How Italians Became 'White'

[TreasonousBastard]

2. A few years after my father died, my mother married "Luigi" a second generation Italian...

who remembered the times when Italians were not welcomed, but shrimp were cheap because "white people" in New York hadn't discovered them yet.

"Papa" never did learn English very well, but he and all his kids managed to become professionals or artisans and did quite well. He insisted that they adopt the language and ways of their new country, since Europe was falling apart and they may never go back.

Some of them looked more Jewish than Italian to the casual observer, which may have put them a rung up in some cases, but it is still a sick reminder of how we classify people. At the same time, if your name ended in a vowel, you couldn't get into the best law firms, brokerage houses, or other centers of power.

But, around that time the greatest Mayor of NYC, an Italian, was elected. Go figure.

Plenty of Irish have the same histories from around that time. We have rarely been as welcoming of immigrants as we like to think we are.