Italian American groups fight to keep Columbus Day in Philadelphia

The Sopranos did this like 15 years ago.

[quote]Democratic attorney Adam Bonin, who worked as Kenney’s campaign lawyer, posted a tongue-in-cheek message on Twitter about the lawsuit filed on Tuesday in federal court. “This is a real thing which lawyers signed,” Bonin wrote.

Also to replace a statue of former Mayor Rizzo. Neither the Mayor nor the lost fellow from the 16th century are actual Confederates, just adjacent.

FUCK IT, October 12th is cancelled. Now nobody gets a day! Are you happy now??

All this vandalizing of statues of historic figures and tearing them down is beyond ridiculous! Any thugs involved in this kind of criminal act deserve a long prison sentence!

There is a backstory that OP’s link doesn’t mention.

[quote]The suit claims Kenney, a South Philly native of Irish descent, has shown a pattern of “continued, unrelenting, and intentionally discriminatory acts” against Italian Americans — chiefly via the January executive order that replaced Columbus Day with Indigenious Peoples Day.

[...]

[quote]In staking out a discrimination claim, the complaint also points to a loosely related collection of other Kenney statements and actions involving Italian Americans, including:

[quote]The removal of the Frank Rizzo statue from the Municipal Services Building plaza last year, and the attempted removal of the 140 year-old Christopher Columbus statue in South Philly’s Marconi Plaza. Both statues are the subject of ongoing lawsuits.

[quote]The demotion of former 1st District Captain Louis Campione, who is Italian American, after allegations that his officers defended white vigilantes during protests at the Marconi Plaza statue last summer.

[quote] A lone 2016 remark made by Kenney during a speech about keeping Philadelphia a “sanctuary city.” The complaint only cites part of the quote focused on Italians. Here’s the full quote in context, as reported by the Inquirer at the time: “This is about mayors buckling under the pressures of xenophobes and racists. This is undocumented brown and black people and that’s what drives the underlying source of anger. … If this were cousin Emilio or Cousin Guido, we wouldn’t have this problem because they’re white.”

[quote]The lawsuit further alleges, without evidence, that the Kenney administration discriminated against Italian Americans by not including the 19148 zip code among the list of prioritized areas eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in March. Health officials said they prioritized zip codes based on lowest vaccination rate. (All Philadelphians are eligible for the vaccine beginning April 19.)

Applicable Reddit comment:

[quote]The "south philly italians" hate wearing masks, stoping at stop signs, parking legally, not using bigotry, and not being racist. Source: italian in south philly (edit: who resnts my heritage especially when some non-italian genocidal asshole gets injected into it)