Goodbye Goodfella

Local mobster Tony Civella recently died. You could say that this O.G. ran the first version of Tony's Kansas City but that would be stupid because the only thing this page hurts is your feelings.

While white people respect and revere the mob (as evidenced by the popularity of The Sopranos) it's kind of different for minorities since they actually have to deal with Italians for something other than bookmaking or hairdressing. You might (not) recall one of the money lines from The Godfather when referring to the darkies:

"They're animals anyway, so let them lose their souls."

This line pretty much reflected the attitude of the Italians and J. Edgar Hoover when it came to keeping drugs in minority communities. The legacy of that ideology continues today but is lessened by the fact that white people go cuckoo for coke and Meth as well.

Anyway, I'm sure many local Italians will mourn the death of Civella because it lessens the respect and prestige of being Italian (heh) to a point where the only thing they have to brag about is bad clothes, over priced food and ridiculous hair. The article notes that it's an "end of an era" but I can't say that I'm too sad to see Italian oppression and influence wane or at least be confined to Rudy Giuliani. In fact, as I write this I don't fear reprisals because most Italians in KC are now nothing more than suburban white people with funny names and the rest of them are short. I've noted before that I've had the shit kicked out of me by Italians in the past and it's not that big of a deal . . . they're only as tough as their pointy shoes.

In remembrance of Civella I think I might go to the casino and throw away some money or maybe just buy a few things from Wal-Mart. In either case I'll be giving my money to large corporations who now run all of the mob's old businesses much more efficiently.