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
In: Other
Couple of factors. It is good to know that some of it was the death of fervent anti-Catholicism, but…
During and after the abortion/reversing of Reconstruction they were allowed to be “white” in an effort to put an end to solidarity with other poor people and subjugated black people in particular. Many Italians were not economically advantaged due to discrimination until the necessary change in attitude to reduce the chances of revolt. The Irish famously benefitted from this change too.
They assimilated and enjoy a great deal of celebration, but it’s to serve a greater purpose to fulfill the “melting pot” American fantasy that maintains a status quo of institutionalized racism against the most vulnerable groups. You can’t have a society that marginalizes TOO many of its own cultural makeup so the ones that can pass will do their part to look pretty and aspirational.
If white supremacists get their way then it’s last hired first fired. The Italians and Irish still face mild discrimination in many private situations and will not be allowed to exist in an actual white ethnostate.
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