ABSTRACT
In the 1980s, the Dougherty Irish Dancers, a fraternal group active in the Philadelphia area, dropped nationality requirements for enrollment and came to include not only members of Irish extraction but also individuals of German, Jewish, Polish, and Italian ancestry. Notwithstanding the willingness of the Dougherty Irish Dancers to open their doors to people who were not of Irish background, the presence of Italian Americans within this association may apparently seem quite strange against the backdrop of an extended history of a troubled relationship between Irish Americans and Italian Americans. This chapter intends to highlight the process by which and the reason why Philadelphians of Italian descent renegotiated their nationally based ethnic identity and developed a racially oriented white self-perception that led some of them to feel comfortable in joining what had been an Irish club.
