A Roman Holiday? African Americans and Italians in the Second World War.

This article attempts to explain the positive reception of Black troops in Europe by focusing on the relatively underexplored case of the Italian campaign in the Second World War. It suggests that African American GIs actively nurtured positive relationships with Italian civilians in a number of way...

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Publicado en:History Vol. 106; no. 373; pp. 775 - 804
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Wiley-Blackwell Dec2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: A Roman Holiday? African Americans and Italians in the Second World War.
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        Race discrimination
        African Americans
        Racial & ethnic attitudes
        Social attitudes
        United States armed forces
        World War II
        Journalistic reporting
        Europe
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          Europe
          Race discrimination
          African Americans
          Racial & ethnic attitudes
          Social attitudes
          United States armed forces
          World War II
          Journalistic reporting
      ab: This article attempts to explain the positive reception of Black troops in Europe by focusing on the relatively underexplored case of the Italian campaign in the Second World War. It suggests that African American GIs actively nurtured positive relationships with Italian civilians in a number of ways that are hidden in official military documentation, but are detectable through testimonies, photographs, newspaper reports, veteran's surveys, and in Italian sources. By being more generous with their resources, befriending families, making efforts to learn the language, and often defying prevalent military attitudes that portrayed Italians as untrustworthy, African American GIs not only experienced liberal European attitudes, but actively fostered those attitudes by exploiting social opportunities so that they were seen as 'goodwill ambassadors' by the black press and by Italians. African American troops, particularly from poorer backgrounds, overcame the language barrier and formed ties with Italians worst affected by the war through empathy and a sense of shared experience. Cultivating these relationships was particularly significant given the context of racial discrimination in the American military, a situation that was compounded by the presence of Fascist and Nazi anti‐black propaganda, which coexisted with Italian racial attitudes that ranged from fascination to fear, especially when it came to relations with Italian women.
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      custom: Copyright of History is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
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