2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumClinton Absolutely Nailed Romney's Tone on the "Italians"
http://www.c-span.org/Events/Pres-Obama-and-Bill-Clinton-Hold-Rally-in-Virginia/10737435576/At 14:20-14:25 Clinton really captures the tone of Romney's contempt for "the Italians," or the way he is using that phrase in his ads. It was one of the things that really bothered me as an Italian-American. When you see somebody like Romney say "the Italians" in that tone - and you get used to this if you have an Italian last name - you can just feel the sneer, the contempt.
I'm the last person to get all offended and huffy about Italian stereotypes. I think they're usually funny, and I play along. But there's definitely a contempt there. I'd bet you anything that the people booing as Clinton highlighted that had multisyllabic last names that end in "o" or "i."
Clinton ends brilliantly: "If the Irish are next, I'm toast."
Oh, believe me, if he's looking down his nose at "the Italians," the Irish are most certainly next. I said to my wife, Chrysler was owned by the Germans for years - but Romney looks down his nose at "the Italians." Why? We know why. For some people, still, the Germans are white, and "the Italians," well, they're "ethnic."
EC
(12,287 posts)I'm Italian and my Dad worked for American Motors. It was Rmoney's Dad that handed AMC to the French. Gee, he has quite a lot to do with the French...
-LOKI -BAD FOR YA
(308 posts)robme is making sure he offenses all equally,bill is toast,obama is half irish, bill knew that ,but he has a sense of humor,robme has offensed the chinese,indians,muslims, etc
mzteaze
(448 posts)Romney really screwed the pooch with an Italian government deal with Bain. I'm sure there that will always be a hate-hate relationship.
amborin
(16,631 posts)Cha
(297,655 posts)mittLies feels the need to diss and piss off everybody but asshole teabaggers and foxnfiends. Dumbshites who make a living brainwashing those stupid bags of tea.
mitt sent word to Putin in Russia through one his sons that he shouldn't pay any attention to mitt's asshole comments about mother Russia..he's just giving the brainwashed stupid what they want.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)zOMG....the Italians!!!!
Drahthaardogs
(6,843 posts)had running water and paved roads while his people were living in caves and fighting over the deer hide.
The people of the Mediterranean have ruled the world several times; made incredible contributions to science, art, and culture; and we base our country on THEIR (not the Saxons) system of government.
Elitist fuck pisses me off. E vero!
demwing
(16,916 posts)Pachamama
(16,887 posts)Wanted to see it but the link doesnt work from your cspan link above...
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)The time of the statement is now 14:25-14:55
wishlist
(2,795 posts)60 Minutes segment back in the spring featured the CEO Sergio Marchionne and left a very positive impression of him. He has dual Canadian/Italian citizenship and has been very dedicated and hard working in turning around Chrysler. Romney is such a cynical dishonest person to denigrate Italian contribution to saving our auto industry. Takes a lot of nerve to say the things he says about China and Italy etc when he has been the outsourcer in chief with Bain and has invested so many of his millions in overseas tax havens. As Clinton has said, Romney is counting on enough Americans being dumb to get elected.
Like many Americans, I have Italian immigrant grandparents who worked hard contributing to their community and raising a large family who have chosen various careers in education, health care, industry, government and military service. Their positive influence continues carrying on to subsequent generations.
johnnyrocket
(1,773 posts)ffr
(22,671 posts)Hoarse voice and I imagine somewhat tired from an exhausting campaign speech schedule, but he's out there.
I am unworthy to be in such a person's presence.
willy3010
(1 post)Germans are white and Italians ethnic? lol
Italians,Germans,French,British,are not a race but an ethnicitiy. all europeans are part of the caucasian white
North italy is an alpine territory and north italians are part of the alpine/dinaric people, so they aren't mediterranean
South italy and southern italian are part of the mediterranean. italy is a divided country,climate,culture,history,cuisine, and genetic are different from north to south
North italy border with Austria,Switzerland,Slovenia and France. go in north italy "south tyrol, courmayeur,valle d'aosta,milan,turin,brescia,veneto and many other north italian part
90 % of what you call "italians" in america are from sicily, sicily is an island like hawaii and puerto rico in america that became of italy in 1861. sicilians and southern italians are way different from north italians
go to check on youtube this north italian people "federica fontana, lorella cuccarini, alessia marcuzzi, paola barale, antonella clerici, maddalena corvaglia
now check on yahoo "germans rediscover its roman roots" and "racial reality italians"
check also "Ben Franklin on "stupid,swarthy germans" in the past british americans made up many lies about who was white and who wasn't and they forgot that uk was part of the roman empire for 400 years and many british are descent from roman like the rest of europe
all europe were part of the roman empire, uk,germany,france,hollande,luxembourg,switzerland,austria, etc were part of the roman empire
italians anyway are the fourth largest european ancestry in america. robert de niro, paris hilton, bruce springsteen, nicolas cage, john travolta, leonardo di caprio, hulk hogan, are all descent from italians
seems like you've thought about this a lot... hmm maybe you shouldn't worry about whether people think Italians are white or not. Besides most people just confuse you with Latinos anyway. Heck the Italian flag even looks like the Mexican flag! Tancredo... hmmm sounds like a Hispanic name to me.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)I'm not making factual claims about European "races." It's not the damn 19th century. I'm explaining what we as Italian-Americans experience at the hands of people like Mitt Romney, whose contempt for Italians was fairly clear.
Get a hold of yourself.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)and I suspect Italian, Greeks, Armenian's among others all fall into the ecru category
blue-kite
(432 posts)... this racist stuff.
Down with Rommers!
CBHagman
(16,987 posts)Romney likes to invoke his visit with Lech Walesa, all the while never referring to labor unions or similar, and of course R. also has kind words for Israel, and sometimes for the U.K., more specifically Tony Blair. But he bad-mouths Europe every chance he gets.
Lightsource777
(78 posts)He is tone deaf and doesn't care. He has never had to care. With all that money and privilege he has gotten his way without consequence or hardship. That's part of the contrast with Obama and his wife. Two totally different upbringings.