I Have to Get This Off My Chest, Any Italian Who is a Bigot is More of an Asshole Than Anyone Else

[LittleGirl]

87. My paternal grand father

came from Lazio around 1911 and moved to northern Indiana. My grandparents were married in 1920 in Italy and she came over 8 yrs later. I can't imagine not living with my spouse for 8 years. Anyway, my father was full blooded Italian and my Mother's ancestors came from England and lived in the south. She was born to share croppers who worked along side blacks in the cotton fields. She doesn't have a racist bone in her body and moved up to northern Indiana after the war and met my father. But my father died in 1975 at age 42 of heart failure so a lot of my Italian ancestry knowledge died with him. I've had to do research about it from his relatives that I've befriended since. My grand father died 4 yrs later and my grandmother died 11 yrs later. Grandpa was a carpenter and spoke great English and said, we're in America, you speak English! My grandmother didn't speak much English at all. She worked at a factory with other Italians so didn't learn as much English. She would speak half a sentence in English and half Italian. My father and his twin sister didn't speak English when they started school and my Aunt is, to this day, ashamed of being Italian. She's 86.

My grandparents didn't bring their Italian customs with them to America. They totally integrated and even though they went to the catholic church, they didn't do all of things that Italians did. We did go to their house on Sundays when they lived in town. They kept an amazing garden. They would not teach us Italian, they would not teach us their 'customs'. They didn't drink or smoke. In fact, they had many friends and relatives that moved from Italy to my home town because of jobs that they really didn't care to hang out with. They were drinkers and from what I learned since, obnoxious drunks so my grandparents didn't see them often.

What I've learned in my 50+ yrs is that each Italian story is different. Politics was not something our families discussed at all. I had no idea my Mother was a liberal until I started paying attention to politics 10 yrs ago. I have no idea if my father was liberal or a conservative. I don't know if he voted. I just know that both of my brothers are racists, one is a liberal, one is a fox spews watcher and Limbaugh listener. We're not close.

My spouse is from London and he is now a citizen. I've been through the immigration process and know how stressful and expensive it is for someone married to an American. Nobody understands what is involved. Nobody, unless they've been through it.

Racism is the fabric of America and the world.