I have a friend in Italy. He lives in Trieste, which is really another country and not really Italy at all anymore. More like the old Austro-Hungarian empire. He has blue eyes and blond hair and he is incredibly educated as many Europeans are.
He told me that the worst way to insult a Sicilian is to call him negri. Negri means Black. You just called him a nigger. It is true that Sicilians may well have some Black genes in them, mostly from Arabs I assume, but they sure do not want to admit it. And even in the studies that show they are there, Black genes account for only ~5% of Sicilian blood. No doubt Arab genes are much higher.
My friend said, “Oh! Sicilians! If you call them negri, they give you the knife!”
As you can see in this great clip from Tarantino’s True Romance. I have never seen the movie, but it looks great, and Tarantino is God.
