The Northeastern Ethnics

In some ways, I am a Northeastern Ethnic.  I am half-American and half-Irish.  My American grandmother was born in Delaware, but her parents were lifelong, multigenerational Virginians on the Delmarva Peninsula.  My American grandfather was the son of an Austrian immigrant and a Virginian longshoreman.  My Irish grandparents, however, hailed from Cork and Galway.  They married in Tallahassee, Florida, and purchased land in Ocala in 1940.  They never really settled in the North, but worked there.  Unfortunately, many of my relatives from Ireland, did.  As such, after WWII, with two small children (one my mother) and a brief, failed attempt to make things work in Ireland, my Irish grandparents returned to the states in 1950, where my Irish grandfather joined the New York City police department.  He would eventually die in his uniform in the late 1960s – the result of walking into a robbery by three Puerto Ricans in the westside of Manhattan.  My grandmother, a farm girl from Ireland, never liked New York City, and immediately returned to their property in Ocala after burying my grandfather.  The rest is history. 

I have many deep connections to the Irish culture of the Northeast.  I was raised in New York City from 1986-1990, where I went to high school – before I left for the Marine Corps.  My cousins largely stayed in the New York area.  Back then, there were three dominant, non-Jewish ethnic cultures in the New York area:  Irish, Italian, and German.  There was also a strong Greek community and a mix of various other ethnicities that were increasing in presence as the Soviet Union collapsed, such as Russians and Poles.  The Jews enjoyed a strong parallel society and influence within the city.  The same could be said for the Asians.  In the 1980s, the blacks were constrained to their neighborhoods, such as Harlem or Bushwick.  The same could be said for Puerto Ricans.  I never met a Mexican until I joined the Marine Corps, because there were none.  Even as a child going to school in Ocala, there were really only blacks and Whites. 

The Italians really ran New York in the 1980s.  It was a very big mistake for a black to wander into an Italian neighborhood, as witnessed in the Howard Beach and Bensonhurst incidents.  This is hard for many outside of the Northeast to understand: Northeastern Ethnic Tribalism.

In the South, the term “Yankee” is an all-encompassing term.  It means anyone from North of the Mason-Dixon line.  For genuine Yankees, however, there is only one group that deserves the title: Yankee is a title they reserve for the Founding stock, New England Anglo-Saxons.  The culture is very distinct.  New Yorkers, Pennsylvanians, and especially Midwesterners have no claim to “Yankee” status.  The same is true for the Northeastern Ethnics.  In a sense, it would be akin to calling a North Carolinian a Cajun.  Obviously, Cajuns are a unique construct of Louisiana with some smattering in Mississippi.  But for Northeastern Ethnics, their tribal affiliations to their home country identity runs in direct contrast to those of the Yankee.  It is also the reason so much of the White Nationalist and Dissident Right hails from Northeastern Ethnic ranks.

For Italian-Americans in the Northeast, being Italian is everything to them.  The same can be said for the Irish.  In fact, almost every ethnic group held a great deal of pride in their native traditions, customs, and DNA.  As a 13-year-old boy who had just moved from Florida to New York, I worked two jobs.  One was a Napolitano pizzeria – where I worked in the kitchen (starting with the dishes and occasional deliveries).  The other was a German butcher shop owned by a Wehrmacht veteran of World War II (the stories he told…).  The two locations were incredibly different.  To the German, every other ethnicity was lazy and dirty.  He would only eat in German owned establishments.  To the Italians, everyone else’s food was tasteless garbage. 

Growing up in an ethnic tribal environment, children never associated themselves with Americana.  They associated themselves with the geographic and genetic origins of their parents and grandparents.  If someone walked up to you and asked, “What are you?” The anticipated response was an ethnicity: “I am Irish…” or “I am Italian…”  Tests of authenticity permeated broad national identity.  One could not simply be “Italian.”  He had to know exactly where his family was from in Italy.  “My father is Napolitano, but my mother is Calabrian.”  Sicilians were not Italians at all; they were Sicilians.  For the Irish, it was similar.  Knowing where your parents and grandparents were from was the true test of ties to the old world.  This dynamic can be found in the South.  Ask a Southerner “What are you?” and he will almost assuredly say, “I am Southern.”  Old school Southerners, as well as younger Southerners when pressed, will answer, “I am a Georgian… Virginian… Texan… etc.”

But why is any of this important?  The reason this is important to Southern Nationalists, especially as an extension of the Dissident Right, is because it explains that which Southern Nationalists can expect from generic White Nationalists from Northern locations.  Different Northern groups will approach Southern Nationalism in different ways.  Jews, as a largely Northeastern phenomenon, are the least equipped to understand Southern Nationalism, but the most equipped to understand its potential.  Consequently, they will frame “Neo-Confederacy” in such a way that many potential Northern allies of Dixie will approach Southern Nationalism with a skewed framework that is divorced from reality.  To communicate with such allies – should you want to do so – it is important to understand the hurdles and the means to bypass Jewish definitions of Dixian Identity. 

Midwestern White Nationalists are primarily the descendants of German and Nordic genetic descent.  They are assimilated into a unique “American” identity, with a social structure largely defined by Marxist revolutionaries who arrived in the U.S. after the failed socialist revolutions that occurred throughout 1848 Germany and elsewhere.  They will not see the South as a unique ethnicity.  Rather, they are most likely to see the South as a critical part of a pan-White Nationalist construct.  They will be less amenable to Dixie Identity.  Those Midwesterners, who are not in the White Nationalist camp, are also the most likely to be exceedingly leftist in terms of genetic identity.  This is where blonde girls are most likely to seek brown skinned children.  Ironically, cultural distinctions have been largely bred out of Midwesterners in such a way, that whether they are from the Left or the Right, they see generic racial identity – even those who know they hail from a particular Nordic location. 

This is somewhat similar for true Yankees – New England Heritage Americans.  In general, they will not accept an independent Southern Identity, either, but for a different reason.  Many Yankees view the South as Anglo kin.  To them, secession was a betrayal of their agreement to lead the rest of the continent toward a utopia.  The South attempted to break their hallowed “perfect union.”  Thus, they do not see the South as a distinct ethnicity.  They view Southern culture as another branch upon the same Anglo tree, but one that adopted unique quirks over time.  Thus, Yankee White Nationalists will rarely view Southerners as a distinct people.  Rather, Yankee White Nationalists will view any attempt at carving out a unique Southern path as one that is yet another betrayal of a pact they hold sacred.  “We are all in this fight together,” is generally their mantra.

I went to New England for graduate school, and unfortunately, I spent a lot of time with elite Yankee leftists and “conservatives” (i.e., establishment Republican types).  Unlike Midwestern leftists, who genuinely desire a mixed DNA that will transcend race, Yankee leftists love tokens and trophies.  In some ways, Yankees like to accumulate DNA admixtures, much like their merchant forbearers brought a mix of silks and porcelain from the Far East.  Having a Jewish granddaughter or a black cousin-in-law gives them diversity credibility at the country club or within other social circles.  They do not want the entire tribe compromised – as is the wish of most Midwestern leftists.  Rather, they like the fact that they can say, “Oh, my daughter dated a black boy once.”  When you look at where they live, however, they ensure their enclaves stay very White and very protected.  In fact, to a Yankee, the idea of an Irish or an Italian marrying into the family is far more horrific than a Jew or a black.

This all brings me back to the Northeastern Ethnics.  It is not an accident that some of the most hardcore racist and/or reactionary elements within the Dissident Right are Northeastern Ethnics.  To begin, much like Southerners, their culture defines them.  Like Southerners, they typically know their history, albeit often a romanticized version of that history.  Like Southerners, food – especially regional foods – define much of their social interaction.  Unlike Southerners, Midwesterners, or Yankees, however, their people really have no skin in the game as it pertains to the “War of Northern Aggression.”  Many Irish Northeasterners may have some investment due to the timing of the Famine and mass migration to the United States, but they are generally too far removed from Ireland to be considered true Northeastern Ethnics.  Additionally, those Irish-Americans who know their history also know that those same Irish launched the most expensive and violent riot in support of the South and against the Union in American history (the New York City Draft Riot of 1863).  The Italians, Poles, and other ethnic identities largely arrived after the war was over and hold no ill will toward the South.

Northeastern Ethnics also tend to hold a vehement hatred for blacks.  In an odd way, this stands in some contrast to Southerners.  Most Southerners do not necessarily “hate” blacks, they just know what they are and manage them accordingly.  By contrast, Northeastern Ethnics are much like a puppy thrown into a sack with a weasel.  These ethnics were frequently settled next to predatory black urban environments and consequently had to fight them constantly.  Their culture and tribal affiliations protected them from violent, urban black behavior.  A black would gladly jump an isolated Italian, but if he saw three or four Italians, the moulinyan (“moolie” or eggplant) immediately walked the other way.  In South Boston, where Broadway Avenue was the only true one-way out of Irish dominated Southie for years, Irish cops frequently dropped black criminals into Southie to walk the gauntlet of Irish pubs – usually at night, when thousands of Irish had been drinking and looking for a fight.  If they were really vindictive, the Irish cops would yell toward the men standing outside of Irish pubs, “He tried to rape a White girl.”  The lone black guy rarely made it out and the cops saved time on their paperwork. 

Thus, when Midwesterners and Yankee leftists lament the “evils” of the historical Southern treatment of blacks, Northeastern Ethnics shrug.  Proximity breeds contempt.  Southerners are likely to be nice to a kind and respectful black person, but they would never invite that same black person to date their daughter, let alone move next door to them.  Northeastern Ethnics who hail from neighborhoods often adjoining black areas generally approach blacks the same way.  Midwesterners and Yankees who hate blacks, rarely do so from the perspective of constant interaction and proximity (except some big city folks, such as those who hail from Chicago).  Maybe they got jumped… maybe they had their bicycle stolen… but most did not have to live next to blacks every single day and “tribe-up” to fend them off.

When viewed in their totality, Northeastern Ethnics understand the importance of food, language (even modified English), culture, family lineage, and racial reality.  In fact, Northeastern Ethnics are so tribal, that there still exists tensions between differing cultures when inter-marrying (although less-so in the 21^st Century).  Imagine if a South Carolina couple sat their daughter down to explain how disappointed they were in the fact that she planned to marry someone from Arkansas.  Such a conversation was not uncommon between Irish and Italian families as late as 2012 (the last time I sat in such a conversation).  Both Southerners and Northeastern Ethnics can agree – interracial marriage is completely unacceptable for the family.  Does anyone think Tony Soprano would have accepted a half-moolie grandchild? 

Northeastern Ethnics have a hard time understanding Dixian Identity, largely because they have not been around it.  But when introduced to the concept and especially when they live it, they at least get it.  Most will certainly not be anti-Southern.  Even those Northeastern Ethnics who claim to be White Nationalists are bad at being White Nationalists.  Generic White Nationalism is just as foreign to someone who identifies as Calabrian as it is to someone who identifies as being an Iron Region Alabamian.  Much of that which they know about the South is through the myopic lens of second iteration Klan history.  Thus, they assume Southerners hate them for being Catholic.  Ironically, if they knew Southerners hated them for being Yankees, they would laugh.  Why?  Because they do not consider themselves to be Yankees, and Yankees do not consider Northeastern Ethnics to be Yankees. 

In sum, I will close with the following anecdote: although raised most of my childhood in Ocala, I was raised by an Irish woman who knew very little about the South.  She loved the South, but knew nothing about it.  Thus, I was the only kid in school who frequently ate “weird stuff,” said weird things (e.g., the trunk of a car is “the boot”), and had no connection to that which was called the Civil War.  Years later, when I began dating my (now) wife, I would hear her say small Irish idioms.  I would explain to her that the saying she made was the same as that in Ireland.  When she and her friends described foods around which they were raised in Alabama and North Georgia, I would explain those were Irish foods.  When we discussed the idea of future grandchildren, I expressed my desire that our grandchildren be Irish.  She was amendable to that, as long as they were born in the South: “I will not have any Yankee grand babies!”  I completely understood what she meant.

As Southern Nationalism grows, many White Nationalists will try to latch onto Dixie.  They will try to persuade us to forgo Dixie’s unique Southern Identity and replace it with a generic White Nationalist one.  Whereas I will always root for every White culture and society to survive and thrive – be they British, Polish, German, Greek, Norwegian, Italian, Irish, etc – the South has her own identity.  This must be at the core of everything we do.  We should be allies, but not absorbed.  Northeastern Ethnics, more than any other “Yankee” culture should appreciate this distinction.  Yes, we are in a fight for racial survival – we should help where we can, but always remember our unique, ethnic lineage.