In Chapter Five of “From Ellis Island to JFK,” Foner speaks about racial prejudices in New York. She explains that the whites of Western Europe who settled in New York were not accepting of those from Western and Southern Europe. They did not count these people as whites although they were clearly white. In my opinion, one of the most ridiculous things notions of the whites in those days is the “racist folklore [which] held that Jews, inside-out, were ‘niggers'” (Foner 147). Although not everyone believed in this folklore, there were still those who just did not count the Jewish people as white and even went as far as to plaster NYU with signs saying that the Jews should drop out so that the school could be a “white man’s college” (Foner 147). A huge contrast to today, the newspapers, magazines, and public forums were allowed to print articles that openly discriminated against Jews and Italians. Also, there were institutions like elite summer resorts that openly shut out Jews, and even realtors made efforts to shut them out, saying that their buildings were “‘restricted’and prohibited Catholics, Jews, or dogs'” (Foner 148). In today’s society, this would not be allowed and would be practically fought about to the death.
Many jobs set different wages for different types of workers including: “common labour, white; common labour, colored; common labour, Italian” (Foner 148). Colleges set admission restrictions for Jews and set limits numbering the Jewish students allowed, even resorting to asking questions of religious affiliation on applications. In 1946, New York State forbade the discrimination of students based on religious or racial grounds in higer education. Again, these acts that were committed by these different institutions could never happen today.
In today’s society, the separation between Europeans is not as prevalent as it was one hundred years ago. All Europeans are considered white without question and there aren’t openly discriminatory efforts being made to exclude any of the “whites,” for example, Jews and Italians. Blacks are also not as discriminated against as they were back then either. At the same time, there is still some contempt towards those of African descent even in this day and age, examples being the Howard Beach murder in 1986 and the Crown Heights Riots in 1991. Falling into the rut that blacks were in a century ago are those blacks who arrive from the West Indies.
Today, our society is a politically correct one where even the slightest public appearance of racism is immediately attacked. Although our time is s great deal better than the New York a century ago, in my opinion, we still have along way to go before this prejudice is truly removed from society. I’m not even sure if it can or will ever be completely eradicated.
