Anti-Italian American Prejudice and Discrimination

Anti-Italian American Prejudice and Discrimination Mezzogiorno Nearly three-fourths of all Italian immigrants to the United States came from the southernmost provinces of Italy. Known as Il Mezzogiorno, it was the country’s most impoverished region, with the illiteracy rate at a staggering 70 percent in 1900, and longstanding oppression from Italy’s Northern-dominated government. Southern Italian economy relied on agriculture, but natural disasters of volcano eruptions and earthquakes in the early 20th century devastated what little cultivatable land there was (Mintz, 2007). Unable to sustain tolerable living conditions, most became migrant workers. Between the years of 1876 and 1924, nearly 5 million Italians arrived in the United States (Pozzetta, 2008). About one-fourth remained in New York City, while more than half settled in the middle Atlantic states and New EnglandMany Italian immigrants had no plans of establishing permanent homes in the United States. Most were young men who left behind their wives and childr en with hopes of brief absence-they would find employment, collect their pay, and return home. They lived prudently in conditions that were regarded as intolerable by ordinary American families (Mintz, 2007). Commonly working unskilled jobs in construction and public development, roughly half of the Italian immigrant population in the early 1900’s was made up of manual laborers (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, 2009). Although the United States appealed to emigrating Italians as the best prospective destination to find work, Gambino (2002) asserts that American industry sought immigrants to replace the emancipated slave class. Many Italian immigrants in the North took positions in sweatshops and factories, while others were recruited to work on Southern plantations where slave labor had since been abolished (LaGumina, 1999). However, those in larger urban areas often found dominance in skilled artisan trades they had once practiced in Italy, such as shoemaking, tailorin g, and barbering (Pozzetta, 2008). Though still generally confined to a lower class, many Italian immigrants found solidarity in highly concentrated ethnic neighborhoods (Mangione & Morreale, 1993). Little Italies The emergence of â€Å"Little Italies† was prompted in large part by the intolerance and hostility that Italian immigrants faced in mainstream American society (Pozzetta, 2008). A working class minority that was defined by some as â€Å"not quite white† (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, 2009), or the â€Å"missing link† between black and white (Borsella, 2005), they often faced discrimination in housing opportunities. Italian immigrants themselves were slow to seek assimilation because traditionally, la famiglia (the family) and l’ordine della famiglia (the rules of behavior and responsibility to the family) came before any affiliation with a larger-scale community (Mintz, 2007). This resistance began to fade as subsequent generations stra yed from the strict codes of their parents. With the dawn of World War II, more than 500,000 Italian Americans served in the U.S. military, proving to many that their loyalties to the country were strong. By the 1950’s it seemed that Italian immigrants, now secure in identifying as Italian Americans, had found a true home in the United States (Pozzetta, 2008). Anti-Italian prejudice however, though less pronounced, still endured. Dating back to the early 20th century and the apex of the group’s immigration, society and popular culture have attached a number of stereotypes to Italian Americans. Arguably the most distinctive stereotype is that of association with La Cosa Nostra, or the American Mafia (Pozzetta, 2008). Released in 1972, the critically-acclaimed and wildly popular film The Godfather became the archetype of Hollywood’s â€Å"Mafia movie† industry, depicting Italian Americans as ruthless criminals, a label that had long vilified their ethnic id entity. Many Italian Americans, after having fought the stereotype for decades, came to embrace the Mafia image that had captivated American moviegoers and provided a highly profitable new avenue for filmmakers. The 1990’s introduced the film Goodfellas (1990) and the television series The Sopranos (1999), both of which reinforced the hardcore gangster image (Borsella, 2005). Other predominant Italian American stereotypes in film and television often still include the feisty young woman with a taste for gaudy fashion, the lovable womanizer, and the overweight matriarch with excessive jewelry and a pot of spaghetti (Pozzetta, 2008).

In depth analysis about article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

In depth analysis about article - Essay Example The "instrumental view" implies that the right is important for the accomplishment of the deed but if it is not fulfilled, there is no moral issue. The "constraint view" obliges that the right be fulfilled without taking into account moral issues. Gasoline has to be purchased by the end user at the price it is being sold. The "goal view" differs as it is intrinsically important but it is not required. It is considered essential if the goal is to be completed, taking into account the infringement of other peoples fulfillment of their personal rights. The goal view encompasses moral accounting. Dual roles of rights exist where some rights may be intrinsically important and instrumentally valuable: the right to be free from hunger, the right to work. These imply the duality of the instrumental and goal view. The intrinsic value of a right is subjective and can be considered positive or negative. All moral assessments of a right must include the political, social and moral acceptation and consequences. Starvation is in relation to the structuring of property rights. In simplistic terms, the right to property is the right to food. Henry George said "Give the product to the producer". The Neoclassical theory does not take into account casual influences. The classical labor theory ignores internal conflicts; and the socio/psychological theory does not take into account the level of production. Starvation must take into account a system of encompassing all property right theories which encompasses also the positive and negative intrinsic moral values. One of the principle causes of famine is the lack of a legal system of property rights or entitlements. The entitlement approach is the "endowment" which includes man power, fields, factories, labor, etc.; and exchange entitlement mapping of production or trade (production and distribution channels). If the system does not produce enough food or the distribution of food is poorly managed famines

Have to choose a good topic from the area of ICT or computing Essay

Have to choose a good topic from the area of ICT or computing - Essay Example or your browser automatically installs program without seeking your permission and ends up installing a spyware or you click on a pop up and that triggers a program to install a spyware onto your machine. Apart from hackers, spywares are mainly created by the advertisement companies in order to track the online behavior of users. Along with spywares, the advertisement companies can also infect your system with tracking cookies which can track every site that you have browsed and can fetch the vital personal information. Generally the spywares created by these companies are not as lethal as the ones created by the hackers, in case the companies do not use the information for anything else apart from marketing but these spywares also turn your machine into a data transmitter for these advertisement agencies, seriously affecting the performance of your home based system. Imagine the previous times full of inconvenience and hassles when we had to stand in what appeared to be never ending queues, to execute any transaction at the bank be it some money transfer or even a minor enquiry. We had to spend hours for booking the railway tickets and for paying our utility bills. Then we jumped onto the era of internet where most of the needs of the day are resolved using internet itself. Few individuals now can be seen doing the transactions standing at the bank. But, as the wise people say â€Å"There are no free lunches†, there is a cost associated with this convenience as well. The sole identity that a person has during any online transfer is his password. In case the password to your bank account has been hacked by a smart hacker, after tracking the data from your computer system, he can transfer millions from your account into his account in just a few seconds. To your nightmare, it does not end here. He can sell the vital information, related to your company’s strategy and stored in your system, to the competitor and since the information has been leaked from