Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge by John Gennari, and: In the Name of the Mother: Italian Americans, African Americans, and Modernity from Booker T. Washington to Bruce Springsteen by Samuele F. S. Pardini (review)

Scholars almost always discuss African American and Italian American relations within the context of interracial/interethnic urban violence. There is good reason for this. While the murder of Yusef Hawkins in Bensonhurst in 1989 is likely the incident that comes instantly to mind, there is a long history of Italian American violence against African Americans. In recent years, scholars within Italian American studies have been exploring other intersections between these two groups who have historically shared spaces—from the plantations of Louisiana to the streets of Eastern and Midwestern cities, and some prewar suburbs—working-class jobs, and even deeply rooted stereotypes. Two recent studies open the door to a wider conceptualization of the topic. Neither is intended to minimize Italian American racial violence or to romanticize relations between African Americans and Italian Americans. Rather, the authors take approaches that complicate our understandings of the connections between the two groups on the ground and in the imaginary. More ambitiously, each argues for the significance of this cross-cultural/racial intersection for American culture and society.

Both John Gennari in Flavor and Soul: Italian America at Its African American Edge and Samuele Pardini in In the Name of the Mother: Italian Americans, African Americans, and Modernity take a cultural studies approach, offering readings of books and films as well as of less traditional texts. Examples of the latter include the "soul kiss" performed by Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen in their stage shows (Pardini) and the simultaneous rise of Italian American coaches (as well as broadcasters and marketers) along with black players in big-time college basketball since the 1980s (Gennari). Yet the authors' specific concerns differ markedly.

Gennari's focus is on "the contact zone—the edge and the overlap—between Italian American and African American cultures" from the 1960s to the present (8), an edge, he notes, that can be "smooth" at times, and "serrated" at others (241). He locates this zone within what he terms "expressive culture," which encompasses more than cultural production. One chapter considers not only musical connections but also the appeal of elements of Frank Sinatra's biography and mythology to black performers and others in hip hop. (Sinatra and Count Basie grace the cover; Gennari's first book is a history of jazz criticism.) This ultimately leads to an exploration of how even as black and Italian men have been coded as dangers to American society, black and Italian mothers have been attributed qualities that position them as nurturers to the nation. A chapter on film and other media highlights selected works of Spike Lee going beyond an analysis of representations to argue that his 1990s' films portray a period of black cultural ascendance against a backdrop of Italian American decline. There are explorations of food, including television cooking shows and food-related performance art, and, as noted, college basketball. A concluding chapter considers black/Italian relations in that influential representation of Italian American life, The Sopranos (1999-2007), juxtaposed with two figures who embody transnational and multiracial notions of race and ethnicity—the Italian-speaking, Eritrean American artist Ficre Ghebreyesus, and Kym Ragusa, whose memoir, The Skin between Us (2006), recounts her life as the daughter of an Italian father and an African American mother. The aim of Gennari's wide-ranging intercultural exploration is to develop a more nuanced understanding of race and ethnicity than that which social history might allow on its own (9). In the process, he identifies common "codes, styles, and aesthetics" that, he argues, constitute a "black Italian ethos" that permeates American culture (221).

Gennari's book is notable...