Anti-Italianx Racism on Twitter and why you should care about it
By: Lev Orenberg
Tags: Italiano, Twitter, Socialism, Italy

(By: @Gravelist)

A Statement on Left- Twitter Anti-Italianx racism

So yeah, I did a thing. My name is Joey Callabresse, I am part of the DSA Italianx Solidarity caucus. I am an activist, artist, and most relevant to this essay, a pretty avid poster on the so called “Left” Twitter. In-person and online I have suffered in silence whilst watching the appropriation of my culture, Italophobia, and silencing of Italianx voices. So I am speaking out.

Italianx aesthetic appropriation

I was pushed to write this essay by the blatant appropriation of traditional Italian culture by “Anti-Lawn Activist”. As many other comrades have pointed out, Cottage Core isn’t ready for the Eco-Fascist Zoomer Tik Tokers who are gonna quickly be swarming the community, and that is valid and important as community discussion, however, it ignores how blatantly racist appropriation has become commonplace on the Left, both aesthetically and culturally. Specifically “Anti-Lawn Activist” chose to, without any care, alluded to appropriating traditional indigenous Italianx ceremonial garb. This sort of dress is not just meant for the day to day, its meant for like a Saint’s festival where you stick money on a statue and like put adolescent boys in dresses, and like the saint died in some very dated and horrifying sort of execution that is described in detail to children every year. Or some celebration where you french kiss every woman in your family to signify how Jesus loved Mary Magdalene or something. To ignore the traditional context that these cultural dresses exist in, and simply viewing them as ostentation to be mimicked and appropriated void of context. Not to mention the more common and unnoticed appropriation of Italianx fashion, without credit. Now a Bushwick hipsters who now wear a leather jacket with skin-tight jeans while smoking a cigarette, or wear baggy gray sweats with a loose, stained, and a kinda musky white tank top, which in traditional Italian is called a wifebeater, who now rides a moped and now “ironically” have fuzzy dice in their car are all common sights, and sites of sublimation and suffering for Italianx folxks.

Attacks on Indigenous Italianx Food

In addition to the aesthetic theft and appropriation, we Italianx revolutionaries have to constantly see our foods stolen and bastardized, by people who don’t understand or appreciate it. Fake meats or vegan substitutes in the meatballs and meat loaf, smoking a juul pod instead of a pack of cigarettes, gluten free pasta, gluten free cannolis. Its fucking disgusting and a fucking disgrace. These practices are not harmful, those gluntenically impaired have gone centuries eating indigenous Italian food and it has always worked out. For the immense amount of meat that we eat, you have to understand that this meat is ethically sourced to a shady mob fronted deli or meat shop, and also like, I don’t know what sodium or nitrates are and I don’t think they can hurt you. Destruction of our culinary culture is violence and a manifestation of harmful cultural theft that alienates and saddens your Italianx comrades

Appropriation of Italianx art

We also constantly see the blatant appropriation of Italianx art on the online “Left”. The fact that every ex-gifted child who now has a nicotine addiction can proclaim to be a Sopranos fan is disgusting. Have they ever even traveled to such important cultural sites as Nutley NJ, or Newark NJ, The Meadowlands, the Badda Bing in Hackensack, the waterfall in Paterson? The idea that some post hipster dork or crust punk adjacent nerd can self describe as a Soprano’s expert after one viewing without the need for multiple viewing or contact with important cultural sites is representative of anti-Italianx racism on the left. These same people don’t know what gabagool is, what Sfogliatella is, or how to even correctly make pasta so that the gravy binds with the pasta instead of just soaking it. Being an ally and revolutionary means listening to and centering Italianx voices, not declaring expertise from a place of ignorance while marginalizing Italianx people and silencing Italianx voices.

Reverse Colorism among marginalized groups to the detriment of Italianx comrades

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the rampant colorism targeted at Italianx people. Obviously we still have issues of colorism within the community with divides between Sicilians, Neapolitans and Northerners, however, this intra-group issue does not excuse the rampant colorism targeted at our community. Many have joked that Italianx people are POC (Pasta and Olive Consumers) or said hurtful comments like “you are just tan”. These do not erase the violent and ongoing anti-Italianx racism present in society, from being called guidos, to being refused entry into fancy restaurants simply for wearing basketball shorts and a white tanktop or a fuzzy Adidas tracksuit. While we understand the important conversations about colorism that need to be had in the Italianx community and among PoC broadly, it is still not appropriate to demean us as white despite our historic and ongoing oppression.

I don’t want to cancel anyone or start drama, I just want to promote this important discussion among communities of good will. And if this doesn’t apply to you fuggedaboutit.