Running head: XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

Xenophobia in South Philadelphia

Donna Backues
Eastern University

XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

Xenophobia in South Philadelphia

Introduction
Given their difficult immigrant history, Italian and Irish communities in South
Philadelphia should be more open, empathetic and understanding of the recent influx of
immigrants into their community. They often argue that, unlike present day immigrants, their
people arrived in America legally. However, the immigration law that is enforced today was
non-existent during the 1800s through to the beginning of the 20th century. At that time, the
only thing that kept immigrants from being allowed to enter was illness or disease. In fact the
use of the term illegal alien has happened only recently (Daniels, 2004). It is interesting to
note that many of the long-term South Philly residents are unaware that a good many of the
immigrant community in South Philadelphia have legal resident status. Many did not necessarily
want to come but felt forced to due to life-threatening persecution in their homeland (CheaYoung, 2010). It is my opinion that xenophobia (fear of the stranger) is at the heart of this
issue.
Brief History of South Philadelphia
South Philadelphia (also known as South Philly) is a large area of the city of
Philadelphia located between two rivers, the Schuylkill and the Delaware which come together
and empty into the Atlantic Ocean. Up until the 19th century South Philadelphia (below South
Street) was primarily rural. Now the area is full of neighborhoods consisting of mostly old row
homes that were built for factory workers who immigrated from Europe and from the Southern
States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Rizzo, 2013). South Philadelphias
original native population, the Lenni-lenape natives, called this area Wiccacoe which is
translated, Peaceful Place (Sitarski, 2015). Although, unfortunately, it has not always lived up

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to its original name. From before the turn of the century Irish, Russian Jews, African Americans
and Italians settled in South Philly looking for a better life and a livelihood in the manufacturing
industry. Almost all of these immigrants were escaping devastating poverty, conflict and/or
persecution and of all the newcomers, the Irish and the Italians were most dominant (Rizzo,
2013).
The Irish & Italians in South Philadelphia
The Irish began settling in South Philadelphia during the middle of the 19th century.
Most were escaping severe poverty at the time of the Irish Potato Famine. They arrived
malnourished, poor, with few skills and no education (Kilbride, 2010, p. 161). During this
period there were plenty of Philadelphians who objected to the influx of so many poor Irish.
This was due primarily to cultural, religious and social prejudice. The Catholic Irish were
considered dirty and not of the same class as the protestant Philadelphia born residents (p. 160)
At the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 20th century, Italians began immigrating
to the US, again due to poverty and conflict in their home country. My 81 year old next-door
neighbor, Joe Matteo, tells me stories of his growing up on the top of a mountain in central Italy
and how his village became a battle ground during WWII. He tells of severe famine, landmines
blowing up children in the fields and soldiers raping the village women. He came to South
Philadelphia after WWII when South Philly had a well-established Italian community with
plenty of job opportunities in the textile factories. Joe stated that he never had a desire to return
to Italy because at that time, South Philly was paradise when compared to his life in central
Italy.
Not Quite White Enough

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As huge waves of Italians came to settle in South Philadelphia, anti-immigrant feelings

on the part of the white Philadelphians increased (including the already established Irish). The
Italians were considered ignorant, undesirable and too swarthy for the whiter Americans
(Salvatore, 1999, p. 15). In the early part of the 20th century, fear of Italians and other groups
supplanting the real American led to the establishment of immigrant restriction
organizations (p. 16). The prevalence of xenophobia and these anti-immigrant groups led to
government policies severely restricting the influx of Europeans (which at the time were mostly
Italians). Added to this was the founding of settlement houses in Philadelphia created to address
the severely impoverished living conditions in South Philly as well as strongly encourage
immigrant assimilation into the dominant white American culture (Rizzo, 2013).
For decades, the Irish and the Italian communities only tolerated each other. Many of the
Italian newcomers were rejected by the already established Irish even though both ethnic groups
suffered discrimination as Catholic minorities (Salvatore, 1999; Luconi, 2001; Kilbride, 2010).
Today this is made evident by the presence of distinct Irish Catholic churches and Italian
churches throughout South Philly. My 62 year-old neighbor, Tommy Morgan, tells stories about
how his Irish gang of teenage boys on Two Street would fight with 13th Street Italian boys.
Tensions would rise when an Italian would date an Irish or visa-versa. Even today, Tommy
wishes he could live back on Two Street because he says, these Italians are all wanna-be
mobsters.
The Italians Become White
According to friends of mine, there have been pockets of African Americans that have
been in South Philadelphia longer than the earlier influx of Irish. Luconi states that for decades
the Italian community did not see themselves as belonging to the white majority (2001, p.

XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

126). In the 1960s conflict began brewing between the dominant Italian presence and the
minority African American community over issues of public housing and their perceived
encroachment into the mostly Italian enclave. It seems that it was then that the Italian
community felt it was in their best interest politically to align themselves more closely with the
white immigrant groups such as the Irish (pp. 126-127). As a result, the newly embraced
white identity on the part of the Italians aligned them with the Irish, Jewish and Polish groups
toward whom they would have previously been at odds. This white solidarity has been a
somewhat powerful force arrayed against non-white newcomers even to the present day
(Anderson, 2000).
Second Wave of Immigration in South Philadelphia
Since the late 1970s till now, South Philadelphia has experienced a second wave of
immigration, transforming a predominantly Italian & Irish enclave into a place full of arrivals
from China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Mexico and Myanmar (Singer, Vitiello, Katz,
Park, 2008; Stapleford 2009, p.22). In my neighborhood there is mosaic of people representing
all these communities living side by side. While for me and many of the residents, this diversity
makes the area vibrant and exciting. For others, especially within the traditional Italian, Irish and
African American communities, this influx of so many ethnic groups is seen as a threat to their
way of life and the newcomers are often blamed for all the things that go wrong such as the lack
of jobs, bedbugs, the buying up of real-estate, gang violence and the decline of a neighborhood
(2009, p. 224).
Cultural Conflicts
Discrimination toward the African American community on the part of the white
majority, of course, has been continuous from the beginning of South Phillys history (Anderson,

XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

2000). From my African American friends I hear stories about how dangerous it was to venture
into the Italian/Irish area of South Philadelphia. Apparently white gangs would chase them out
with baseball bats. Since my moving to South Philly in 2008, I have noticed that there seems to
be particularly tense feelings between the African Americans and the Asians. This xenophobia is
not just one-sided. I think it is important to note, from my 18 years of experience living in
Southeast Asia, many Asians that I met from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia had adopted
racist attitudes toward people of black African descent that seemed to come from the influence of
white-dominated Western news and media. Some Southeast Asians brought this mindset to
America. As an insider in the South Philly Indonesian community, I am familiar with this
unreasonable fear of the African American mostly among some of the older members.
South Philadelphia High School
In the years before 2009, strife between Asian and African American students in South
Philadelphia High School had been building partly due to inept school staff. Often teachers and
staff turned a blind eye and some even participated in making racial slurs. It came to a head in
December 3, 2009 when two dozen Asian students were badly beaten in the school. Seven
students were hospitalized. Apparently the attack was in response to reports that a disabled
African American student had been beaten up by two Asian students the day before.
Fortunately, the incident made national news causing the city to focus on efforts for promoting
peace and understanding between the immigrant and native population of students. Today the
school is much safer and a mere shadow of its former self (McCorry, 2015).
Speak English!
In 2006 the owner of the famous South Philly cheese steak eatery, Genos Steaks, put up
a sign outside his place, "This Is AMERICA: WHEN ORDERING `SPEAK ENGLISH." When

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interviewed, he stated, "We're out to help these people, but they've got to help themselves, too"
(Associated Press, 2006). On the heels of Arizonas strict 2010 Immigration Enforcement Laws
(NCSL, 2011) both anti-immigration protestors as well as pro-immigration protesters battled it
out verbally in front of the famous cheese steak joint (Al Dia, 2010). Joey Vento, son of Italian
immigrants and owner of Genos, defended his opposition to illegal immigrants by stating that
his grandparents came legally and assimilated into the American community (2010). Daniels
states that except for the Chinese (barred from entering in 1882), there were few restrictions on
the number of immigrants entering the country. The term illegal alien was not used (2004).
In an earlier interview Joey Vento admitted that his grandparents did not learn English
well and it was hard for them (Associated Press, 2006). So really, it is not much different for
incoming Mexican immigrants flowing into the area surrounding Genos Cheese Steaks and the
rest of the Italian market. Their children will grow up speaking English just like the children of
the first Italians. There is something hidden that is not being said openly by the Joey Ventos of
South Philly. It is not just that immigrants are not learning English quickly enough.
They are not like us
During the first months of my familys move to South Philly, I was told by neighbors and
some of the parents of my childrens school-mates that Asians, Mexicans and Blacks need to be
kept out of their area of South Philadelphia. In their opinion, these groups bring drugs, crime,
and other problems to the neighborhood. One woman said, Those Asians crowd too many
people into those rowhomes. I had to chuckle at this because I had earlier been told that when
the Catholic Italian & Irish families moved into these small factory-worker row-homes, they had
huge families. When the visiting daughter of my Italian next-door neighbor saw me wave to the
African American woman and child across the street, she pulled me aside and told me that some

XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

people on our block are different (she was also referring to the Mexican family on the same
block). She proceeded to tell me, We can be nice to them on the street but we need to keep a
distant they are not like us.
Reasons for Immigrating
Not all of South Phillys immigrants came to America seeking prosperity. Many arrived
after experiencing severe trauma. I work at SEAMAAC, a non-profit that serves the immigrant
population of South Philadelphia. My Hmong co-worker, Shongchai Hong, who works with the
Laotian population, told me his story of why he came to the US in 1979. I sat for about an hour
listening to this amazing, terrifying story of how his people who lived high in the mountains of
Laos were forced to work for the American soldiers during the Vietnam War.
Shongchai was one of the few college educated young people from his Hmong
community. He had just returned home with a degree in agriculture, when he, along with other
members of his family and village were forced to become spies for the Americans. He had to
learn how to dismantle landmines and watched as many of his people died attempting to do the
same. He said the American soldiers would send Hmong villagers out into suspected mineinfested areas ahead of the soldiers because they [the Hmong] always walked bare-footed and
could feel the mines with their feet before they blew up. Apparently what the American people
have been told about the Hmong willingly helping the Americans is not accurate. Shongchai
said, The war I was in was Americas secret war, people in the US do not know the truth.
After the American soldiers left, the new communist government began killing the Hmong or
placing them in re-education camps where most of Shongchais family died. He was able to
flee to Thailand and eventually immigrated to the US. After so many years, he still has

XENOPHOBIA IN SOUTH PHILADELPHIA

nightmares. The discrimination he faced when trying to make a life in America made it even
harder for his family to adjust.
Many of my Chinese-Indonesian friends are escaping the persecution that they have been
subjected to since the time of Dutch colonization in the former East Indies. I have heard it said
many times that the Chinese in Indonesia are the Jews of Asia. Terrible attacks and riots on
the part of the indigenous population happened with increasing frequency until it peaked in 1998
(Effendi, 2004; Hoon, 2011; Urban, 2013). Many Chinese homes, churches and businesses were
burned down and as a result, a significant wave of Chinese-Indonesians streamed into South
Philadelphia. At first they had no trouble entering and eventually becoming citizens until the
September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center. After that, it became very difficult to obtain
legal residency. As a result, many Indonesians in South Philadelphia are still undocumented
even though many of them have grown children who do not even remember Indonesia.
One of the disturbing things that rarely seems to be part of the conversation is Americas
involvement in the very reasons why so many people (especially Latin Americans) are desperate
to come to the US. Aljazeera quoted John Tirman (from MIT's Centre for International Studies),
Life has become so unstable in Latin America as a direct consequence of the US sponsored drug
war and free trade agreements." Tirman continued: "We just don't want acknowledge that the
things that we have done and continue to do are creating the conditions that make people feel
like they have to migrate, (Gilbert, 2014).
Unrealistic Fears
There are plenty of Americans in this country who want to close our borders and quell the
influx of immigrants. The reasons that are put forth are that the large immigrant populations
cause the US economy to suffer, the crime rate to rise, and they put a burden on our welfare

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systems (Stapleford, 2009, p. 224). These concerns are either overstated or just plain wrong
(p. 225). Stapleford explains that the first round effects of millions of immigrants pouring
into the country in a short span of time do have an effect, but only for a brief period. Immigrants
tend to occupy very specific parts of the labor market (p. 225) and usually these jobs are not
attractive to the majority of lower-skilled native workers. Whatever effects this initial period
might have on the labor market and economy does not last long; eventually, the newcomers settle
and become spenders and savers. This in turn creates more demand for products which then
creates more of a need for workers (p. 226). Imagine how much money in taxes would be
available if all these undocumented workers would become legal employees.
When immigrants were flooding our shores between 1900 and 1920, the economy grew
extensively despite the objections from American born natives who felt that immigrants were a
blight to the culture. Some of the greatest innovators, scientists and inventors came during this
huge wave of immigration; some of them were Nobel Prize winners. In spite of the fact that
there is a very small portion of the American population negatively affected by a sudden influx
of foreign workers, immigration is still one of the major reasons why the U.S. economy is so
robust, diverse, dynamic and resilient (Stapleford, 2009, p. 227). There seems to be a blatant
disregard for the facts. Fear obscures seeing the truth it is almost like a national pathology a
phobia of the stranger. The very people for whom Christians are commanded to love.
Xenophobia and Scapegoating
The definition of the word xenophobia is a fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners
or of anything that is strange or foreign (Miriam-Webster, 2015). Anyone who has studied
history or human nature is aware of this tendency in human social groups to find other social
groups to look down in order to feel stronger or more superior (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,

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2015). During times of political or economic instability, and/or when resources are limited, the
community seeks to find reasons for their troubles and this often leads to unreasonably blaming
an out-group toward whom the in-group is prejudiced (Pschology Dictionary, n.d.; Kearney,
1999). This phenomenon is a simplistic way of solving complex problems. The targeting of a
less powerful out-group as a source of the problem is called scape-goating (1999; 2015).
According to scape-goat theory, people may be prejudice toward a group in order to vent their
anger. In essence, they use the group they dislike as their target for all of their anger
(Psychology Dictionary, n.d.).
Kearney explains Rene Girards theory that societies are based on the ritual sacrifice of
a scapegoated other (1999, p. 251). He states that sacrificial scapegoats are targeted others
turned into aliens. They are then held responsible for the ills and divisions of society and are
then sacrificed for the benefit of the larger community. (p. 251). The sacrifice provides the
community with a sense of collective identity and a feeling of contentment or harmony at
the price of demonizing an innocent other (p. 252). I believe the immigrant community in
South Philadelphia and in the nation as a whole is functioning as the scape-goat for a country
whose citizens are living in fear.
What can be done?
According to Allport, membership in an in-group is important to the health of an
individual and a society. All in-groups have their own web of habits (1979, p. 46). When an
outsider invades our space with habits that are foreign, it is uncomfortable. As members of the
human race, we need to fight our natural racist tendencies; we need to be more open-minded and
flexible. We need to model this thinking as a way of life to the children in our families and
communities as well. Children soak up the attitudes of the adults in their environments (p. 45).

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When my children moved to South Philadelphia and began attending a mostly Italian
Catholic Elementary School, I detected that they were being influenced by some of the racist
attitudes of their school-mates. My husband and I quickly began to challenge them about this
and since then, we have talked openly about the problems of prejudice. Now they are older and I
hear them parroting our own beliefs to their friends. I do believe that it takes more than just
parents to speak into the lives of children. We need to have a community committed to these
values and we need to have many friends from different ethnic groups. It needs to be a way of
life.
Sociologists believe that a holistic approach to rid a community of prejudice is
necessary. In order to combat cultural conflicts and ethnocentrism, researchers state that
four conditions must be met before race relations will ever improve: A desire to become better
acquainted; A desire to cooperate; Equal economic standing and social status; Equal support
from society. (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015). Unfortunately, this is no easy task especially
since all four of these conditions need to be present (2015).
Conclusion
South Philadelphia has been a center of immigrant arrival from its beginning. Up until
the early 1950s South Philly was one of the major immigration ports in the US (Rizzo, 2013).
People stepped right off the boat and lived only several blocks away for the rest of their lives.
The people of South Philly have the opportunity of being an example to the rest of the country as
a place where we actually live up to the promise of welcome and the celebration of diversity.
For those who follow the Christian faith in American and elsewhere, we need to be
reminded that we are commanded by God to love the alien among us because we (or our
relatives before us) were once aliens often suffering persecution and discrimination

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(Deuteronomy 10:19). If we love the foreigner, then the inscription on our Statue of Liberty by
Emma Lazarus will not just be words, but will be fleshed-out within our midst.
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teaming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
(Emma Lazarus, Statue of Liberty)

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