Anderson politically incorrect

Anderson likes red wine and eggplant.

Last week, Niagara Falls Councilman Robert Anderson Jr. came into Capitol Cleaners, on Main Street, while the Reporter was there meeting with Joseph and Russell Petrozzi to gather information on their “Coats for Kids” campaign (see story next week).

Anderson announced himself, saying, “Here I am, your favorite melanzana.”
Melanzana is Italian for eggplant but it is used as a derogatory word for African Americans.

This comment should have provoked a politically correct response from the three Dagos Italian Americans in the room, which should have been to hang our heads in shame for all the prejudice in the world since time immemorial for which we must blame ourselves even if it occurred before we were born to people we never met. Instead, it provoked a hearty laugh which was what Anderson intended.

It reminded me of another time, in January 2010, at the Como Restaurant. Certain Niagara Falls Council members were there, including Kristen Grandinetti who had become a council member one month earlier.

Anderson was ribbing the proprietors and staff of the Como, who were laughing and returning fire when someone suggested a welcoming toast to Grandinetti.
Anderson ordered a bottle of "Dago red."

Councilman Sam Fruscione laughed, along with a member of the Colucci family to whom the wine order was directed. Grandinetti said nothing as they ate dinner, and nothing at City Hall, where the council met later that night.

It wasn't until the next day, when Grandinetti appeared at the offices of Corporation Counsel Craig Johnson and sought to file a complaint against Anderson for ethnic harassment, that anyone knew something was wrong.

Dago is a term used as an insult to Italians, and she was apparently insulted, although Italians use the term often to describe themselves.

Grandinetti had to be reminded by this newspaper that she should not take the matter up with the Corporation Council, but with the U.S. Attorney’s office and should ask them to go after the Marabella family of northern California, where Mama Theresa and her sons have been bottling their trademarked Dago Red wine since 1932.

Political correctness has been defined as “a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical, liberal minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a turd by the clean end.”