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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   31233 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of January 9, 2023

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Do you consider Lionel Messi white?

I was answering the survey on slatestarcodex and wasn't sure how to answer the ethnicity/race question: "what race do you consider yourself?" or something like that, having anwserer "Other".

I had always pattern matched the skin color and that's it for "black" and "white". But recently I heard two comments form an American and a Russian considering themselves "white" and people from Latam as white as Messi or the Pope, not white. Maybe "Latino"? but I don't think this means anything else than the geographical place of origin, why not both?

I'm supposed the label have a different connotation for them but I also have the suspicion it's a status mark for many (just from what a Russian friend said, but not sure)

For Italians this is a weird subject.

First a joke - if Messi voted for Biden he’s not white. If he votes maga he’s white.

I myself am Italian and of a whiter perplexion (don’t have a lot of olive oil skin). I dated an Argentinian girl who was 100% Italian. She’s a minority Im not a minority even if our great grandparents came from the same town.

My grandfather was a minority for much of his life in America.

And of course my ex-gf family in Argentinia were professionals and hence upper middle class non minorities.

I think your real question is not whether they are white but whether they would be a protected class.

Of course there are even more things that don’t make sense on this. If Messi moved to NYC his kids would be a protected class and whichever 70k a year high school he sent his kids to would celebrate the minority representation his kids brings to the school. Some Italian kid in Bensonhurst would just be white. My maga voting rust belt ass would be white.

You just have to understand there are a lot of rules to these things. And learn how to play the game.

Of course the establishment may have woken up to the fact Argentina is too white. And now you don’t get to be a minority if you came from there. In fact your now racists because your country didn’t have slaves.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/made-by-history/2022/12/08/why-doesnt-argentina-have-more-black-players-world-cup/

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