After watching the documentary Pane Amaro (Bitter Bread), I learned of the hardships that Italian immigrants had to endure in the United States. Prior to watching this documentary, I had no idea that Italians had endured any form of racism. According to the documentary “Italians were equivalent to today’s Islamic terrorist,” this was quite surprising to learn because this comparison helped gauge the amount of racial tension Italian immigrants faced in the United States during the late 1880s to the early 1900s. The reason why Italians were racially persecuted was due to their close proximity with African Americans. Although Italian immigrants were not Negroes because, they lived near African Americans and worked the same jobs they were not clearly racially defined. This was the root for much resentment towards Italians, such was the case in the assassination of the David Hennessey on October 10th 1890 and his dying words were “The dagoes got me.” Dagoes which is a common offensive derogatory term for Italians, and 9 Italians were put on trial but the court finds them not guilty due to lack of evidence. The verdict of the New Orleans court incites anger and a mob of 10,000 storm the prison and lynch the 9 Italian inmates. Italians faced hardships while immigrating to the United States. Immigrants were screened at Ellis Island in order to come through the United States. Italian immigrants were marked with an X or a O, those that were marked with a X were sent back either due to mental illness, feeble-mindedness, or due to innate criminality. Italians from Sicilia or the southern regions of Italy were discriminated against because of their darker skin and their supposed innate criminal nature. The documentary also portrayed Italian Catholicism in the United States. The term “basement catholics,” was a terminology that I have never before. While Irish Catholics held