#that still doesn't make it okay to shade him paper white in fan art! but I'm absolutely baffled y'all are so convinced that guy isn't white

[redjennies]

it finally happened. I always said it would happen, and it finally happened. after years of dancing around saying "all Mediterranean people are actually POC," the Dragon Age fandom finally resurrected the old white supremacist "Italians (particularly Southern Italians) aren't really white because of the Moors" talking point.

sincerely, here's a pro-tip for not sounding like the fucking Klan: if there's historic weird European racism involved, saying a group of people aren't "white white" is always going to sound like you're validating that racism. and that's because not being "white white" is exactly what the racism is about, arbitrarily deciding who is and isn't white by the supposed purity of their European lineage.

it's fine to say "there are, in fact, lots of Italians with darker skin tones, who have been historically discriminated against and excluded from whiteness because of their potential Moorish ancestry. Sicilians, in particular, have been targets of this racism." but if we don't want to sound like a dyed in the wool Nazi, we do not start questioning how they aren't really white. the same way we do not start questioning if Ashkenazi Jewish people are "really white," or the Irish or Spanish or Greeks or Slavic or yes, even Turkish people. and I know you might be like "well obviously, the Irish are white but Turkish people? Sicilians? most of them are pretty brown to me." trust me. unless someone from these groups tells you they specifically do not identify as white, you should not presume and start calling them not white unless you want to sound like a big old white supremacist, my God.