audiobook A Great Conspiracy against Our Race: Italian Immigrant Newspapers and the Construction of Whiteness in the Early 20th Century (Culture; Labor; History) by Peter G. Vellon in History

Review

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Loaded with promise; but ultimately weak on deliveryBy LavendulaIn A Great Conspiracy Against Our Race; Professor Peter Vellon explores how the Italian language press in the United States “constructed race; class; and identity from 1886 through 1920.” By examining a variety of newspapers; each occupying different positions on the political spectrum; Vellon demonstrates how these identities were reworked and molded over time: that is; how the Italian press wrote about Italian immigrants and the racial position they occupied in US society vis a vis whites; African Americans; Native Americans; and Asian immigrants. Although published by a university press and by the nature of its topic; perhaps targeting an academic reader; it is a fairly easy and straightforward read.First off; the book achieves one major accomplishment: it focuses its research on the rather extensive – really quite vast – Italian language newspaper culture of the Great Migration period; a treasure trove that for all intents and purposes remains untapped. Neglected in many other social histories; it is refreshing to see a scholar place value on a medium that no doubt played a role in informing and shaping the opinions of Italian immigrants; who have generally been dismissed by other scholars as uneducated and illiterate. While many may have been semi-literate at best; Italians nevertheless bought papers at rates the same; if not higher than other non-English speaking immigrant groups at the time – these papers were either read or heard by many in the immigrant community. One could only imagine the role they played in orienting immigrants and shaping their understanding of the new world they found themselves in. Looking to them for some direction in trying to understand how Italians thought about race; or; better; how they were learning to think about race (since it’s unlikely they ever thought about it in Italy) promises to be a fruitful undertaking.Unfortunately; Vellon’s work falls short of being truly impactful for a number of reasons. While it is a brief book; about 130 pages of text; it is extremely repetitive; the same handful of points is made over and over again. But; a second criticism; even more troubling to me; is that it ends its newspaper exploration in 1920 and then jumps in the epilogue to; in the span of less than five pages; make sweeping generalizations about the Italian American experience from the 1940s to the present time. And; all of the observations speak to acts of racism and racist rhetoric by Italian Americans; with the strong suggestion that such racism is the outcome of ideas about race that the Italian language press sorted out prior to 1920. In many ways; the epilogue seems to accept an unestablished premise that IA at this point are not only accepted and thought of (by themselves included) as white; but even worse; are somehow inherently racist. Are we to believe that there are no other understandings of race within the Italian American community during these years? That there are no examples of inter-ethnic/racial cooperation? Or; more importantly; that Italian Americans ceased to face discrimination at the hands of whites and ceased to question their racial position in American society? For what started out as a well-researched and focused text; it ends rather hastily and shoddily.In addition to the unfortunate close; I also wonder why Vellon chose to end his newspaper exploration in 1920; given the serious role race played in the immigration legislation of the 1920s. He briefly touches on the Dillingham Commission and the fact that the Italian language press was concerned about negative perceptions of Italians by whites when it came to immigration legislation. Of course; the major piece of legislation was passed in 1924 and it was extremely unfavorable to Italians; limited their immigration to a trickle; and; I would argue; perhaps more than anything else ushered in an assimilated IA community that became increasingly divorced from its roots (when it ceased; in 1930; to be a majority foreign-born community). Likewise; Vellon mentions the precarious position of IA during the 1940s/World War II; but again; offers nothing from the press. This sudden halt at 1920 is a major disappointment; as one would imagine that the Italian press would have written extensively about immigration reform of the 1920s; which was based entirely on race; and alas; been forced to face the fact that; well; no; Italians were not white enough to be as freely welcomed into the country as northern Europeans. Vellon’s decision to stop here is one of the weaknesses of whiteness studies: just as the going gets tough; the whiteness studies scholar’s knees buckle; and he crashes and burns amidst sweeping generalizations.