"The children of the revolution are always ungrateful...
....and the revolution must be grateful that this is so." (Quote comes from Ursula K. Le Guin)
The NY Times has a fascinating if not especially deep discussion of the word "guido" and the culture associated with it here.
It begs the questions: What happens when the younger generation of a group that has experienced prejudice tries to reclaim a slur? Is it okay for people who aren't members of your community to use it? How much continuity does that gesture have with the past, and how much is it just buying your identity on the marketplace?
The article makes comparisons with "the n word" and "queer," which have some merit. But I'm a bit leery there; all those words have very different histories, as do the communities they are attached to. (I'm particularly leery of comparing Italian-American and African-American experiences of prejudice, given how sharply the paths of those communities have diverged in recent decades.) Such assertions seem to elide how much of the conversation is about the different experiences of assimilation over generations.
What identity options are there for an ethnic community that has so thoroughly assimilated into whiteness? What does a community do when its elders still remember overt racism but the worst prejudice youngsters see are the stereotypes on "The Sopranos"?
Though it's not my own background, I grew up in a place where Italian-Americans were the majority, and the dominant culture was what the article describes as "guido culture." These questions and examples aren't academic to me. I'm still very much wrestling with them.
The NY Times has a fascinating if not especially deep discussion of the word "guido" and the culture associated with it here.
It begs the questions: What happens when the younger generation of a group that has experienced prejudice tries to reclaim a slur? Is it okay for people who aren't members of your community to use it? How much continuity does that gesture have with the past, and how much is it just buying your identity on the marketplace?
The article makes comparisons with "the n word" and "queer," which have some merit. But I'm a bit leery there; all those words have very different histories, as do the communities they are attached to. (I'm particularly leery of comparing Italian-American and African-American experiences of prejudice, given how sharply the paths of those communities have diverged in recent decades.) Such assertions seem to elide how much of the conversation is about the different experiences of assimilation over generations.
What identity options are there for an ethnic community that has so thoroughly assimilated into whiteness? What does a community do when its elders still remember overt racism but the worst prejudice youngsters see are the stereotypes on "The Sopranos"?
Though it's not my own background, I grew up in a place where Italian-Americans were the majority, and the dominant culture was what the article describes as "guido culture." These questions and examples aren't academic to me. I'm still very much wrestling with them.