What do you call an irony that’s so ironic no one notices the irony? There’s no name for it, but at least one situation applies. It involves Republican presidential candidates Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and one Herman Cain, whose oh-so-happy countenance graces the cover of the Oct. 24 edition of Newsweek magazine.
Perry’s been sliding in the polls. Pundits have cited several factors, including the governor’s failure to do well in several debates. But the story about the name of the hunting ranch Perry’s family leases in Texas didn’t help either.
That name is part of the irony. Cain was quick to pounce on the opportunity to discredit one of his opponents. He accused Perry of racial “insensitivity.” So did the Rev. Al Sharpton. We all remember the good reverend, don’t we? Mr. Sensitivity himself.
Here’s the irony, tinged with a touch of hypocrisy: Cain, for years, was the chief executive officer of the Godfather’s Pizza chain. Don’t get the connection?
There’s really no reason you should, given the way stereotyping Italian-Americans is accepted in this society. But whoever thought of the name for the Godfather’s Pizza chain was thinking something like this:
“Hey, pizza’s an Italian food. The Godfather is the title of a novel and a movie about Italian-Americans in the Mafia. And everybody knows everything and everyone Italian should be associated with the Mafia, right?”
Wrong. And there are plenty of Italian-American groups who’ve been saying as much for years, not that many folks have been listening to them.
The stereotyping of Italian-Americans is so widespread, so deeply engrained that it seems everybody wants in on it. You would think Americans were engaged in some kind of contest to see who can come up with the most insulting and egregious Italian-American stereotypes.
A few years ago, the editors at Sports Illustrated ran a story about former National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, who’s Italian-American. At one point in his career Tagliabue was an adviser to another former NFL commissioner, Pete Rozelle.
Did the SI writer use the word “adviser”? Oh, no, no, no. That would have been too much like right, too much like accurate.
The writer decided that, since Tagliabue was Italian-American, that it would be oh-so-cute and clever to use the word “consigliere” instead of “adviser.” The word “consigliere” comes right out of — you guessed it — the novel and movie “The Godfather.”
I called SI on that consigliere business, and I mean that literally. I talked to spokesman Rick McCabe about why the writer used the term consigliere rather than adviser, and here was his answer:
“The term was used in its broader meaning of counselor, or, more specifically, lawyer. We wouldn’t use it in that [Mafia] context solely.”
I hold myself partially responsible for McCabe’s dissembling. I forgot to tell him he wasn’t talking to Boo Boo the Fool. I checked the definition of consigliere given by several online dictionaries.
All defined the word as “an adviser or counselor, especially to an organized crime boss.” And none had the word “lawyer” in the definition.
What McCabe should have said was this: “we’re guilty of callously, ruthlessly and insensitively stereotyping Italian-Americans, and we apologize.”
Cain, who was so quick to nail Perry about Perry’s perceived racial insensitivity, appears to be guilty of some insensitivity of his own. And his was actually worse than Perry’s.
Perry said his father had the wisdom and common decency to have the offending word — which appeared on a rock — painted over.
Cain doesn’t even realize how the term “Godfather’s Pizza” might be offensive to some, if not many, Italian-Americans.
Will the truly insensitive Republican presidential candidate please stand up?
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer-nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
