Italian Americans used to face a lot of discrimination but now Italian hate in America is virtually non existent. How did this happen? Is it possible for this change to happen for other marginalized groups?
Edit: You don’t need to state the obvious that they’re white and other minorities aren’t, we all have eyes. Also my definition of discrimination was referring to hate crime level discrimination, I know casual bigotry towards Italians still exists but that wasn’t what I was referring to.
Anyways thank you for all the insightful answers, I’m extremely happy my post sparked a lot of discussion and interesting perspectives
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My dad’s side is Sicilian–I’m third generation and never had an issue–but my dad who has both a very Italian first and last name still got some shit in the 80s. Even today he shortens his first name professionally.
My grandfather was the first to be born in America. He straight up changed his name from Jacopo to John to distance himself from it and refused to teach his kids Italian. We still have some family recipes and traditions that have survived, but those and our last name are all we have left. It also seemed like Sicilians were especially discriminated against–even other Italians were racist toward them, from what I’ve been told
The collective impulse to hate Italians because the generation before them did seems to be gone now, thankfully. Most assimilated and married other Europeans/Americans and basically started to blend in with the rest of them. WWII probably also helped bring people together.
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