Why are many Northern Italians racist towards Southern Italians ?

Question

I have seen many "racist" attitudes from both sides. You are all Italian.. Can you please get along ?

Answer 1

It's not a matter of North and South: many people from East-Europe are much more Northern then any Italian, but they're discriminated anyway.

It's just what we call "a war among poors": poor people that have something, trying to fiercely defend their few things against even poorer peole. It's a selfishness attitude of people unwilling to share.

If you add a widespread sense of social insecurity, it's easy to transform this egoism in real racism... and that's what's happening in Italy.

Answer 2

Most of the northern italians racist against the southern italians are uneducated  and rough .  

In northern Italy the majority of School teachers is from southern Italy . It is very difficult to find a policeman or a state clerk from the North. In the 60' there has been a huge immigration and the southern gave their big tribute to the "boom" of the italian industry . Anyway , the racist ,fortunately ,are a minority . We are not worried about it.

Answer 3

I'm not italian, but I go to Italy every summer to different places, and yes, there are definetly differences  between South and North. Can't say ones are more clean then the others, but I really must say that in the North, people who work they actually work. I mean, they are not eager or thrilled to be working, but they just accept it as it is. On the other hand, down south, I met a lot of people and they all had jobs, but still they would hang out with us all day long, go to the beach, go out in the evening and stay late, and when we asked "how?" they would come up with some vague answers.... the standard is really lower down south, as well as prices, and it is understandable that people from the North are embittered about it, because they see it in the mentioned way "we earn, you spend".

Answer 4

You are american but i know many consider those living in the southern states "redneck"...but, hey, you are all americans.

Northern "racism" against southern italians descend from the different socio-economical development, and problems due to the '50-'70s migratory waves to the industrial cities of the north.

Answer 5

.. Do you wanna get high?

Answer 6

Cuz Italy sucks.. Im italian too and im not proud about that, just reading bullshits like nothern italians are more polite than souther italians  etc etc sucks though im nothern, south, north doesn't matter we're all italians those discriminations  have no sense.

Answer 7

There is a North South syndrome in all countries, none excluded. Try asking a New Yorker what he thinks of a Tennessee  Hill Billy? Or a Yorkshireman of a Londoner? Or a Hamburger of a Lederhosen toting Bavarian? Italy is no different. The richer part looks down on the poorer and the poorer sneers at the richer. We should all show more tolerance and appreciate the positives of the “others”.

South Germany is richer in attractive intelligent  young Answerine docs; statistically the North (Weisswurstlinie South of Hessen) is bigger and has more money, but that is neither here nor there. Remember the joke about  the price of Prussian "brain" in a Munich butcher's? Very expensive, was the answer, there is so little of it. It's the age old fun making between North & South. I however agree with Fragolina, that such attitudes are stupid.

Re: Eastern Europe, I agree wholeheartedly that "arrogance" is born of a war between "the poor", but, sociologically speaking, the North-South syndrome is  present in all countries. My point is that the richer part of a country, and at times it is the South (Poland when Krakow was top dog, and why not,  the Home Counties who c**k a snoot at the "working North"), "looks down it's nose" at what they conceive to be the "poorer cousins. We even reach the ludicrous stage when a down and out member of the "rich" part of a country, will look down his nose at a much richer member of the "poor" part.

I’ll take you one step further, when we built the Socio-Cultural maps of Europe in the eighties (they are updated every two or three years), we noticed that “local pride”, in Italy it's called campanilismo - the gathering around the local Church tower, was excercised in a negative sense towards the less “successful” parts of a single country (generally North South, sometimes the opposite, rarely East West) and that continent wise it corresponded to a deep rooted “superiority complex”, which never really had a logical base . What was mentioned about Eastern Europe is true, but also very sad, because that part of our continent has been paying for WWII and the consequent Red rule for decades. Nevertheless you still find "North (Eastern) Europeans" sneering at their Southern cousins, (the Polish term Wlochy/vuochy for “Italian” derives from a derogatory consideration of the “Walcher” who followed a Princess to their country) even if they are much richer. It is much deepr than mere wealth, it's an attitude, based on an artificial sense of superiority.

In other ages, when, for example, Sicily was top dog in the Mediterranean and Emperor Frederick II kept a splendid  court at Palermo, the “Northerners” were considered uncouth “barbarians” and during the Renaissance “Italy”, with it’s rich city state courts was considered the peak of civility and wealth. It’s time we all learned to appreciate the better aspects of our “regional” cousins, within and outside local borders.

A last personal touch:

I’m a triple Northerner (Koenigsberg/Hamburg, Bradford/Yorkshire and Ferrara), yet I married a “Southerner”, a Carinthian Austrian; my sons were born in Hamburg and one married a “Southerner” from Calabria, and the other has a Calabrian companion. “Our”  lovely  Granddaughter is the heir to all these roots and we are all very  proud of her.

My Bradford born brother and sister married Italians and I have lots of Anglo-Italian Nephews and Nieces and even a few Grandnephews and Grandnieces.

......and our entire family of Prussian, Yorkshire, Italians, about a score all told, chose to live in the "middle" - in Rome.

People should take others at face value, like we do. In our enlightened age, "prejudice" and "racism" and a "superiority mind set" are simply one more anachronism.

Answer 8

I'm sicilian.

I'll tell you what I think:the problem is the prejudice.

As you can notice someone said something like "northern people are more polite,clean than southern ones".How can someone really think that's true?Everywhere there are clean people and dirty people...Everywhere there are polite people and rude people.How can people say "the north works and the south spends"?There are people who really think we don't do anything,sitting in bar....or sicilians=mafia...

Btw,usually these are ignorant people(some of them say that Sicily can't be considered part of Italy,sicilians are niger..part of the Africa).

Moreover,I don't think southern Italians are rastist towards northern italians:some people of the north hate the south,but the south doesn't care a lot about the north.I mean: to us a person is nice or not,who cares about his/her native city??....but if someone offend you without any reason I don't think you'll reply 'thank you'..just in this case a southern italian become racists towards a nothern italian...it's also..how can I say...for 'defence'.

Btw there are not many racists...all the northern italians I know are 'normal'

Answer 9

Well, i'm italian, i live in the north, in turin....

Is not that we are racist towards souther italian, but it's true say that we are more polite, educate and clean...

just see the difference beetween a citi like Milan and Naples... then, north italy has one of the best european school grades average, but south has one of the worst, so, cause of that "our" average is quite low. Same thing for the sanity, north italy has the second best sanity in europe (talking about hospital exc exc), but south has one of the worst....

then, south has mafia, organized crimes exc exc, so, after all of them, we say that in north italy you can have a better life, as the rest fo europe, but in the south is much different...

ciao

Answer 10

Hello Barbie! Here you have  a  clear example of universal ignorance : Dario 87 !

Well, to understand economical and cultural differences  between North and South you need to know  the History of Italy.  Italy is a very  young country and every region has preserved her own identity  just until  a few decades ago. From  the 1950s  School and TV have created an  uniform cultural  identity but, unfortunately, it doesn't exist an economical one, not yet.

Cosimo has written some very important things about that

Answer 11

because they are very stupid and ignorant!I'm sicilian and I can say that I'm happy to be called "terrona"...for answer to the first who have write I can say that you aren't more polite the bad people there are both in the north south...indeed we do not we shooting on the other side when someone is beaten!...and however like those in the north are racist with us, we are racist with those of north!!!...we in the south are the engine of Italy... You go ahead only thanks to us!!!

however I want to say that I have many friends in the north and fortunately they are not all stupid as those who answered here!

Answer 12

First of all, I take my hat off to the other answerers of your question ... I cannot hope to improve on their answers, but this is a question very close to my heart and I just wanted to say my piece.

Firstly, I think we can dispense with that r-word ... let me explain why. While there are a few skinheads in the North of Italy who are self-confessed racists and who define themselves in even more extreme terms which I don't even dare to write here, their "racism" towards the people of Southern Italy is in fact a pure delusion. Whether they like it or not, it is a fact that all the people of Italy are thoroughly racially mixed, just indeed as the English are. One of my Italian teachers looks like the stereotype of a Sicilian - small of stature and olive-skinned with brown eyes - but she is a Lombard, descended from Lombards. On the other hand, I have met people from the historical familes of Palermo who look like Laurence Olivier or Michelle Hunziker - tall and blonde with blue eyes.

So what we are dealing with here is not racism, but prejudice. Prejudice based on a complete failure to understand properly the culture and situation of others. How is it possible to understand the Sicilian, Calabrese or Neapolitan reality unless you have actually lived it? It isn't really possible at all. People everywhere tend to judge other people when they can't put themselves in their shoes ... and the more different their cultures and situations are, the more radical the prejudice.

I think there is also a general tendency everywhere to brand victims as perpetrators - it's a way of exculpating oneself. When you see a situation you regard as deplorable, the kneejerk reaction is to look for someone else to attach the blame to - that way it can't possibly be anything to do with you.

So certain people blame the South for draining the taxpayers' resources ... they say they take without giving. But who bled the economic lifeblood from the Mezzogiorno in the decades after the Risorgimento? Not the rich industrialists from Turin, surely?! And who took the migrants - a whole generation of ambitious hardworking men and women from Sicily, Calabria and Puglia in the boomtime of 1954-72? Who took them into the factories of the North to turn the wheels of the Italian economy and make the fortunes of so many who quite possibly continue to pay rather less taxes than they really ought to while they drive their Ferraris?

So some people say, let's secede from Italy and keep our resources for our own people. But those resources were made with Southern sweat and now they're made from extracommunitary sweat. There are parallels there with British and American history too ... but I think I've probably been quite controversial enough already.

Answer 13

Because the Northern Italians think they work for the money wheras the Southern Italians spend it...!

Answer 14

Well, I wouldn't be so dramatic. We get along pretty well if you compare us to what's happening in the Balkans, like in Bosnia for instance. Sure, sometimes you can hear some racial slur, but I guess prejudices are just everywhere, they are hard to fight, they are the heritage of the past, a long history of division and isolation between the communities. You know, actually your statement could be applied to all mankind: if we are all human, shouldn't we stop killing each other? and yet.....