# If people of Spanish descent are "people of color" why aren't Italians?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-people-of-spanish-descent-are-people-of-color-why-arent-italians/743390>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 17, 2016, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-people-of-spanish-descent-are-people-of-color-why-arent-italians/743390 "2016-01-17T08:12:26Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![The\_Niply\_Elder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8e8cbc/32.png) [@The\_Niply\_Elder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Niply_Elder)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-people-of-spanish-descent-are-people-of-color-why-arent-italians/743390/81 "2016-01-19T15:22:22Z")

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> [@Peremensoe](#):
>
> Are you an American of German ancestry, or an actual German? Everything I’ve said, unless otherwise specified, has been about the American idea of and approach to race.

American of German ancestry, if it wasn’t very clear from my post. And for the record you should know your opinion is one that belongs to yourself (and a weird and sad one at that), and not the “American idea” of race.

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [January 19, 2016, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-people-of-spanish-descent-are-people-of-color-why-arent-italians/743390/82 "2016-01-19T15:46:10Z")

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> [@Nava](#):
>
> Rae’s fourth definition is racial: _cuarterón_, which I learned as “someone with one black grandparent and three white ones”.

Historically there were similar terms in English, although not nearly as complicated as the ones in Spanish colonies since I don’t think they took Native American ancestry in account. A [quadroon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadroon) was one quarter black and three-quarters white, an octoroon had one black great grandparent and the rest white, etc.

My favorites are _mustefino_ and especially _hexadecaroon_ for those of 1/16 black ancestry.

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