Dispelling the myths on Sicilians

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2003)

Tarantino was both erroneous and entirely unfair concerning the Sicilian people. Clifford Worley's remarks are as racist as white supremacist Arthur Kemp when he asserts that Sicilians are of a mixed race. Worley is racist remarks use false historical evidence claiming this just for the sake of race baiting that the Moors are responsible for the injection of sub-Saharan African blood into Sicily. First fact is, the Moors were not black. They were Hamito-Semitic peoples, meaning that they began as Semites from the Near East and then absorbed physically similar Hamites, or Berbers, during their conquest of North Africa, prior to entering Europe.
Moors who colonized most of the Iberian peninsula for 800 years are estimated to have left a mere 3.8% genetic imprint on modern Iberians. Hence, those Muslims who held Sicily for a comparatively shorter period of just 250 years and, in their thwarted efforts to take mainland Italy, conquered various Southern Italian cities for periods of less than 100 years, had an even lesser genetic impact on Italian populations.
Secondly the "Norman" King Roger II, the founder of the kingdom of Sicily during the first half of the twelfth century liberated the island from the Islamic yoke. His kingdom was mixed east-west culture and the development of its royal government the most advanced in twelfth-century Europe. After Roger Sicily was the home to a large Jewish population, became Spanish Colony, and held under the Viceroys of Spain from the late 13th century to the early 18th century making the population more of a Judeo/Greco/EspaÃ±a blended ethnicity.
Moreover, the unfortunate blacks that were brought enslaved into Europe by imperialists at the start of the Atlantic slave trade were absorbed into their host populations, often by way of royal houses. It was Britain, France, Holland and Germany who were then the dominant colonial powers and slave traders.
Therefore, this leads back to Tarantino's statement which can now only be construed to be there for its shock value only; it is total untrue, and never be taken as fact. Unfortunately there are too many white racists out there who take lines from movies as Gospel truth to support and fuel the fires of their own prejudices. For certain, there will be more battles ahead dispelling the myths concerning Sicilian people.
Bibliography:For further information look up The Races of Europe, Chapter XII, Section 7, Italy, and http://www.geocities.com/racial_myths/italians.html