How Italian Americans can and should be considered people of color

Smerconish.com ^ | May 23, 2019 | Christopher Binetti

[Albion Wilde]

You’re on!

[Albion Wilde]

Wow, he’s a little bit disrepectful. Have you seen this old one from Dom Irrera?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URU33qxPtPU

[Fiji Hill]

This tune, sung in the Neapolitan dialect and in British, is a popular wedding song in Italy and was a hit in the US.

C'è La Luna Mezzo Mare (There's a moon over the sea; aka Lazy Mary)--Lou Monte (1958)

[Albion Wilde]

C'è La Luna Mezzo Mare

It's sweet and hilarious! I think that may have been in the GF wedding scene also. "Lazy Mary, will you get up; we need the sheets to set the table."

[NFHale]

Danny DeVito is a riot.

[Chode]

heh heh heh heh... right???

[Vaquero]

I like Don Irrera

[GOPsterinMA]

He really is!

[CottonBall]

I’m on a dry eye Facebook group and we were lamenting needing A/C tgese days. Someone posted this:

“My last job was in Italy and Italians are terrified of AC and convinced it’s the source of all disease. They covered up all the vents with cardboard and honestly that worked well too!”

LOL, too true. My family in Italy has a disdain about air conditioining, drafts, and ice!

[A strike]

For some weird reason ‘reading comprehension’ is a VERY big issue with you.
Still hurt by that assessment back then? or in the family? or what?

Those who keep suggesting that others seek help (as you often/frequently do) are the ones projecting.

[nopardons]

Yes, reading comprehension IS very important ( and my skill level/ability is above excellent and always has been; unlike you ), because without that ability,the reader doesn't know nor understand what he or she has read. You have continually proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt,that you sadly lack even average ability, in that skill.

LOL...the projection that you exposed, proves your last sentence to be true ab out YOU!

[A strike]

Everyone here (FreeRepublic) has better than average ‘reading comprehension’ skills, yet you keep coming back and back and back to it, ad nauseum, even multiple times per post. You have a sensitive nerve ending there. Why no admission?

(all your stupid LOL!s are just that, stupid teenage girls LOL!s)

[Jewbacca]

Census of Quirinius, 48 BCE

[King Moonracer]

Throw Greeks in there too.

[Albion Wilde]

My family in Italy has a disdain about air conditioining, drafts, and ice!

I imagine because Italy is a peninsula, there are light breezes near all the coasts, and the people manage heat with several easy-to-obtain remedies: 1) the siesta, 2) window louvers, 3) swimming and fountains, and 4) lemonade. Also, the hillside buildings made of tufa and stone are self-insulating. So a whole culture and strain of DNA grew without it; and why change now?

There are two things that will make a normally effusively hospitable Italian waiter roll his eyes in disdain: 1) asking for parmesan cheese for a dish containing fish, and 2) asking for ice for your beverage.

[Fiji Hill]

There are two things that will make a normally effusively hospitable Italian waiter roll his eyes in disdain: 1) asking for parmesan cheese for a dish containing fish, and 2) asking for ice for your beverage.

There are a few dishes that get past the Italian seafood-with-Parmesan-cheese taboo.

Insalate con Salmone e Parmigiano (salmon and Parmesan cheese salad

Cappesante Gratinate al Parmigiano (Parmesan scallops au gratin)

[CottonBall]

“There are two things that will make a normally effusively hospitable Italian waiter roll his eyes in disdain: 1) asking for parmesan cheese for a dish containing fish, and 2) asking for ice for your beverage.”

LOL, I have had both happen! There’s nothing that makes an Italian waiter suddenly not care about his tip and want to get you out of the restaurant as soon as possible like asking for those.

[ELS]

I love Sal! I saw that video a while ago. He should have won first place. Have you watched his other videos from that competition?

[ELS]

Another “group” trying to climb on the Affirmative Action gravy train?

I did detect some of that from the author (he is in academia), but I think most Americans of Italian origin are more interested in overcoming discrimination through hard work and determination. There was no affirmative action in the early 20th century when many Italians came to America and persevered to give their children a better life than in Italy.

There are many Italian Americans who have contributed to the richness of America. Amadeo Pietro Giannini founded the Bank of America. Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito served and do serve on the SCOTUS, respectively. Artists, musicians, actors, scientists, doctors, professors and so on, include many Italian Americans in their ranks. As far as I'm concerned, Italian immigrants have assimilated into the American melting pot. The word "America" derives, after all, from the name of Amerigo Vespucci.

P.S. I should probably mention that I am an American citizen of mostly Italian origin.

[ELS]

I’d argue that IQ stuff. Good at art, as are French and Spanish, but much else? No, the most famous Italians are for anything with true useful “IQ” was banking. Something about Latinates - obsessed with art, but not much else.

Many universities were founded in Italy in the middle ages.

"Italy has a rich tradition in science and technology with Italians advancing the scientific community through the past several centuries. Italian inventors, discoverers and scientists have enriched the world’s understanding and knowledge in varied scientific fields like biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy and the other sciences. Italy has produced some of the most brilliant minds since the Renaissance and the Roman era. Italian Galileo Galilei was called not only the "father of observational astronomy", but also the "father of modern physics", and the "father of science”. He was one of the major figures who played a significant role in the scientific revolution during the Renaissance. Polymath Leonardo da Vinci was another genius who epitomized the Renaissance ideal. Astronomer Giovanni Domenico Cassini, physicist Alessandro Volta, the mathematicians Giuseppe Peano, Lagrange, Fibonacci worked in Italy in the early modern era." - Famous Italian Scientists There was also Guglielmo Marconi, Enrico Fermi, Amedeo Avogadro, ...

Here is a pretty good list of significant Italian scientists.

Literature - Dante Alighieri, Petrarch, Ludovico Ariosto, Giovanni Boccaccio, Torquato Tasso, Machiavelli, Umberto Eco, Italo Calvino, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Alessandro Manzoni

Political thought - Machiavelli, Oriana Fallaci

Industry - FIAT, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Beretta, textiles, clothing, shoes, furniture, architecture, food

I could go on, but I stop here for now.