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| Anti-Italian Political Cartoon - Note: Italians depicted as rats disembarking a ship labelled " The Slums of Europe." |
Why did Italians want to be white? As we mentioned in Part 1 of this
series, being white in America was desirable. Being white brought
with it privileges that others did not have. It was as if you
belonged to a highly selective club – one where you became a part
of the power structure of the country. Being white also became
synonymous with being American. The whiter you were, the more
American you were. Therefore, the idea of being white was so
desirable that it forced ethnic groups to shed their ethnic
identities quickly.
The language of a people is one of the most important markers of ethnic/cultural identity. Indeed, language creates a unity among peoples – and allows them to retain their sense of community. One of the first things that Italian Americans lost (and lost rather quickly) was the Italian language. Many people often remark how Italian Americans have not retained their ancestral language.
The reason for this is simple and three-fold: 1) Italian immigrants were motivated to make money – and realized that speaking English made them more employable and; 2) Italian immigrant parents forced their children to speak and learn English and; 3) Italian immigration happened to coincide with two world wars – both of which heavily featured Italy on the wrong side. Therefore, speaking Italian in America was considered “favoring” the enemy.
The language of a people is one of the most important markers of ethnic/cultural identity. Indeed, language creates a unity among peoples – and allows them to retain their sense of community. One of the first things that Italian Americans lost (and lost rather quickly) was the Italian language. Many people often remark how Italian Americans have not retained their ancestral language.
The reason for this is simple and three-fold: 1) Italian immigrants were motivated to make money – and realized that speaking English made them more employable and; 2) Italian immigrant parents forced their children to speak and learn English and; 3) Italian immigration happened to coincide with two world wars – both of which heavily featured Italy on the wrong side. Therefore, speaking Italian in America was considered “favoring” the enemy.
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| Anti-Italian Language Poster During World War II - Mussolini saying: " It is necessary to destroy democracy." |
It is important to remember that this
was not a politically correct time in America. Americans were not
open or receptive to outsiders and did not ease immigrant transitions
in the country. This is completely different from modern times, where
immigrants can expect to see and hear their language spoken to them
at all times. Perhaps Italians could not retain their language like
modern ethnic groups can because it was not provided nor prevalent.
In either case, societal and community pressures forced Italians to
lose their language quickly.
As we mentioned earlier, sharing a language creates and maintains a sense of community. As Italians began to lose their language, their connections to one another began to fade quickly. While Italians tend to retain some of the religious customs of their ancestors – that connection is also eroding due to a lack of religiosity in America as a whole. Little is left to bind Italians together.
As we mentioned earlier, sharing a language creates and maintains a sense of community. As Italians began to lose their language, their connections to one another began to fade quickly. While Italians tend to retain some of the religious customs of their ancestors – that connection is also eroding due to a lack of religiosity in America as a whole. Little is left to bind Italians together.
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| Image of newly arrived Italian immigrants |
In conclusion – Italians may not be “white” in the classical, American sense. However, it is important to note that what motivated Italians was not their desire to be Italian in America. Their desire was to succeed and achieve greatness in America at any cost. So, while they may not have retained their original customs and traditions, they did manage to succeed rather quickly in their new surroundings. In fact, they achieved success and elevated themselves out of the immigrant ghettos within one generation of being here. Perhaps losing our language and traditions was the cost of success in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Check out Part # 1- Italians are not White
Check out Part # 2 - Italians are Latin
Get Social With Us:
Don't forget also that whiteness could save your life -- it wasn't only desirable, sometimes it was a matter of survival. The largest mass lynching in US history was visited upon Sicilians in Louisiana. And most of our families became white without their even realizing it up north. My own father's home was broken into and trashed before his family moved into it because the neighbors didn't want "their kind." This stuff is within the lifetimes of people like me, and my parents. It's not just history. We're NOT "white." And the whitenizing process happened before we even realized what was going on.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm not sure I agree that Italian-Americans would mind acknowledging that we're not white. In my experience (and keep in mind that I am no conservative; I am a pro-choice, pro-gay rights, global-warming-is-real liberal), the people who would kick hardest against Italians claiming our Latin reality are the typing-paper-white white-collar limousine liberals who see in us people who are dark enough to shit on, but white enough that they won't lose their liberal cred for doing so. (I think often Jews get the same treatment.) They are dead center of the definition of whiteness, and as it frays around the edges, they feel fear for themselves, like they are losing territory. They are more offended that any one of us would be. And Black people don't care what we consider ourselves to be, on the whole. They have their hands full dealing with their own problems, and don't have the time to waste worrying about us on the whole. It's the latte liberals who are the problem.
I really wish there were a better way to discuss all this. Whiteness never was a real thing -- and it's starting to give way. And no one wants to acknowledge it.
My grandfather had a similar experience growing up in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Historically, it was inhabited by Irish immigrants and their children. When the Italians showed up - all hell broke loose. The Irish saw them as non-white competition for the local dock jobs. I remember him telling me that he had to run home from school every day because local kids would love to throw rocks at the Italians.
DeleteI think you're assessment is correct - "...[individuals] who see in us people who are dark enough to shit on, but white enough that they won't lose their liberal cred for doing so."
This statement alone has been the sole reason why anti-Italian behavior in the media has been allowed to go on unchecked. The media (and the public at large) sees us as white enough to discriminate against - but not white enough to be considered a part of the establishment. There was - and always will be- an "otherness" about Italians that left us on the outside looking in.
You raise another great point: people completely forget about the Louisiana Lynching and "Who killah da chief?" It is definitely worth re-visiting in a future post - along with Sacco and Vanzetti.
Thanks for all the great feedback!
I am not sure that your translation of Mussolini's remarks in the poster are correct. The text in Italian is "Bisogna distruggere la democrazia." And although I am not fluent in Italian yet the verb bisognare usually refers to a need and add to the fact that he is using the third person of the verb and not the first person. It would be probably be better to translate it as, "It is necessary to destroy democracy" or something like that. Anyway, it is a good example about how the American government felt about the Italian language.
ReplyDeleteI think you're right. I quickly (and mistakenly) read it as "ho bisogno." Nice catch - all corrected :)
DeleteSame with my dad and his neighborhood -- it's one of the reasons why I get so mad at paesans who talk smack about current immigrants. We caught it from the Irish ... and a generation prior, the Irish were dodging the rocks! Can't we all just knock off the nonsense?
ReplyDeleteTotally agree about anti-Italian stereotypes in the media as well. They can't seem to operate without having SOMEONE to turn into a violent cartoon, and we're a nice, safe target. And for some insane reason, we don't. Fight. Back. Or else we participate in it. I'd like to smack Joe Pesci and Martin Scorsese in the head sometimes.
Excellent find - it highlights everything spoken about here. Many people are "white" or "non- white" based on our government's needs. It's not a true category or marker at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the great feedback!
There's also another interesting thing that I ran into, although I haven't poked around in the 2010 census results yet. Apparently, many, many, many millions of us have self-identified on the most recent census AS Italian or Italian-American*. The thing about this that I find interesting is that there is no box to check for "Italian." We are expected to check White (and according to the census website, we are RACIALLY CLASSIFIED AS WHITE even when we check "Other" and fill it in!).
ReplyDeleteHowever, if we check "Other" and fill it in, it's still recorded in our entry, even if we are statistically grouped as White.
Two things:
1) Clearly, we do NOT "feel" White, not internally. We had to specifically check the "Other" box and fill it in with something else. We had to make the effort to define ourselves as something other than White, and we make that effort -- by the millions. Holy shit, this is not a small minority whiner sentiment. However,
2) The government refuses to respect it. We get called White from the outside. Others, whiter than we will ever be -- the ones who built this bullshit ladder of privilege in the first place -- feel completely entitled to pick which rung everyone else gets to stand on.
I would be interested to see what other groups of people write down in the "Other" box, how many other ethnicities will refuse to be classified as White and insist on claiming their individual ethnic heritage. I think that Italians are more likely than most to do so since we (and like I said, Jews I think) are closest to the margins, but I think that there will probably be a significant minority of other people writing in stuff like "Irish," "Hungarian," "Greek," and whatnot.
Whiteness is bullshit. I really need to go through the 2010 census results for myself (and control my temper well enough to do so). There is a HUGE article in there about the bullshit nature of Whiteness and how the fishbelly-whitest people in the country feel like they get to slap the labels on everyone else for their political convenience.
Oh, there's one more thing that occurred to me a while back about whiteness and Italianita -- basically, keeping us in the constant limbo state of white-but-not-really also allows us to function as the scapegoat for all racism and thus keep the mud off the skirts of the whitest core of the category. When white people have to acknowledge the bullshit they're wrought on the country, they look around, pick the darkest white folks there (white-but-not-really) and shove us forward to make their goddamned apologies for them.
And the closer a wop is to having to kowtow to a bunch of white people, the more eager they are to do it -- that's why the Italian social sciences academics are the worst about this. They need to suck up to lily-white tenure committees.
Anyhow. I wish more of us would care about this sort of thing. It's a very, very dangerous position to be in where we are: dark enough to slander, white enough to get away with it. We really do need to put a stop to this crap NOW and define ourselves for ourselves and not let ourselves get tossed from one box to another at someone else's convenience. :-(
* Ancestry.com video on researching Italian ancestors.