In Robert Orsi’s piece, “The Religious Boundaries of an Inbetween People,” Orsi discusses a challenging piece of racism. One man confessed in an autobiography, “it really bugged me when the paddies [white ethnics] called us Puerto Ricans the same names they called our colored aces.” A sociologist Gordon speaks about the Puerto Rican effort in Harlem to distance him or herself from darker, poorer Puerto Ricans and Blacks. Italians also severed any connections to Puerto Ricans who they may have resembled.
At the time, this must have seemed like the only viable option: the complete distancing from any darker minorities. Perhaps if the opposite had been done, today’s views on racism and the differences between minority groups could have been very different. For example, if the Italians had instead created a lasting bond with fellow Puerto Rican immigrants, when the Italians began to be accepted as “White” maybe the Puerto Ricans also could have gained an appreciable level of acceptance by the majority of Americans. The Italians could have interfered on their behalf, subtly. By inviting them to their houses, having their children be friends, and celebrating holidays together, the two minority groups could have forged a new path for themselves together. Instead, the Italians, understandably though, distanced themselves and thereby furthered the gap between the two parties once the Italians moved up in status.
I wonder if this type of effort could really have changed people’s perceptions. If all minorities had banded together instead of alienating themselves, they could have created a united front of immigrants and perhaps all of them could have then gained access into the upper echelons of society as a group. Maybe this idea is too idealistic and probably impossible, but I find the possibility that something like this could work exciting. Maybe great inroads into the acceptance of immigrants could be conceivable when we do not judge each minority separately based on the color of their skin, rather on their dreams to make this country their home.
