First off, I was not expecting that brutal scene in the opening of Goodfellas (1990). I looked away for one second during the early credits and all of a sudden I hear and see a man being pummeled and stabbed brutally in a the trunk of car with blood saturating his swollen face! I immediately was afraid of watching this movie, but Emily, who has seen this movie several times, assured me that the movie was great. Of course, Emily is biased; her favorite movies consist of someone getting beaten to the brink of their death and then being shot in the head several times, dramatically. But, that’s beside the point.
This film was very interesting in the way racial and ethnic identity was portrayed. It was definitely helpful to know the historical background of “whiteness” in America as countless immigrants made their journeys to a place of “supposed” endless possibilities by reading Roediger. However, these immigrants such as the Irish, and Italians, were faced with racial oppression just like Blacks did at the time. All “ethnicities” were to be considered separate from “white” therefore, making immigrants like the Irish and Italians, who are considered “white” today, be considered as lesser beings like the colored in America. This made these immigrants very conscious of their identities and how they were perceived as individuals in America. In the 1950s, the “American” movement that we typically characterize with the image of the perfect American, “white”, nuclear family with a nice home and white picket fence, was constantly implanted in the minds of many immigrants. This made them want to fully assimilate. By doing so, many began to identify themselves as this “white ethnicity” rather than connecting with their mother cultures.
This film is a perfect example of how these immigrants and their children came to do that. Henry, a man who is half Irish and half Italian, is someone who grows up in a New York neighborhood that is identified with mobster Italian-Americans whom represent this “mutt” race; they are not exactly white, but they are definitely not black (they make it very clear that their prejudiced/racist). It seems that in order to establish themselves and gain respect, which is the point of a lot of what they do, they must create their own laws and disregard the federal laws. Of course, Henry is sort of stuck because he is a mix of both of these “unaccepted” ethnicities, which is sort of like being doubly Black or “nonwhite.” Throughout the film, Henry establishes himself as one of “them,” but in reality, like “them,” he’s creating a deeper gap between his cultural identity and the American one.
