“Dirty Dagoes” Respond: A Transnational History of a Racial Slur

During the early twentieth century in the United States and Australia, Italian and Greek migrants were often labelled as “dirty dagoes.” The term “dago” was a derogatory racial slur that situated Italian and Greek migrants as precarious racial inclusions within each nation. Drawing on historical studies on whiteness and migration, this chapter explores the origin, use, and contested meaning of the slur dago, as well as how the use of the term was discussed by Greek and Italian migrants in the pages of popular presses. It will be revealed that the slur dago had a transnational circulation and that its prejudicial connotations mediated how Italian and Greek migrants were racialized and racialized themselves. By transnationalizing the history of dago, this analysis extends the geographical terrain of migrant racialisation in the United States, while also revealing that the routine uses of the slur generated migrant-specific articulations of difference, belonging, and solidarity.