jon on Nostr: “Not being allowed to work in Harlem angered Williams, but work conditions at ...
“Not being allowed to work in Harlem angered Williams, but work conditions at Engine 55 improved as time went by. The new men who entered the company included several probationary firemen who took over his previous duties, such as spittoon and bathroom cleaning. Also, while many of his company-mates remained hostile and dismissive, several began to converse with him. As an avid reader of history and an intellectual within a highly anti-intellectual workplace culture, Williams was ironically called upon to settle an interethnic dispute regarding the whiteness of Italians. When asked by an Irish fireman if Italians could be considered white, Williams told the predominantly Irish men in the company “that he didn’t know whether or not Italians were White, but he did know that when Ancient Rome was conquering the world people in Ireland were living in caves.””
— Black Firefighters and the FDNY: The Struggle for Jobs, Justice, and Equity in New York City (Justice, Power, and Politics) by David Goldberg
https://a.co/8YJGqfUPublished at
2025-02-08 20:23:40Event JSON
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"content": "“Not being allowed to work in Harlem angered Williams, but work conditions at Engine 55 improved as time went by. The new men who entered the company included several probationary firemen who took over his previous duties, such as spittoon and bathroom cleaning. Also, while many of his company-mates remained hostile and dismissive, several began to converse with him. As an avid reader of history and an intellectual within a highly anti-intellectual workplace culture, Williams was ironically called upon to settle an interethnic dispute regarding the whiteness of Italians. When asked by an Irish fireman if Italians could be considered white, Williams told the predominantly Irish men in the company “that he didn’t know whether or not Italians were White, but he did know that when Ancient Rome was conquering the world people in Ireland were living in caves.””\n\n— Black Firefighters and the FDNY: The Struggle for Jobs, Justice, and Equity in New York City (Justice, Power, and Politics) by David Goldberg\nhttps://a.co/8YJGqfU",
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