An Italian-American civil rights group accused New York City’s socialist mayor of “cultural erasure” after his office released an immigration map that omitted several well-known immigrant communities.
Democratic New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s map of immigrant enclaves included places such as “Little Palestine” and “Little Bhod-Tibet,” but excluded communities long populated by the city’s historically significant Italian, Irish and Jewish populations, New York Post reported Wednesday. This apparent oversight sparked outrage from local Italian-Americans.
“This is not a clerical error. This is cultural erasure,” Italian-American Civil Rights League (IACRL) president Mike Crispi stated in a press release Wednesday. “Little Italy is sacred ground. It is where Italian immigrants came with nothing, worked like hell, opened shops, raised families, built churches, fed the city, and helped make New York what it is.”
Crispi and the IACRL did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment. Mamdani’s office declined to comment.
“Mamdani’s City Hall can find room for every fashionable progressive constituency, but somehow it cannot find Little Italy,” Crispi’s statement continued. “Our culture is good enough for their photo ops, our food is good enough for their fundraisers, and our neighborhoods are good enough for tourism dollars — but when it comes time to recognize Italian Americans, they erase us.”
The IACRL called on Mamdani to correct the map, apologize to Italian Americans, and include historic Italian American neighborhoods in any “official city project recognizing immigrant heritage.”
Around 11.8% of New Yorkers are Italian Americans as of 2024, according to World Population Review. Over 4 million Italians immigrated to New York between 1880 and 1920.
Little Italy, the exclusion of which IACRL flagged, is located in Manhattan. Other Italian American enclaves excluded include Arthur Avenue in the Bronx, Bensonhurst in Brooklyn, Howard Beach in Queens and South Staten Island. The map also lists Bay Ridge, historically known as a major working-class Irish-Italian neighborhood, as “Little Palestine.”
Over 4.4% of New Yorkers are Irish Americans as of 2023, according to Neilsberg Research. Nearly 2 million Irish people immigrated to New York between 1851 and 1860 on account of the Great Potato Famine. Enclaves include Woodlawn Heights in the Bronx (known as “Little Ireland”) and the western portion on the Rockaway peninsula in Queens (known as then “Irish Riviera”).
Approximately 18% of households in Brooklyn and 10% in Queens have at least one Jewish person as of 2023, according to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York. Significant Orthodox Jewish enclaves include Borough Park, Midwood, Williamsburg, and Crown Heights in Brooklyn, as well as parts of Far Rockaway in Queens. Around 74% of Orthodox Jews voted for President Donald Trump in 2024, according to the Jewish Electorate Institute.
The IACRL is an advocacy group founded by civil rights activist and alleged mobster Joseph Colombo in 1970. Its mission it so “uphold Italian traditions, honor family values, and spotlight the individuals who continue to elevate our culture” and “educat[e] the public about the discrimination Italian-Americans have endured—and to combating anti-Italian bias wherever it appears,” according to its website.
(DCNF)