Misconceptions About Staten Island HomepageFrom The Peopling of New York City
Staten Island has long been an object of ridicule among the other boroughs. Once the only thing people seemed to know about Staten Island was that it had "the dump." Today new stereotypes have replaced the old. Because of its large Italian American community, Staten Island has long been viewed as the land of "gangsters" and "Guidos." In this section of our website, we hope to explain the sources of the misconceptions that abound about Staten Island, how they affect people's perceptions, and how we can change them. In Broadcasting Staten Island, Vanessa DeLuca takes us in for a close-up of the stereotypical Staten Island portrayed in media outlets and how we, as Staten Islanders, can combat the negativity associated with our borough. Kimberly Charnovesky offers some Reel Talk on the subject of media portrayals of Staten Island as a whole. She assesses the typical gangster/Guido stereotype placed upon the borough along with several movies/television shows that reinforce them.
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