A negative stereotype

Friday, March 26, 2010 | 3 a.m.

Local attorney Dominic Gentile makes a good point about the city’s mob museum under construction in downtown Las Vegas.

Gentile, a leader in the Italian-American community, has expressed concerns that the mob museum would perpetuate negative stereotypes about Italians.

“Everybody doesn’t know that the gangster is a minuscule percentage of the Italian community,’’ Gentile said in an In Business Las Vegas interview published last week.

There are even larger questions about the museum, Gentile said.

Will the museum glorify the culture of organized crime and lead young people to falsely believe that the mob built Las Vegas? Museum officials have insisted they’re not trying to glorify the mob and that the facts about the mob speak for themselves.

But Gentile isn’t so sure, and he said the Italian-American community has made no progress in getting the city to address its concerns.

As the city develops the museum, Mayor Oscar Goodman and the City Council should work with Gentile and other Italian-American leaders on these issues.

Italian-Americans shouldn’t be unfairly stereotyped. The mob’s limited role in developing Las Vegas, while colorful, shouldn’t be exaggerated. Because to do so would slight those who, over the decades, responsibly built Las Vegas and removed the mob element and all of its abuses.