To Educate Italian American Children or Not?”
 
“Fighting the Better Fight”
 
 
No, the problem is not MTV.  The problem is we! We are the problem.  We are ignoring our youth and thereby condemning them and our culture to oblivion.  We tell them about Columbus, Michelangelo, Justice Scalia, teach them how to make sauce and think we have done our job.  We denigrate our culture by reducing it to caricatures and clichés and then complain because we are depicted in the media with caricatures and clichés.  Guidos are telling us they want and need more than biographies and recipes.     
 

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You are a mongrel people,

You are a mongrel people, highly inbred and too stupid for modern society. Average IQ in southern Shitaly is nearly on par with that of African-Americans. Pride in your heritage? What losers. You've been passed around like a cheap whore throughout history

Huger Error

Actually, the amount of people with graduate degrees is like 10 to 12 percent depending on what source you look at, So your conclusion is total fucking bullshit. The Italians that can afford school, and not go into trades as you mentioned which they do great at apparently, go onto get graduate degrees at a significantly higher rate than other whites. Pretty much as smart as asians, but there aren't that many in the US because that pretty much stopped coming to this shitty fucking country back in the 20's.

Huge Error

Italians are still a pretty recent immigrant group. It has a lot to do with that.

Huge Error

Italians are still a pretty recent immigrant group. It has a lot to do with that.

Why is SNOOKY pictured? She

Why is SNOOKY pictured? She is NOT an Italian American. She is Chilean.