Weird Portuguese racism?
According to the universe of the film, this seemed to be a common thing in Conneticut at the time? Was that made up, or based on reality? Never heard of that before.
shareAccording to the universe of the film, this seemed to be a common thing in Conneticut at the time? Was that made up, or based on reality? Never heard of that before.
shareConnecticut is a pretty white-bred racist place, or it was, more so in the 80's. Fairfield County is predominently full of conservative, filthy rich families. It's not entirely surprising Daisy and Kat's family was ostracised for not having a lot of wealth and being Portuguese by Charlie's family.
shareNo matter where you live, there will be some group that is marginalized in that region. Every area has its working poor who are considered the "lower class" by the wealthy who live in that region.
Where I grew up, it was "white trash" of German ancestry.
In Colorado, it was Mexicans (generic term applied to anyone of Latino ancestry)
In my mom's home town, it was Italians.
In Nebraska, Native Americans.
Where I live now, blacks.
Many people have a tendency to want to exclude people they don't feel are worthy. I guess it makes them feel superior and secure that they are better than some other group.
Many people also don't tend to make fine distinctions, classing anyone of a particular group as the same and not bothering to discover that no group is generically alike.
It was really daft it made me laugh. I suppose the producers got fed up with stereotyping the irish or italians as the most oppressed white tribe on planet america. So they decided it was time for a new country.
shareAre you suggesting that the Irish are more discriminated than Southern Europeans, like the Portuguese and so on?!?
It's easy for Northern European Irish, especially Irish-Protestants, to simply blend in with the WASPs. In fact, I don't really see much if any difference these days between families of Irish-American heritage and WASPs unless perhaps they live in a close-knit blue-collar Irish-Catholic community in Boston, Chicago or New York. Many of the establishment politicians these days are of Irish-American extraction, moreover, they're increasingly Catholic too.
By contrast, us swarthy, hairy, dark-haired Southern Europeans (Portuguese, Greeks and Italian-Americans included) will always be treated differently to the fair-skinned, light-haired Northern European elites (including those 'poor oppressed' Irish-Americans) who run the show. Good on this film for showing things as they are, and demonstrating that there are other groups, apart from African-Americans, Jews and Puerto Ricans, who are still treated with contempt by the establishment.
It's easy for Northern European Irish, especially Irish-Protestants, to simply blend in with the WASPs.
By contrast, us swarthy, hairy, dark-haired Southern Europeans (Portuguese, Greeks and Italian-Americans included) will always be treated differently to the fair-skinned, light-haired Northern European elites (including those 'poor oppressed' Irish-Americans) who run the show.
Thanks for the endorsement numbers9-4, although funnily enough, on reflection I think I was a tad over-sensitive/over-defensive.
That said, I still stand by my contention that a cultural group that is generally of darker complexion, more blue-collar in terms of community and general industries/occupations, and speaks a different language and has different customs, is still going to be subjected to more bigotry and cultural slurs than any group that can easily blend into the Anglo-Saxon mainstream (and I do appreciate that Anglo-Saxons have been a minority in the US for some time now, but they're still a powerful minority that dictates society's cultural norms and traditions, for the most part).
Of course, African-Americans, Latin-Americans, especially Mestizos, Native Americans (genuine Native Americans, not blonde, blue-eyed Anglo-Americans who claim 1/32 Cherokee heritage for instance), Arab-Americans, especially if they're Muslim and not wealthy, and even to some extent Jewish-Americans (although I do get the impression that anti-Semitism isn't as prevalent as it was in US society thirty/forty years ago and further), are still arguably the groups most likely to suffer the brunt of racial bigotry in US society, often for historical and/or geo-political factors, but Portuguese, Greek and Italian-Americans do still experience stigmatisation especially where their ethnicity is more obvious because of cultural/community links, and where their appearance is more 'swarthy' than the typical WASP American.
Also, speaking as a UK citizen I recently watched a news report where a Portuguese immigrant says she was spat at in the street just for speaking her native language. So that type of xenophobia/bigotry does still exist, even in Europe towards other Europeans.
Being from there, I thought it was weird. Until I met a boyfriend's parents years ago, and the father said something about me being Italian. I was completely shocked! Those type of people are every where unfortunately...
Actually there is a large Portuguese community in Southern New England (Fall River, Massachusetts has a huge community with Portuguese markets, bakeries). There are even all-Portuguese radio stations in that area. I think making the characters Portuguese is quite accurate, or at least was accurate for that area in the '80s. So racism and socio-economic discrimination is not such a weird (weird meaning outlandish) theme here, and sadly, would not be a weird theme if they did a remake of this film today either.
http://youtu.be/oHg5SJYRHA0
Yup - there was - and still is - a huge Portuguese population in Mystic. They were treated like Mexicans are today in many places. What's the big shocker? Portuguese or racism in general?
share[deleted]
[deleted]
When I visited my sister in Narragansett, RI in the late '90s and early 2000s, there was a cable TV station with all Portuguese programming, 24 hours a day!
~ I'm not arguing, I'm just explaining why I'm right! ~
Fairly common in this region....not excusing it, but it exists still, probably not as much as it once did.
Southern New England, particularly from New Bedford, Ma through Providence, RI and down into south-eastern Connecticut has a very large Portuguese (and Cape Verdean) poplulation. A lot of the population even today are 1st and 2nd generation immigrants and sadly bear the brunt of ethnic jabs/slurs.
Well said dhshoops2001. I am Portuguese and if what you say is true I'd be subjected to bigotry if I found myself in New England.
shareYes, I have a friend who stayed up there recently, and was startled when an old lady started causally talked about all the Portuguese jobs slowly but surely being replaced with Mexicans.
Racism is annoying anyway. I mean there is a history of people looking down on Irish and Polish too, until they just blend in with Anglo Saxons. Meanwhile, Scandinavians and Germans often automatically get the WASP pass. It's so arbitrary. This film wasn't off the mark as well. Anyone poor and segregated community is going to be treated differently.