East Coast Italian Americans
To evaluate the circumstances surrounding the advances made along the Bay Area and West Coast, first we need to understand the context from where Italian Americans came from in regards to discriminatory and opportunity issues. Due to forces like the Black Hand in the early 1900’s, Italian Americans back on the East Coast feared to reveal their identities to anyone who wasn’t a part of their tight knit communities. This belief spilled over into the educational field as well, with Italian American children not wanting their peers or administrators to find out that they had any sort of Italian blood in them. With phrases such as dago and wop being thrown around constantly at them, it was no shock that Italian American children and adults felt like the educational system in America was one big farce.
As depicted in John Fante’s book The Wine of Youth and more specifically the chapter titled “The Odyssey of a Wop”, Italian Americans were not so subtle in how they felt growing up in the American education system. This chapter of The Wine of Youth entailed several scenarios where Italian Americans were illustrated as being peeved with society and its elements, in some cases the education system. Whether from a social family perspective or general discriminatory perspective, “The Odyssey of a Wop” allows people unfamiliar with Italian American growth in education to understand why the East Coast wasn’t all that it was cracked out to be.
