Is the mob a bad Italian stereotype?
Yes, it's every bit as offensive as saying that the Irish are drunks, or that the Jews are cheap, or that Blacks are lazy, or that Mexicans are cholos who work in car washes.
It exists, and God only knows I saw enough of it while I was growing up. But it should NEVER be a blanket statement about Italians or Italian Ameicans.
OK but what if you are talking to people who are open about how they had relatives who did this in the past? The people I mentioned in my first post who confided in me are also Italian/Italian-American, and when I mentioned how it was a stereotype they said, "Yeah well it happens or it happened that one of our relatives did happen to be involved but it's not like you see in movies or TV where it's all so open in those fictional TV shows or movies, and everyone knows about it."
That's a bit different than a blanket stereotype or someone claiming "All Italians/Italian-Americans are or were involved in the mob/OC", or really negative old stereotypes like "Italians give good haircuts, sell fish, make shoes, etc."
I have seen videos on youtube about the mob and the person who made them claimed to be Sicilian and claimed that everyone that's Sicilian can trace their ancestry back to someone who was involved in OC; but that is not true.
