Chrysler CEO apologizes for ethnic slur

Italian-Americans are probably the one group left that can be targeted with ethnic insults while perpetrators remain unscathed. Media commentators who take offense at insults, real or perceived, towards other groups frequently ignore slights uttered against Italians.

In the news recently, is Chrysler and Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne. He has apologized for using an ethnic slur offensive to Italian Americans. The incident took place at Detroit's  North American International Auto Show back in January. During an interview he used the term "wop" to describe a new Alfa romeo car, saying,  “with all due respect to my American friends, it needs to be a wop engine.”

Being of Italian descent, Marchionne's self-deprecating digs won't raise many eyebrows.  Nonetheless, Marchionne sent his apology last week to the Italian-American One Voice Coalition, which fights bias and ethnic slurs against Americans of Italian descent.

Opa Opa! Greek culture is alive in Motown

Time has not been kind to Detroit, MIchigan. Especially hard hit have been the city's ethnic enclaves. The impact of urban decay and white flight is that ethnic communities abandoned their former neighborhoods in the city, moving to the blandness of suburbia.

This said, it's nice to see Greater Detroit's Greek-American returning to the city to celebrate.
Thousands turned out Sunday for the 12th Annual Detroit Greek Independence Day Parade down Monroe Street. Participants dressed in traditional military garb and traditional Greek costumes.

This weekend also marked the grand opening of the Hellenic History Museum of Michigan, located in a red brick mansion across from the Detroit Institute of the Arts in the Midtown section.There's a bittersweet irony to this: Greek history is making a comeback in Detroit at the same time the city considers to sell off its art collection due to bankruptcy.