Native Americans, Asians, and Italian Americans
Native Americans, Asians, and Italian Americans
Constructions of a Multilayered Racial Consciousness
This chapter explores how the press interpreted nonwhite races, such as the Native Americans and Asian Americans. Consistently differentiating these races according to color as either pelle rosse (redskin) or la razza gialla (the yellow race), the Italian language press teased different meanings from each group based upon factors such as civilization, race, and shared circumstances. For example, despite perceiving Native Americans as outside the bounds of civilization and, hence, destined to perish, Italian language newspapers entertained a divergent view of Japanese and Chinese peoples based upon alternate constructions of civilization and mutual threats such as race-based immigration restriction. By the World War I period, however, Italian Americans would trend toward a more simplistic construction of race less willing to perceive a nonwhite race as civilized.
Keywords: nonwhite races, Native Americans, Asian Americans, pelle rosse, la razza gialla, racial constructs, Italian language press, Italian Americans
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