jonb wrote:
Pheony, I am the same, I have a fasination for the different, i haven't whatched that, but my daughter used to get very upset when I used to use the phrase-
whose house run's house
I found some parts of it quite uncomfortable to watch, but look beyond the clothes, make up and fighting and you will find hard working people devoted to their families. They are proud of their Italian Heritage and culture, making no excuses for who they are. If this is how they choose to live, in their 'little Italy' in New Jersey. Then I say 'the best of luck to them'.
Before anyone says 'It's a TV show'...Yes. I know.
Communities
Little Italies were, to a considerable extent, the result of Italophobia. The ethnocentrism and anti-Catholicism exhibited by the earlier Anglo-Celtic and northern European settlers helped to create an ideological foundation for fixing foreignness on urban spaces occupied by immigrants.[98] Communities of Italian Americans were established in most major industrial cities of the early 20th century, such as Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts (the "North End"); Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Providence, Rhode Island; St. Louis, Missouri; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Buffalo, New York; and Kansas City, Missouri. New Orleans, Louisiana was the first site of immigration of Italians and Sicilians into America in the 19th century, before Italy was a unified nation-state. This was before New York Harbor and Baltimore became the preferred destinations for Italian immigrants. In sharp contrast to the Northeast, most of the Southern states (exceptions being the Atlantic coast of Florida, New Orleans, and a fast-growing communities in Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas) have very few Italian-American residents. During the labor shortage in the 19th and early 20th centuries, planters in the Deep South did attract some Italian immigrants to work as sharecroppers, but they soon left the extreme anti-Italian discrimination and strict regimen of the rural areas for the cities or other states. The state of California has had Italian-American residents since the 1850s. By the 1970s gentrification of inner city neighborhoods and the arrival of new immigrant groups caused a sharp decline in the old Italian-American and other ethnic enclaves.[99] Many Italian Americans moved to the rapidly growing Western states, including Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, and California. Today, New York and New Jersey have the largest numbers of Italian Americans in the U.S. while smaller Northeastern cities such as Pittsburgh, Providence and Hartford have the highest percentage of Italian Americans in their metropolitan areas.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_American