1 definition by TropicanaLover

1. The primary language spoken in Italy, a country in Europe, Southeast to France.

2. A person with Italian heritage and/or who was born in Italy.

The Italian race is considered hard to place in an ethnic group, mainly by Italians themselves. Italians are white, but they like to classify themselves under "Latino", "Hispanic", or "Other", because they feel they should have their own category. It is very insulting to Hispanics when Italians consider themselves "Hispanic" because they do not meet the criteria to be so. While the traditional Hispanic is someone who's origin comes from a Spanish-speaking country, Hispanic goes hand-in-hand with Latino. Latino would be a more accurate classification for Italians because while all Hispanics may be considered Latino, not all Latinos are considered Hispanic. Brazilians and Portuguese may classify under Latino, but not Hispanic because their language is Portuguese and since their origin traces back to Portugal, they have no Spanish decent.

Italians take much pride in being Italian. They usually make family their highest priority as that is how traditional Italian families are raised. Across the world, they are well-known for their cooking and taking pride in family recipes.

As a negative stereotype, Italians are also well known for the famous mafia asset, which is their form of gangs, and is usually built off of a hierarchy of family members. The television show, The Sopranos, depicts a stereotypical Italian mafia family living in America.
Girl: I'm part Italian, and the rest of me is white.
Latina: Italian IS white, though.
Girl: Well I don't consider myself white because I'm Italian and Italians are tan.
Latina: Well, you are classified under White ethnicity-wise because you are European, and Europeans are considered white except for Spaniards, who can be classified under Hispanic.
by TropicanaLover April 23, 2007
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