It has to be East Coasters. they still behave like the stereotype. I don't know any Ohio Italian Americans.
anecdote: my frosh year of college, I roomed with a high school buddy. Both of us had Italian surnames.
Across the hall, there was a bunch of Connecticut kids. I was hanging out with one of them once, and he said, "
I told, _____, 'It's crazy, we're hanging out with a guy named [my surname] and a guy named [roommate's surname], and they're both like... normal guys.'"
I was confused, and he said "
Awww You know what Italians are like..." but I was still confused.
I learned that Italian Americans in Detroit assimilated more than East Coast ones. It was not as big of a population as in Boston, NYC, Chicago, Providence, etc.
By the 3rd- or 4th generation, most of the Catholic ethnic groups in the Detroit area had thoroughly mixed... Italians, Irish, Polish, German, French, Czech, etc. etc., and so the cultural differences were muted.
You're not going to roll around in a wife beater and gold chains, with a high greasy pompadour, goin "
EYYYYYYY... Howboutdat?" when your mom is Polish & German, or French American and horrified by that behavior. Just my theory...
(not actually an Italian American)