Here are some interesting things:
Southern Italians were considered “black” in the South and were subjected to the Jim Crow laws of segregation. They weren’t allowed to marry “whites.” It was difficult, damn near impossible.
They were designated as “black” on census forms if they lived in the South and that is because the majority of them were dark-skinned Sicilians.
Mass lynchings happened to them often.
One of the biggest mass lynchings happened to Italians in New Orleans when they thought that a Italian immigrant had killed a “white” police officer.
The very few Northern Italians that immigrated here perpetuated the myth that Southern Italians and Greeks were of a different race than them in order to save their own asses. This wasn’t true, and there are actually dark-skinned Italians all over Italy, not just in the South, as well as light-skinned Italians all over Italy.
The reason I say very few is because over 80% of Italian immigrants were from Southern Italy (Sicily, Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Sardinia, Naples, etc.)
It was highly unlikely (damn near impossible) for a Southern Italian to own a slave because they were seen as the same as blacks, and at the time, they were the second (right behind blacks) most discriminated against group.
The mass immigration for Italians didn’t start until 1880 and even then, they were discriminated against. However, this mass immigration leads into Italian-Americans today:
Italian is the fourth largest ethnic group reported among white Americans.
The great majority of Italians are now middle class to upper middle class and wealthy. They also mostly work white collar jobs.
Their intermarriage rate is around 90%. It was at 80% in the 70’s. So most Italian-Americans also have a white parent of some other descent, especially if they were born after 1980. Exactly like my friend who has a Sicilian father (and he is very dark-skinned) and white Southerner for a mother. We spoke to my friend’s Sicilian grandfather, and he said that one of his brothers was dating a white girl from the South back in the day and that her family considered him “black.” They thought that was weird because by that time, they were living in New York.
They are now considered white
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Comments:
I thought it was interesting looking at back then and looking at them now. I knew they weren’t considered white back then, but I had no idea they actually wrote them down as black on census forms. That shocked me, and when I found that my friend’s ancestor was listed as black on that census form, I thought the ancestor was just a biracial who had a Sicilian father, and so did she. We were just as surprised to find that he was just a teenage Sicilian immigrant. My friend has tanned skin, dark hair, blue eyes, and freckles to boot. So you can see both ethnicities in her. My Greek professor is way darker than her, and he also has a white, WASPY mother.
Italians are still discriminated against. I remember hearing a group of white women referring to them as “Ghetto Whites”. Many whites who feel they have a “true bloodline” dont like them. Anglo Saxonism is a bitch. Pretty much anyone not from England, Gemany (not Jews), Netherlands and so on is not “truly white”. From my experience and when I look at history, this is how white supremacists feel. Spaniards are technically considered Euopean/”white”, but many dont accept them as that. Discrimination among the white race is very prevalent.
Courtesy Lipstickvalley
All I want to know is what did we do as originals not aboriginal for my brother to hate me so much in this world? You aliens or Enlil and enki kids ( goat) love to control and hate . THE MOST HIGH AND YESHUA LOOK LIKE MY GOLDEN BUTT. WHEN BLACK IS ILLUMINATED GOLD WILL ALWAY BE US HATERS . AND STILL LOVE YOUR WEAK BUTT.
Question, my dad whom I did not know because he passed away in 1985 when I was 5 , was said to have been Italian. My skin tone is dark olive and my hair is black eyes brown. My dad’s last name was Ross. Ancestry.com says Ross sure name is English/Scottish. I can say that my dad was neither . I have pics of him and he was very olive skin and black hair and brown eyes. My ? Is is it possible that when his parents came to Ellis Island, that they shortened their names or changes the spelling?
Yes, it is possible that your grandparents may have chosen to change their names to sound more American. Most likely it was not done at Ellis Island as inspectors pretty much copied names off the ship’s manifest or other documents that were presented. They were not interested in renaming people, they mainly just did their job. It was the immigrants themselves that chose to shorten or change names altogether. They also could have been advised to do so depending on the profession they chose. It was very common in show business to have a more anglo sounding name. They also often changed their first names as did Pierino Ronald Como, better known as Perry Como.
My paternal great grandparents were born in Italy and in Sicily . As I have qlways known Europe is by far the most mixed race of people that exist. If white supremist wanted to keep a pure white race the should never sent white men to fight wars in other countries. All of man early settlement and civilizations have been attacked many times over and that my friend makes us all related . Dont believe me? Get your dna checked ,oh and then imagine if no one had vision. Raciam is a made up fear based controlling mechanism created to keep peoplecfighting and hating so they those that make money from wars can make more money .wake up people ,how long are you going to be brainwashed . Im still waiting for people to wake up so we can heal and grow in a more productive society
No one thalks about the true history of the south…
The south the ex ( kingdom of the two Sicilies)
What it was before it got unjustly annexed to the Sardinian kingdom also known as piedmont..
In 1861… and the genocide of the southern italian people by the Piedmontese (northern italianians) to repress the rebellion from 1861 till 1871…. 1 million southerners italians labeled ( briganti) bandits…..although rebels against the newly form italian state…who formed a pact with the mafias to steal everything from the ex kingdom….
Today it exists an imnaginary line between the north and the south…. that is to this day very racist against the south…. history that was not taught in school the southerners got made 2nd classs italians againts their will… simply the south got made to be an internal colony of the north….we’re treated differently within italy itself..
Those in denial should watch True Romance the Sicilian scene… The only difference is that I have learnt that it was Alexander the Great who went to African and find blue eye’s black people and brought them back to Italy and not so much the Moor’s…
Full blooded Sicilian family from Licata Sicily. Always was told we black Italians you can really tell by our hair texture
All races come from Africa, so to say your are not black would make most people confused since the facts tell us that mankind started in Africa…