cassandrasdaddy
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Public references to immigrants from Italy in the late 19th century, a high point of immigration, illustrate the point. The Popular Science Monthly, December 1890, had an article, entitled, “What Shall We Do With the Dago?” It charged that Italian immigrants loved to use their knives “to lop off another dago’s finger or ear, or to slash another’s cheek.”
A New York City newspaper of the time wrote: “The floodgates are open. The bars are down. The dam is washed away. The sewer is choked. Europe is vomiting! In other words, the scum of immigration is viscerating our shores. The hordes of $9.60 steerage slime are being siphoned upon us from continental mud tanks. [Steerage being the cheapest and worst passenger conditions on the big ocean liners often below the water level. One story even had steerage passengers sharing space with a horse of a wealthy person in first class.]
In 1891 in New Orleans there was suspicion that a crime ring was operating among Sicilian immigrants. The New Orleans police chief was assassinated. Italians were suspected. Hundreds of them were rounded up. Nine were tried. Six were acquitted. A mistrial was declared for the other three. Two days later, a mob of 6000, stormed the jail. Ten Italians were shot to death in the jail cells. An eleventh by the name of Polize – described in the local paper as crazy – was also shot and wounded in his cell.
But in order to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd outside, Polize was dragged from the jail, hung by the neck from a lamppost and shot countless times by the crowd.
[This story provides an additional answer to the old question about whether you would rather be shot or hung. The third possibility – both – was offered through Polize. A fourth possibility is convert criminal behavior into entertainment as in the Sopranos.]
The story also illustrates the fear and prejudice awaiting whatever tribes immigrated to America, even those who were the same race and European culture stock. The fact that the children of European immigrants successfully integrated into the mainstream illustrates both their determination to succeed, the social grease provided by education and money, and the relative openness of American society to those with white skin
http://www.masw.org/about_MASW/peter/blundering_forward.html
seem kinda familiar heck if this bit of rabid hatred had fullfilled itself we'd all be speaking italian those of us who survived anyway
A New York City newspaper of the time wrote: “The floodgates are open. The bars are down. The dam is washed away. The sewer is choked. Europe is vomiting! In other words, the scum of immigration is viscerating our shores. The hordes of $9.60 steerage slime are being siphoned upon us from continental mud tanks. [Steerage being the cheapest and worst passenger conditions on the big ocean liners often below the water level. One story even had steerage passengers sharing space with a horse of a wealthy person in first class.]
In 1891 in New Orleans there was suspicion that a crime ring was operating among Sicilian immigrants. The New Orleans police chief was assassinated. Italians were suspected. Hundreds of them were rounded up. Nine were tried. Six were acquitted. A mistrial was declared for the other three. Two days later, a mob of 6000, stormed the jail. Ten Italians were shot to death in the jail cells. An eleventh by the name of Polize – described in the local paper as crazy – was also shot and wounded in his cell.
But in order to satisfy the blood lust of the crowd outside, Polize was dragged from the jail, hung by the neck from a lamppost and shot countless times by the crowd.
[This story provides an additional answer to the old question about whether you would rather be shot or hung. The third possibility – both – was offered through Polize. A fourth possibility is convert criminal behavior into entertainment as in the Sopranos.]
The story also illustrates the fear and prejudice awaiting whatever tribes immigrated to America, even those who were the same race and European culture stock. The fact that the children of European immigrants successfully integrated into the mainstream illustrates both their determination to succeed, the social grease provided by education and money, and the relative openness of American society to those with white skin
http://www.masw.org/about_MASW/peter/blundering_forward.html
seem kinda familiar heck if this bit of rabid hatred had fullfilled itself we'd all be speaking italian those of us who survived anyway
