Give Me Your Pale, Your Blond

Very few things Trump has done have pissed me off more than the exhumation of racist sack of shit Ken Cuccinelli, the former Virginia AG, for a job as acting Director of the Citizenship and Immigration Services office. He was appointed to this post specifically because of his racism, which he paraded around earlier this week by declaring, with no evidence whatsoever, that the Emma Lazarus poem attached to the Statue of Liberty was referring only to those of European descent who can “stand on their own two feet” (no amputees need apply, apparently).

I’m not upset strictly by his racism. As an Italian-American, I’m upset specifically about yet another ugly blast of racism from yet another Italian-American who wants to pull the ladder up behind him.

Italians weren’t even considered white until racists looked around are realized they were badly outnumbered if they insisted on considering Italians, Jews and Eastern Europeans non-white. Hell, you’d be hard-pressed to find a population with fairer skin than the Irish, and even they weren’t considered white (though this probably had more to do with their antagonistic relationship with the British than their skin color).

“Whites” are still badly outnumbered among the human population, but, like the Jewish kapos in concentration camps, Italian-American politicians (and all too many regular citizens) are not just willing but eager to kick people off the ladder their forebears used to climb to the U.S.

I don’t know if Italian-Americans lack self-awareness generally, but the list of racist politicians with Italian surnames is a long and shameful one. It includes Lou Barletta, the former mayor of Hazelton, Pa., who won a Congressional seat by playing the racist card; Carl Paladino of Buffalo, N.Y., who was thrown off the school board for his racist remarks (he gets special recognition as the son rather than the grandson of immigrants); Michele Fiore, the Mayor Pro Tem of Las Vegas, who said she wanted to shoot Syrian refugees in the head; Bergen County (N.J.) Sheriff Michael Saudino and Executive Undersheriff George Buono, both forced to resign after racist comments about the state’s Sikh attorney general; I could go on all day, but the pattern should be clear by this point.

I see this even in the ranks of organizations like the Proud Boys. I see plenty of people with Asian or Latin American facial characteristics in those photos of assembled yobs. What the fuck are these people thinking? Do they really think that by trashing immigrants they’ll be accepted into white-racist society? One trip home to meet a white girlfriend’s parents would put that delusion to rest.

It was reported the other day that under the new rules, Jewish uber-racist Stephen Miller’s grandfather wouldn’t have been allowed into the U.S. So my proposal is simple: All descendants of immigrants who are anti-immigration should be sent back to the countries their ancestors came from. Let’s see how well little Stevie does in Belarus.