Looking for hate in all the wrong place.

• Author: Gillespie, Nick
• Position: Editor's Note - American-Italian Defense Association's Ted Grippo - oversensitive - Column

"I'M A LAWYER, but my dad was a shoemaker."

That's my favorite line in this month's often hilarious cover story about "the long, happy life of America's anti-defamation industry" ("E Pluribus Umbrage," page 24).The speaker is Ted Grippo, head of Chicago's American-Italian Defense Association, and his statement neatly summarizes the absurdity that infuses too many discussions about racial, religious, and ethnic identities. "Since 1930, we've had over 8oo Mafia-type movies. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked if I'm connected;' he tells reason's Web editor, Tim Cavanaugh.

I can identify with Grippo's complaint--my maternal grandparents emigrated from Campania in the 1910s. There's no question that my older relatives' opportunities were limited by negative attitudes about Italians. There's also no question that my cousins and I, growing up only a few decades later, faced no such problems.

Grippo, like many anti-defamation activists, seems almost desperate to keep the bad old days of ethnic and religious enmity alive. For him, unmistakable progress is a warrant for heightened sensitivity and legal action, not evidence of waning levels of prejudice and discrimination. Last year he brought a lawsuit (eventually dismissed) against Time Warner Entertainment, alleging that the hit HBO show The Sopranos ran afoul of the Illinois state constitution's anti-discrimination clause.

What Grippo might not appreciate is that The Sopranos does an excellent job of lampooning his misplaced sense of victimization. This season's episode about a Native American protest of Columbus Day drove home the point that fewer and fewer groups...