Not really the same thing, I think. Though one could certainly note with some interest how all common slurs equating white ethnicities with crime have fallen out of style. In the 1920's I'm sure we'd have had all kinds of ways to call someone an Irish criminal or whatever.

The only one I can even think of is if you called some vaguely Italian crook a goombah or Guido, and the first one would probably just confuse people who didn't watch a bunch of Mafia movies.

And I'm not offended by the usage, just the pretense that this racial term isn't a racial term. Not a huge fan of either intellectual dishonesty or just casual ignorance in general.