How Does 'Are Italians White?' Explore Identity?

'Are Italians White?' dives deep into the messy, fascinating history of Italian-American identity, showing how it’s never been a simple yes-or-no question. Back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Italian immigrants faced brutal discrimination in the U.S., often treated as racially inferior—lynchings, segregation, and anti-immigrant rhetoric labeled them as non-white. The book unpacks how this shifted over time, especially after WWII, when Italians assimilated into whiteness as part of broader societal changes. But it’s not just about skin color; it’s about class, culture, and power. The tension between embracing American whiteness and preserving Italian roots creates a layered identity crisis that still echoes today.

The book also challenges the idea of race as fixed, highlighting how Italians navigated (and sometimes reinforced) racial hierarchies. Some distanced themselves from Black communities to secure white privilege, while others allied with marginalized groups. It’s a raw look at how identity is shaped by survival, politics, and memory—not just biology. The stories of second-gen Italians torn between old-world traditions and new-world expectations add a personal punch. Ultimately, the title’s question isn’t just about Italians; it’s a mirror held up to America’s ever-changing, often hypocritical, definitions of race.

This book cracks open the myth of whiteness like a walnut. Italians weren’t always considered white in America—they were called 'Mediterranean degenerates' or even 'Black' in early census data. The author traces how economic needs (like labor exploitation) and political agendas (like anti-immigrant laws) weaponized racial categories. What’s wild is seeing how Italian-Americans internalized this, some shedding accents and heritage to 'become' white, while others clung to their roots as rebellion. The chapter on Sicilians being darker-skinned and facing harsher prejudice than northern Italians is especially eye-opening. It’s not dry history; it’s alive, showing how identity is negotiated daily, from dinner tables to voting booths. The book’s strength is its refusal to simplify—it sits in the uncomfortable gray areas where ethnicity, race, and class collide.

As a kid, my nonna would say, 'We’re not American white; we’re Italian.' This book explains that tension perfectly. It explores how Italian immigrants were stuck between being too foreign for white America but pressured to conform. The stories of kids getting beaten for speaking dialect in school hit hard. Over time, whiteness became a ladder—some climbed it by downplaying their heritage, others by flaunting it (think mob movies romanticizing Italian toughness). The book nails how identity isn’t just what you call yourself but what the world forces you to be.

The brilliance of 'Are Italians White?' lies in its focus on performance. Whiteness wasn’t given to Italians; it was earned through painful assimilation—anglicizing names, hiding traditions, even voting against newer immigrants. The book dissects how media played a role, from racist caricatures to 'The Godfather' rebranding Italians as powerful. It also contrasts urban Italians (who mixed with Black and Puerto Rican communities) with suburban ones who embraced white flight. This isn’t just about color—it’s about how identity bends under pressure, and who pays the price.

This book flips the script on race by asking who benefits from these labels. Italians got 'whiter' as America needed a unified front against other groups—Black, Latino, Asian communities. The irony? Many working-class Italians shared neighborhoods and struggles with those groups but were pushed to betray them for acceptance. The section on how Mussolini’s rise made Italian-Americans hyper-patriotic to prove loyalty is chilling. It’s a short but brutal look at identity as a tool of power.