Leadership Quote by Al D'Amato

Responsibility is doing a lot of political work here: it’s both a moral claim and a preemptive alibi. When Al D’Amato frames sensitivity to ethnic stereotypes as a “special responsibility,” he’s not just describing personal ethics; he’s staking out credibility in a minefield where identity can be weaponized from either side. The phrase “as an Italian-American” functions like a permission slip and a shield at once, signaling membership in a group long caricatured in American popular culture (the gangster, the hothead, the “other” in a white-ethnic sense) while positioning him as uniquely qualified to referee what counts as offensive.

The subtext is strategic. D’Amato is telling two audiences two different things. To minority communities and liberal critics: I’m not blind to the way stereotypes flatten people into punchlines or suspects. To voters wary of “political correctness”: I’m not being lectured into this; it comes from my own lived experience. That “special” is a careful modifier - not universal guilt, not abstract virtue, but an identity-based mandate that feels earned rather than imposed.

The context matters because D’Amato’s era of New York politics ran through decades when “ethnic” whiteness was renegotiated in public life: Italian-Americans were simultaneously assimilating and still being typecast. His line tries to convert that history into political capital - a way to appear principled without sounding sanctimonious, and to turn vulnerability (being stereotyped) into authority (policing stereotypes).