How Italians Became American (NYTN Compilation)

45 Comments

1. Scroll down for links to the 10 chapters in the video!
   Send me a coffee!: https://ko-fi.com/nytn13#linkModal

   1. The Tallulah, Louisiana lynching of 1899
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=39

   2. The New Orleans lynching of 1891
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=1098

   3. School segregation in the South
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=1999

   4. Americas WW2 Interment camps for Italian-America
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=2790

   5. What you got wrong about the Mafia
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=3679

   6. Why Italians were considered “Low IQ“
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=4104

   7. My dad shares his Italian-American story
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=4933

   8. The REAL reason we have Columbus Day
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=6819

   9. What Italians think about Italian-Americans
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=7271

   10. What do Italian-Americans get wrong about Italian food?
   https://youtu.be/UPHxHwoK8qI?feature=shared&t=9110

2. Think of this… Italians came here and were oppressed by who ? The Irish came and were oppressed by who? The Natives and Mexicans got their land stolen by who ? Who dropped a nuke in Japan ? All this and what group of people get the most hate ? 🤔 Interesting and sad…

3. You mean how Italians became white. …

4. "Black as the blackest negro." Ever think, maybe they were negros in Italy and were considered Italian citizens?
   All these decades and so called white people were NOT claiming to have been or be enslaved. Now that the truth is coming out, about who the so called negro really is, which most don't want to acknowledge, and most wont, they are coming out the woodwork claiming to be a people that have been enslaved.
   Just because some Europeans, Africans and others have been enslaved, does not make them the real Yisraelites.
   Yes Europeans enslaved some of their own. It's in their nature. They are a man of war. Have not all the world wars been theirs, and the one escalating now.

5. We Africans need you to remain on the side of racist Caucasians where Italians have always been. You're white. It's ok. You are NOT black

6. Italy is in the medataran .what do you expect. ITS HOT 🔥

7. American is a bloodline. American Indians were reclassified to Colored, then reclassified to Negro, then to Black, etc., along with a fake kidnapped African story to hide the truth. Immigrants were classified by their country of origin.

8. This has been very interesting following your channel concerning the history of this country. I knew about the Japanese ancestry being putting in these camps, but I did not know about the Italians were put there. Also, I wish I would’ve known this along time ago.

9. These stories brought tears to my eyes . Civilization is just skindeep

10. Are not most Cicilans Ethiopian?

11. The great thing about your story is you retain knowledge of your heritage you know you're Italian another great thing is your families weren't broken up and put in fields and brutalized and sexualized thank goodness that didn't happen to you Italians and you're not still marginalized and murdered regularly in the present system today

12. It’s the same way they used the media and newspapers to fuel the hate toward Black People. People only go by what they hear, none of these people know any black people, but they’ve drawn a conclusion about them, how? They’re to lazy to read, so all the ideas these people got about black people, were spoon fed to them over the course of centuries. Their media, their newspaper, their radio, their social media etc. they own it, they put out what they want people to believe, not what is true, it’s called indoctrination or my favorite, Public Programming, they always distort the facts, and they’re never in the favor of the non white, this is why the media has always been hated in the Black Community, they fuel a lot of the fires, on purpose and all we can do is shake our heads while it happens, and prepare for the fallout. People are followers, they’re not independent thinkers and they’re happy to hear negative information, about the Black Community, because that’s what they’ve been told we are, they don’t care if it’s true or not, it fits the narrative spoon fed to them by the media, so regardless it matches what they believe true or not, the media was a very powerful tool in causing the hate, division and bigotry, but it couldn’t happen unless people were willing to be evil people, and they were willing, and still are.

13. I grew up across the river from Philidelphia during the '50s. At the time, southern Italians were still considered "swarthy", as were Andalusians and Greeks (olive undertones). Before that, the Irish (although anything but "swarthy") had filled that slot between slaves and free whites, because their position, vis á vis the Brits, were basically slaves of the land.
    Kennedy was opposed vehemently, because of the double whammy of Irish and Catholic.

14. HANNIBALS ITALIANS
    " TALL DARK & HANDSOME "
    BLACK – ITALIANS
    BLACK – IRISH
    NEGROE LOOK

    1857 ESTABLISHED
    " WHITE MAN " PALEFACE !

15. I appreciate all your research and thoughtful commentary on the Italian American experience. I too think its important to never forget where your roots come from. As well to never let others define who you are, but let your heart, character, love and your work be an inspiration and a beacon to those in need of hope and understanding. As we are inspired we too aspire to connect and inspire in love and truth.

16. It's been said that Italy is one of the most racist places in the world. They hate blacks in Italy

17. I have never seen Italians as dark as the first 2 men at the introduction of this video. Rabid Racism has shaped has severely affected the lengths at which non-white populations will go to escape the blowtorch of insidious judgement and subsequent denial of full personhood.

18. Imagine as Hispanics how we feel, when our history in the American continent began half a century before the pilgrims arrived with the Mayflower.. Even though our roots in the Americas go back half a millennium, most of our history is ignored in the United States history books..I’m sure with the arrival of Spanish colonist they must have been many Italians with them since parts of the Italian territories were under Spanish rule.. Here is a great Italian who was a Spanish Naval officer and born in Tuscany, Italy.. His name was Alessandro Malaspina..😊

19. Uh Ohhhhh!

20. That scene in the spike Lee movie do the right thing when they was in the closet and spike was running down the Italian black thing

21. Your dad has got swagger✨

22. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJuqadVoRAc
    THAT IS THE REALLLLLLLLLL LATIN /ITALIAN PHENOTYPE" SOME ARE PALE SKINNED,BUT NEVERTHELESS BRUNNETS AND FEW RED HEAD ADMIXED

23. BY GENETIC YOU RE NOT THE REAL ITALIAN DUDE
    "ITALIANS" ARE OTHER PEOPLE,THESE PHENOTYPE ARE ACTUALY IRANIANS INDIANS AND ARABS!! SOUTH ASIANS AND CENTRAL ASIAN PEOPLE NOT EUROPEANS

24. It’s true the evidence supports

25. Louisiana was the worst they had to pay Reparations to Italy for Lynching 11 Italian solders in the early 1900s.

26. The "Melting pot" concept was never a good thing. It was supposed to mean you no longer held onto those things that enriched you as a people (usually a far older and culturally richer people than the "White America" you were supposed to assimilate into). But for me, holding onto my racial culture over the "american culture" was a choice because why should I become a person like america? Why should I become a money chasing, hypocritical, heirarchal and shallow person? Do I want to be an idiot patriot who defends a global war machine? Do I want to transfer hate to the next group of immigrants in an attempt to raise my position?

    America is in many ways the antithesis to what makes a good society. It is a nation and a people in pursuit of a thing but not a nation and a people with a purpose. America no longer inspires, it only offers you the opportunity to purchase. America has cheapened itself as it continues to cosign genocide based on race (See Israel/palestine and who in the population also support the apartheid oppressor and not the oppressed).

    Naw, I'll continue to see myself outside of this american lie. Maybe one day America will honor the premise under which it claimed back in 1787 vs being an enabler for sociopaths and monsters.

27. Hey Danielle, it would be interesting if you could search about Italian immigration in South America, Brazil and Argentina have the largest Italian diaspora in the world. You could make a comparison between the immigration in the U.S. and South America, my dad's family is of Italian descent as well, they immigrated to Brazil in the late XIX century from Veneto, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Tuscany. Brazil had received people from all corners of Italy in contrast to the majority Southern population in America.

28. I'll try to keep this post short. Hopefully, you'll read it with an open mind.

    YouTubers have an agenda. They want to push their story or their view. How is that different from what the system has done historically? I'm not faulting you specifically, but I'm pointing out similarities in approach across YouTubers.

    For example, I've been fortunate to know the family of the Italians impacted by this story. One of the descendents is an artist and one of his prints hangs over my fireplace.

    So what's my argument? YouTubers are leaving huge relevant aspects of the story from their narratives. For example, you talk about how Italians were relegated to Black communities and haven't talked about yet how the Italians became the monsters they hated. Obviously, not all, but enough. And, "white" is nothing more than a status in the American caste system. To your credit, I think you've said or alluded to as much in this video as well those prior.

    I'm not trying to be critical or dismissive (not intentionally). I think you and other YouTubers make great videos. It's cool that you're vulnerable and bring your family into your virtual world.

    I guess what I'm suggesting is more honesty, not less or none. I appreciate how you don't go into the racial slur stuff, but you're leaving out how Italians were brutal to other groups (especially African-Americans) in their fight for "whiteness." Italians didn't just step through the 'whiteness door' and leave it open. They stepped through and slammed it shut.

    I know this sounds too broad, but my research points only in this direction. The only reason the United States and colonial America (with the exception of the Chinese perhaps) became open to these other non-black groups was to undermine the "black" or "negro" population (free, indentured, and enslaved). The entire immigration system was predicated on it (still).

29. What interests me most is that "White" or "Black" are accepted as valid categories at all.

30. The Italian government played a large part in ensuring Italians would be classified as White. American government had considered colored for Italians. There were no Italians in the DC area so they were seen as Black until they identified. We are very mixed race here so many Blacks here look Italian. Especially southern Italians. I have family who left Maryland to Pennsylvania to pass as White. They passed as Italians. Mid 1900s. I just found them on ancestry. They went north where many immigrant groups look like mixed Black people. In Maryland DC area you were defined as either White or Black. White was British white.

31. Thank you again this is really gonna help me tell my people. The truth cause they never believed It . The reason why I found out any of it was because black people called me black and I used to look at him like they were crazy. What are you talking about? I'm not black, I'm cecilian. I used to say. what are you talking about ? I know it's really true.

32. Welcome 😊 to our community my beautiful Latin soul sister.

33. No wonder they had created the call them that. So I guess they just accepted it and created it. Wow, I guess they. really trying to protect theirs, oh my God.

34. Now I know why my grandmother never talked she spoke nothing but italian cecilian I wish our people would have told us all about this.
    Wow

35. Thank you so very much for this information. I never knew none of it

36. Just wanna throw it at you. My mother's name was piazza

37. im German American I didnt have no idea we was treated like this and sent to camps that scene in Band of Brothers where that German American reenlisted for the Fatherland it starting to make a little more sense

38. My dads' parents and grandparents immigrated to St Louis in the early 1900's. They were looked down on but nothing like Louisiana.

    I have heard about the lynching down south.

39. African American smh that’s maybe the 4th reclassified name. Me? I can go back 1800’s with no mention of such ‘ MORE LIKE AN INDIAN! And West Indies. SMH . Sure AFRICA like DUH! There’s KEMET… I mean. I’m aware of William PLECKER and his position in the US CENSUS. If we go way back ? HM . Then there’s the story about HANNIBAL THE GREATEST….. well we know..

40. My pale neighbor whom has a tree and a sun umbrella in front of house whom can’t take the sun whatsoever TOLD ME SHES THE FIRST ITALIANS! I cringed inside .. she’s fun but gosh I didn’t want to disturb her but gosh I look at her a tab different now.

41. So you're Creole Black and Italian Black… welcome to the Black side lol

42. 👍👍👍

43. They became white in 1894 when they got reparations, an appointed international hero Christopher Columbus and recognition of the Italians contribution to America, and a national holiday!

44. Wonderful compilation of the history and thoughts of Italian Americans. We can take pride through all this that Italians became very successful Americans.

45. Our parents and grandparents never spoke about their past.

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