1. 1. Youth culture studies coalesced with the ethnographic research of the Birmingham School of cultural studies in the 1960s. Cultural studies privileges the role of human “agency” in the interactive processes of “meaning-making” within “structures inherited from the past and lived in the present” (Storey 1999, 159). Identity, as well as culture and social forms, are “not something fixed and coherent, but something constructed and always in the process of becoming” and often “incomplete” and “contradictory” (135). Individuals and groups are able to “create their own readings” in a process of “cultural consumption” (Schirato and Yell 2000).
2. 2. Italian-American male peer groups hold a conspicuous place in ethnographies of urban slums (Whyte 1993; Suttles 1968). A recent study by Pinderhughes (1997) of racist violence among young Italian-American males in New York City ignored local ethnic culture and in particular the lively youth culture currents identified with Guido.
3. 3. All collected data is either from chat records or personal web pages provided by the ISP. Original spelling and punctuation have been retained.
4. 4. A “brasciole” is rolled, stuffed meat filet that Italian mothers and grandmothers cook in pasta sauce or “gravy.” It is a phallic symbol in the vernacular culture.
5. 5. Ethnic identity as a problematic credential was reflected in the consternation of “L’Italiano”: “Io sono Italiano. Perche nessuno parlano Italiano qui?” (“I am Italian. Why is no one speaking Italian here?”). “L’ Italiano” implicitly denied authentic ethnicity and dismissed ItalChat youths as “idioti, cafoni, stronzi” (“idiots, boors, turds”).