When I first came out as a gangster-turned-gay-rights-activist in my first diary posted here at Daily Kos a few months back, I was surprised by some of the implied, unthinking prejudice in the response from such a tolerant community.
Some of the e-mails I received challenged not that I was really the notorious gangster Kenji Gallo or that I could truly redeem myself, but instead that it was possible for such thing as a middle-class Asian-American gangster in the Mob to exist in the first place.
For that reason, I thought the Kos community might find a blog about the life of an Asian-American in the underworld interesting. I'm also willing to answer any questions about the underworld, my life as an FBI undercover operative, and how bad guys can go good in the comments.
You want to know what it’s like to be an Asian-American gangster in the American underworld? I can boil it down to one story.
It is early in the 21st century. I’m in the office of top international sex trafficker Elena at the office of her Exotica 2000 escort service, working undercover for the FBI. I am introducing a new porn star to Elena for her to pimp worldwide at thousands of dollars an hour. Elena is pleased with the woman’s looks and resume, so she asks what is "off limits" for the girl. Without hesitating, the porn girl replies that she won’t have sex "blacks, Indians, and Asians."
By itself, a porn girl who refuses to do scene or turn a trick with a racial minority is no big surprise. A lot of them are racist; it’s not like these women aren’t usually troubled, after all. There was just one problem: this particular porn star was having sex with me, Japanese-American Kenji, at the time! I was standing right next to her as she said that she would not have sex with an Asian under any circumstances. I looked at her with a big question mark hanging over my head, so she put her hand on my shoulder and informed me that I was "not like Asian, really."
That’s the funny thing about being an Asian-American gangster: no one believes you are for real until you prove otherwise, and, as soon as you prove that are a real-deal badass, then they stop thinking of you as being a "real" Asian! Asians can’t be tough outside of Kung Fu movies in America, it seems like. It's a very strange form of racism.
When people see my picture for the first time, they disbelieve that I can be anything close to a real criminal. For nearly two decades, I was an Asian gangster first with the Colombian cocaine cartels and then with La Cosa Nostra or the Mafia. Millions of Americans have been fed such a steady diet of stereotypical Italian American wiseguy movies and TV shows that think a multiracial Mob is impossible. They’re wrong.
I was not the first Asian-American gangster in the Mafia, but I was the only one I ever met. The first that I know of was Ken Eto, a gambling boss for the Outfit in Chicago. The Outfit has always been progressive, a kind of Equal Opportunity Employer Mafia. They had Irish, Jewish, Polish and even a Greek in their upper ranks. The only things they were missing were women and African-Americans. These guys were not made guys per say, but they had power, respect, and tons of cash.
When I decided that I wanted to be a gangster, it never occurred to me that the fact that I was Japanese would make a difference. I just wanted to make money, and, growing up in multiracial Orange County, gradually you grew accustomed to people’s diversity. I soon found it to be an asset that I was Asian since it turned out to be great camoflage. It was racial profiling in reverse: racists think Asians are good at math, not crime! I never got hassled.
This was before Asian-Americans were known to be in gangs. People thought we just were smart kids who got good grades. This helped me commit many crimes because I did not fit the profile of a bad guy. One time I was arrested in Irvine, and the cop asked me in the jail cell, "So, what is a guy like you, you know, Japanese, doing in here?" I wanted to say I was looking for a nice tea ceremony and got lost somewhere along the way.
When I used to smuggle cocaine or money on planes, it was easy because I would look like a student, I had a backpack of books and I read all the time. They just assumed I was another diligent Asian student visiting family in Hawaii.
When I was in the cocaine smuggling business, it was easy to be accepted. Being minorities and immigrants in California, the South Americans who ran the business in the 1980s were more tolerant of other cultures. I was called Chino, Chinito, Hapon, and some of my kilos used to be marked JAP. Many people in Peru are Japanese or mixed, so the Colombians had some experience with people like me.
Once I moved on to the porno industry and the Mob in the late 1980s and early 90s, I was alone. There were no Asians. Zero. The only time it seemed to come up is when someone asked if the stereotypes about different race’s penis size came up and gave my porn star wife Tabitha Stevens an excuse to give her expert opinion on the inaccuracy of some of hte things you hear about Asian men.
In the LCN, I was lucky because I started out in California, where the gangsters are less hardcore, less racist, and more adapted to modern diversity. I fit in because Cali is laid back, and the gangsters who couldn’t adapt were sent to jail.
When I was sent to Brooklyn in the early 2000s, it was a whole new crappy world. I was 2700 miles from home, alone and out of place. I was a Japanese guy with a funny, laid-back California "surfer" accent around Brooklyn street guys. In some ways, it really worked in my favor since I immediately stuck out and distinguished myself. Just another wannabe Italian kid would have been anonymous, while the Asian dude from the porn industry could not be missed. Of course, because of NYC criminal culture’s inherent racism, I had to prove myself by being smarter, tougher than the average Italian criminal to get taken seriously. I had not only be better, but be a LOT better. I had to blow them out of the water.
Of course, it was not exactly a tolerant environment. I was always been told by a wiseguy how he "Japped" or "Pearl Harbored" some guy in a barfight by attacking him from behind. It never occurred to them that the phrase may be offensive.
One time I was outside a 4th Ave restaurant with Colombo Family capo and boss-to-be Teddy Persico and his enforcer Eddie Garofalo, when a woman pulled up in her Mercedes. We were checking her out when she got out and threw me her keys. "Hey! Park the car, and be careful, no scratches!" Teddy and Eddie had no choice but to laugh -- as I'm sure by FBI handler did when he listened to the mp3 files my wire recorded.
In retrospect, my biggest mistake as a criminal ... besides the mistake of being dumb and evil enough to do harm to other people for a living in the first place ... was to ever put myself in a position to work with the Mob. It was a huge strategic error. If I would have stuck around Orange County and the Asian-American community, I could have been a gambling boss and bookmaker for CENTURIES before anyone cared. The Mob title was just an excuse to get FBI and police attention.
Even today, no one cares or pays attention to Asian-American crime, either because it’s too hard to investigate in poor, multilingual immigrant communties or too hard to believe that crime exists in the supposedly rich, straight-laced, uber-educated suburbs of Asian-American society.
If only I had followed that stereotype and done what was expected of me: worked hard, abided by the law, gone to school, and saved my money! I would have been a rich, happy, squeaky clean Asian-American family man and business executive. Many people who crossed me over the years would have been far better off. The Colombo Family would be having a relatively easy time. Of course, I would also not be writing this blog, and I would never written my memoir Breakshot.