1st Edition

Are Italians White? How Race is Made in America

Edited By Jennifer Guglielmo, Salvatore Salerno Copyright 2004
    344 Pages
    by Routledge

    342 Pages
    by Routledge

    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.

    Introduction: White Lies, Dark TruthsJennifer GuglielmoI. Learning the U.S. Color Line1. Color: White/ Complexion: DarkLouise DeSalvo2. No Color Barrier: Italians, Race, and Power in the United StatesThomas A. Guglielmo3. Race, Nation, Hyphen: Italian-Americans and American Multiculturalism in Comparative PerspectiveDonna R. Gabaccia4. Walking the Color Line: Italian Immigrants in Rural Louisiana, 1880-1910Vincenza ScarpaciII. Radicalism and Race5. Making the Italian Other: Blacks, Whites, and the Inbetween in the 1895 Spring Valley, Illinois Race RiotCaroline Waldron Merithew 6. It is Providential That There Are Foreigners Here: Whiteness and Masculinity In the Making of Italian American Syndicalist IdentityMichael Miller Topp7. I Delitti della Razza Bianca (Crimes of the White Race): Italian Anarchists' Racial Discourse as CrimeSalvatore Salerno8. Surrealist, Anarchist, Afrocentrist: Philip Lamantia Before and After the Beat GenerationFranklin Rosemont9. The Frontlines: Hip-Hop, Life, and the Death of RacismMark Vesuvio Guglielmo (aka Manifest)III. Whiteness, Violence, and the Urban Crisis10. When Sinatra Came to Italian Harlem: The 1945 Race Riot at Benjamin Franklin High SchoolGerald Meyer11. Frank L. Rizzo and the Whitening of Italian Americans in PhiladelphiaStefano Luconi12. Italians Against Racism: Yusef Hawkins (R.I.P.) and My March on BensonhurstJoseph SciorraIV. A Black Italian Imaginary13. Sangu du Sangu Meu: Growing up Black and Italian in a Time of White FlightKym Ragusa14. Figuring RaceEdvige Giunta15. Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito: Life in the BorderlandsJohn R. Gennari16. Italiani/ AfricaniRonnie Mae Painter and Rosette CapotortoAfterword: DuBois, Race and Italian AmericansDavid RoedigerContributors

    Biography

    Jennifer Guglielmo is Assistant Professor of History at Smith College. Salvatore Salerno is an independent scholar who has taught at University of Massachusetts at Boston, California State University at Sacramento, and Macalester College. David Roediger (afterword) is the Kendrick Babcock Professor of History at the University of Illinois and the author of many books, including Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class.

    "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