Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America
Editorial Reviews
Review
This book cuts to the heart of the similarities and the differences between Italian Americans and African Americans, which historically has been a volatile mix....I applaud this insightful scrutiny.
-Spike Lee
An outstanding collection... an all-around look at a group of people who have made a deep mark on, and been deeply marked by, the U.S. experience.
-Noel Ignatiev, author of How the Irish Became White
Are Italians White? works from a strong antiracist premise and follows the thread of progressive, activist Italian-American history into the present. The essays lay out a careful, nuanced account of paesani (and Afro-paesani) lives in a multiracial, regionally diverse America. Bravo!.
-Micaela di Leonardo, author of Exotics at Home: Anthropologies, Others, American Modernity
Reminds us what the study of whiteness was supposed to yield in the first place: the ultimate dismantling of racism. These thoughtful essays ought to be mandatory reading for anti-racists everywhere.
-Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination
This exciting collection will forever change the way we think of the words 'Italian American.' Clearly provoked by the series of tragic incidents of racist violence in Italian American communities in the 1980s and 1990s, Are Italians White? is great social and cultural history.
-Robert A. Orsi, author of The Madonna of 115th Street: Faith and Community in Italian Harlem
Book Description
When Italian immigrants landed on American shores they were outsiders: dark in complexion, culturally different, and unable to speak English. Over time the vibrant community assimilated and moved from being ethnically suspect to being racially privileged as America divided into black and white.
This dazzling collection of original essays from some of the country's leading thinkers asks the rather intriguing question - Are Italians White? Each piece carefully explores how, when and why whiteness became important to Italian Americans, and the significance of gender, class and nation to racial identity.
From tales of immigration to the stormy relationship between Italians and blacks, the volume presents a dynamic, insightful look at integration, community identity, radicalism, urban politics and creative expression. The authors also explore critical moments in community conflict from the murder of Yusef Hawkins in Bensonhurst to Frank Sinatra's visit to Italian Harlem in the 1940s.
In the tradition of groundbreaking works like How the Irish Became White and How Jews Became White Folks, Are Italian White? is sure to become a landmark work that defines and adds to the dialogue on the distinct relationship that Italian Americans have had throughout American history to both racialized discrimination and racial privilege.
Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America
Are Italians White?: How Race is Made in America,J. Guglielmo,Routledge,0415934516,Anthropology - Cultural,Archaeology / Anthropology,Discrimination & Racism,Italian Americans,Race identity,Race relations,Social Science,Social conditions,Sociology,United States,Ethnography,History of specific racial & ethnic groups,Multicultural studies,North America,Social Science / Discrimination & Race Relations,USA
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