Italians abroad, especially Southern Italians, had never had a good reputation in the US, Canada and Australia. All the contrary, we often met extreme marginalisation, abuse and racism. In addition to prejudice based on ethnicity, we also had to face hatred because of our religion. In general, Italians abroad were marked as âotherâ and considered a lesser and unworthy ethnic group.
Italians abroad had fewer opportunities than other ethnic groups because they were discriminated against and criminalised based on ethnicity, skin colour or region of provenance alone. Needless to say, Southern Italians were the most targeted immigrant group.
As early as 1899, according to the New York Sun the average American southerner will âclassify the population as whites, dagoes and negroesâ, where âdagoâ is a racist derogatory term to describe Italians as well as Spanish and Portuguese people.
Italian immigrants who arrived to the US between the late 1870s and early 1920s were not considered white, so not on par with other immigrants from northern Europe; instead they were often being described as being âinfused with African bloodâ. It did not help that Italian immigrants and Black Americans worked often under the same conditions on the sugar-cane, cotton and rice plantations. This only helped blur the differences between Italians and Africans. For similar reasons, during the 1906 election campaign in Mississippi, âgubernatorial candidates discussed whether Italian immigrantsâ children should be placed in segregated schoolsâ. Homer Clipper observed that Italians were âas black as the blackest Negro in existenceââ. [x]
Italian male immigrants were the lowest paid workers (US 1920 census data). Northern Italian immigrants had a weekly income of $11.28, whereas Southern Italians earned only $9.61, which was less than the average income of Black Americans at $10.66, while white Americans had a weekly income of $14.37.
It also did not help that racist northern Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso and his students theorised that criminals were recognisable by certain physical traits which distinguished them from law-abiding individuals.
[From: The Black Hand: Terror by Letter in Chicago]
Italians only started to be regarded as âwhiteâ during the 60s and 70s, that is when they began to fight for racial balance in public schools:
Notes /Â Further readings:
Economic Characteristics of Italian Americans
âBlack Italiansâ in the Sugar Fields of North Queensland: a Reflection on Labour Inclusion and Cultural Exclusion in Tropical Australia
Black dagoes? Italian immigrantsâ racial status in the United States: an ecological view
The âSouthern Questionâ in Australia: The 1925 Royal Commissionâs Racialisation of Southern Italians
The âLittle White Slavesâ of New York
The Black Hand: Terror by Letter in Chicago
Before the Lynching- Reconsidering the Experience of Italians and Sicilians in Louisiana, 1870s-1890s
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
prguitarman
discoholicmusic
turnnoffyourmind
