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
Marketing campaign. Columbus was Italian. Columbus “discovered” America. Italians are American.
Seriously, Italian Americans promoted the Columbus discovered America exaggeration to combat racism against Italians in America.
One reason is religion, another reason is money.
The Irish and Italians were the working poor and essentially slaves in the old days (more so for Irish). There was a lot of negative sentiment around them mostly because of their religious divide from other caucasians.
Once their numbers grew though and their religion was more accepted and they started to have money (and thus power) they slowly got more welcomed into the rest of the population, especially since there was now other races to dislike even more.
And also Italian food was pretty good so I think that helped as well
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.
Kind of amazing that I’m not seeing this mentioned here but a large and significant reason is because of Columbus Day. Yes that controversial holiday.
[One of the largest group lynchings in American history happened in New Orleans in 1891](https://www.history.com/news/the-grisly-story-of-americas-largest-lynching) brutally murdering 11 Italian men.
The following year President Harrison declared Columbus Day a national holiday. This was intended both to cool tensions with the Italian government and give all Americans a chance to see Italians as an included part of the founding of the country. It worked! This is part of the reason why cities with large Italian populations fight vehemently against losing the holiday. For them it’s less about Columbus and more about celebrating Italian American heritage.
NYT did a good article a couple of years ago on the subject called [How Italians Became ‘White’](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/columbus-day-italian-american-racism.html)
They became white people. And who hates pasta or pizza? Nobody (except the gluten intolerant obviously).
By modern definitions of discrimination I think we still are.
I’ve seen so many hit TV shows where non-italian actors are laying on the thickest fakest Italian American persona that would be considered straight up racism if it were any other race.
That being said I don’t share these definitions of racism and discrimination, I just find it tirelessly annoying.
Strongly recommend the book Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson who goes into this in some detail. If I remember correctly she argues that It became more advantageous for white people to incorporate Italians and Irish into their”whiteness” as it enabled them to consolidate more power.
You say american hate against italian ha ended but i still see you guys using cream for a carbonara.
I think it could have a lot to do with millions who served during WW2. Guys who may have hated catholics and Italians, but never really knew any, all the sudden were spending a lot of time with guys who’s grandmas cooked a mean spicy meatball. They counted on them when the chips were down and built this trust and love that went pretty far to undermine their prejudices.
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