Italians are White
*Trigger Warning* rape culture, pedophilia, historical trauma
In the USA there is an idea that Italians are not considered white. That would mean by default that Italians are some kind of people of color. The reason this idea exists is that for less than one hundred years poor Italians who immigrated to the USA faced discrimination from other poor Europeans. Northern European immigrants, you see, considered only other northern Europeans to be the “purest” of white people, according to their invented racial hierarchy of whiteness (all racial hierarchies are invented). The historical laws of the United States, however, as well as the history of Italians themselves show very clearly that Italians are white. That is why most people around the world including Italians themselves identify Italians as white. This means that the history of racism in the USA includes the history of bigotry that Europeans perpetuated against each other but that nuance is not included in modern race discourse. Italians are simply being cast as people of color while northern Europeans are considered the only true white people.
The reason why this is so problematic is that Italians are not just white people, they are the original white supremacist patriarchs. I’m going to explain to you exactly how and why that is true and we will begin our study of Italian whiteness with the Roman empire.
