Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso declares he's not white because he's Italian

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso insisted he's not white, but really Italian — and thus "Latin" — during an awkward debate moment Tuesday in the nation's second-largest city.

The billionaire real estate developer Caruso is facing off against U.S. Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat seeking to become the city's first Black woman mayor.

Next month's election comes in the wake of the L.A. City Council President Nury Martinez stepping down from her leadership post and taking a leave of absence from the council, after an audio recording of her making racist remarks surfaced.

In bringing up that topic, Telemundo anchor Dunia Elvir stated: “The next mayor of Los Angeles will be either an African-American woman or a white man."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/los-angeles-mayoral-candidate-rick-caruso-declares-he-s-not-white-because-he-s-italian/ar-AA12TcTJ

[atreides1]

1. Well

That would depend on what part of Italy his family originated from. Northern Italians are more European like Hungarians or Austrians, where as southern Italians are more Northern Mediterranean like Greeks, Sicilians, Turks and are more genetically connected to north Africans like Moroccans and Algerians.

[Hugh_Lebowski]

2. Why am I thinking of the classic Hopper/Walken scene in the film True Romance right now?

[rsdsharp]

3. Hmmm. In the 1930s Vince Lombard played football for Fordham University.

He was one of the Seven Blocks of Granite. Obviously, he was Italian American. One day in the showers, a teammate told him to stand next to another guy so he could see which one had darker skin. The fight that ensued was violent enough that both players ended up in the infirmary.

I wonder what Lombardi would think about this.

(Lest anyone get the wrong idea, as a coach Lombardi made it very clear that any man — player or coach — who exhibited racist or homophobic behavior would be gone immediately.)

[usonian]

4. Italians weren't always considered "white" but that was a long time ago.

Immigrants were equated with African Americans (not Latin) and treated with similar hatred, including lynching.

How Italians Became ‘White’
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/columbus-day-italian-american-racism.html
... in which the New York Times belatedly expresses its remorse for its relentless racism in the past.

Few who march in Columbus Day parades or recount the tale of Columbus’s voyage from Europe to the New World are aware of how the holiday came about or that President Benjamin Harrison proclaimed it as a one-time national celebration in 1892 — in the wake of a bloody New Orleans lynching that took the lives of 11 Italian immigrants. The proclamation was part of a broader attempt to quiet outrage among Italian-Americans, and a diplomatic blowup over the murders that brought Italy and the United States to the brink of war.

I regret that modern computers have freed up time that billionaires formerly spent counting their money so that they can screw around with politics instead.

[IcyPeas]

5. I think he was trying to be funny: watch here:

I wouldn't say he "insisted".....

Link to tweet

[cksmithy]

6. Uuwwgh,

my husband is half Sicilian and half German. My father called him a "dirty Mexican." This was in the 1968 to 1971 time period, he had a great tan because he used to surf. We still got married, even though my father never believed his ethnic background. He used to call my uncle a "portagee" (Protegees) who married into my mother's family. He said he didn't believe my uncle was Sicilian, just like my husband. And of course all Italians were "wops" (pardon me) people without papers. So to me, 50-60 years later hearing Italians being questioned about their ethnicity makes me sick. We are all Americans, and what a dumb question to be asked during a debate. I was taught at school we were a melting pot, then we became a salad, a little bit different, but still Americans. Ask about the difference in their political party affiliation not their race/ethnicity.

[Scottie Mom]

7. He also declares he is not a Repuke cuz now he's a Dem.

Leopard cannot change his spots. I call bullshit on this.

[Juneboarder]

8. He's not wrong...

Italians are truly latin in the sense that they speak a latin based language.