Book contents
- Race in Post-Fascist Italy
- Race in Post-Fascist Italy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 “Undesirables”
- 2 Little Aliens
- 3 “Not Only a Question of Humanity”
- 4 Growing Up Black in Postwar Italy
- 5 On the Other Side of the Atlantic
- 6 Under “Expert” Eyes
- 7 Black Italians on the Screen
- Interlude
- 8 Ancestries and Identities
- Epilogue
- Select Bibliography
- Index
4 - Growing Up Black in Postwar Italy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2022
- Race in Post-Fascist Italy
- Race in Post-Fascist Italy
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 “Undesirables”
- 2 Little Aliens
- 3 “Not Only a Question of Humanity”
- 4 Growing Up Black in Postwar Italy
- 5 On the Other Side of the Atlantic
- 6 Under “Expert” Eyes
- 7 Black Italians on the Screen
- Interlude
- 8 Ancestries and Identities
- Epilogue
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Drawing on institutional records and oral testimonies, Chapter 4 shows that racial beliefs and prejudices did not just exist among the educated classes, but were present also among ordinary Italians. It reconstructs the difficulties that the children had to face as they entered adolescence in the late 1950s in a society that was not particularly kind to people who looked “different” or did not profess the dominant religion. This chapter describes the attempts on the part of some social workers to shelter these children from social hostility and marginalization in the communities in which they lived, and the rather mixed results of these attempts. The difficulties of adoption are also examined, along with stories of mothers who kept the children, and who were stigmatized along with them.
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- Race in Post-Fascist Italy'War Children' and the Color of the Nation, pp. 89 - 105Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2022