What do YOU use to answer the question on race and ethnicity on the U.S. Census? The Federal Government has recently undertaken a reexamination of the “Federal Standards on Racial and Ethnic Data Collection”, and as a part of that process, they have invited communities across the nation to weigh in on how they are counted.  

To some in our community, the time has come to answer the question of whether or not Italian Americans are “White”. And of course, there is no straightforward answer. While some believe that the label White is an appropriate one for Italian Americans, others feel it’s an erasure and “whitewashing” of the Italian American historical experience. Many fall somewhere in between.