Read more
First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.
List of contents
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
About the author
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 Wagesof Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American WorkingClass.
Summary
When Italian immigrants landed on American shores they were outsiders but over time this community moved from being ethnically suspect to being racially privileged. Asking "are Italians white?", this collection of essays explores how, when and why whiteness became important to Italian Americans.
