Why do Italian Americans call us Blacks "Mulians" whenever they get upset with us?

Question

I know the plural of that slur in Italian is "I Muliani". What does this Italian (RATHER Italian-American) racial slur towards African Americans and ANYONE ELSE in this world of African descent ACTUALLY mean (other than that familiar and notorious "n" word)?

Answer 1

I personally never heard any Italians call blacks "mulignans," but it does mean "eggplant." Older generations of Italians seemed to be quite racist, and this was their racist term for blacks. Its still used today by more ethnocentric Italians (watch the Sopranos) but if you want to konw the reason Italians call blacks this, then youd probably have to look back hundreds of years.

Answer 2

I'm Italian and I gotta tell you I never heard this word in English OR Italian. I looked it up in my dictionaries and it's not there, even as a slang word, in either language. I can only guess that it derives from the word "mulatto" in Italian (which my dictionary tells is the same in English). Or from the word "mulo", which means donkey, possibly meaning "mule-drivers" or something?

So I guess it's kind of funny that they use this slur, as it seems to be a made up word.

Sorry to hear my fellow Italians would slur ANYONE. Especially since we too were subjected to the same uncivilized behavior as well.

Answer 3

I've never heard this word before.It's also strange that Italo-Americans (that have been for a longtime object of racial offenses mainly in their first years of their immigration to the States) have coined an offensive name 'reserved' to the Black Afro-Americans. I'm curious to read other answers since as far as I know that's not true.
Edit #1 (for CHULAPANAMA) - Italian word for Eggplant is "Melanzana" but I can't see the relation with the black color since the eggplants are rather purple......!!!

Answer 4

Muliani,is Italian for eggplant.This is what some Italians think of us.I personally have never had any problems with Italians in my life.To be 100% honest with you,I think I get along better with Italians than I do with my own culture.That word somehow got used as the N word but it's literal translation,like I said,is eggplant. Don't ask me how to say the N word in Italian because I don't know it.