There is no such thing as an “oreo” in Italy. The concept doesn’t exist.
Although not common, “abbronzato” is something I’ve heard said of black people and it’s never, in any way shape or form ever mean to be insulting, demeaning or racist. It’s just a joke, lame perhaps but a joke. I think a joke becomes offensive when it goes into commentary. Rush Limbaugh saying “halfrican american” qualifies as such and is offensive, in my opinion. Saying that the menu at the White House will now only serve ribs and watermelon is offensive. Saying the White House will be painted black isn’t necessarily offensive but depends on how it’s said. For Berlusconi’s joke, it was not commentary, it was just a joke.
I think a lot of the people in Italy are piling on him, as well as his opponents, because of who he is. If this were anyone else, nothing would come of it. But Berlusconi is an arrogant, mega-wealthy guy who does what he wants, and can get away with anything. So the people are fed up and this becomes a news story.
There may be a lot of reasons to be against Berlusconi, but this is not one of them.
To be fair, a lot of Italians have been posting online about how ashamed they are of their prime minister and how they fear that the world will consider them racists, etc. It’s a concern that many Americans shared for the past eight years. I really don’t see anything offensive in what he said, but even if it were the worst thing possible to say, then it would be just as wrong to hold it against the Italian people as it would be to hold against all Americans when George Bush fondled Angela Merkle and proudly declared to be the world’s number one polluter.
Don’t you mean cousin Barry? 
In the interests of precision, she was a member of the parliament, but not the prime minister.
We now return you to the world of modern Italian politics, which has assumed the role formerly held by the circus in the lives of its citizenry, as surely as pizza has replaced the bread.
This could be a “dig” aimed at white people that spend time in the sun to get tanned. I don’t think it’s racist, I believe it’s the opposite as in he’s embracing the historic event.
It’s from a video game. It’s where one guy is really wailing on the other guy, really beating the shit out of him, and the second guy pulls off a move that breaks the “combo” (combination move/normally unstoppable flurry of attacks) and sends the first guy flying.
BTW, my take on this is that it probably isn’t incredibly offensive in Italian culture–just a dumb thing to say. This cat seems to have a history of that, so why assign malice to it when stupidity is sufficient? It’s just a joke in mildly poor taste, and, if anything, I’m glad to see a politician owning up to it. This is way better than John Kerry amending the punchline to his McCain joke to try to weasel out of taking any responsibility for telling it. And I say that as a left winger.
Hey, now that I think about it, isn’t “even-tanned” usually a compliment? Sure, it’s a joke here, maybe even at Pres. Obama’s expense, but it’s a compliment being turned into a joke. “Halfrican-American” has no compliments in it. “It was totally about race” has no compliments in it. “They’ll only serve ribs and watermelon at the White House” has no compliments in it, etc.
Either way, I agree with others that there are much worse (and much more relevant) things being said about our new President-elect here within our borders.
That being said, the question in the OP is interesting, and I hope someone with a little more understanding of white racist culture chimes in on it. FWIW, a handful of prominent white supremacists endorsed Barack Obama in the general election; I’m willing to bet they would stand up for him, since he’s more “their President” than Bush is.
Coincidentally I was listening to the radio on Wednesday (our time) and callers were ringing in with reaction to Obama’s victory (universally favourable and far more emotional than I expected). The panel was discussing Obama’s colour and received a call from an American now resident in Australia. He said that he didn’t feel that Obama’s race had anything to do with his victory nor did he think it was all that significant to Obama. He went on to state that he himself was black but never thought of himself as a black man just a man. And then he added, “But a man with a fantastic suntan.” And all the panel laughed with him.
Maybe Berlusconi picks up Richard Glover on 702 over the internet?
No, he really was being a racist prick.
Some interesting articles on Italian racism:
http://www.corriere.it/english/articoli/2005/11_Novembre/28/zoro.shtml
http://www.furd.org/default.asp?intPageID=54
Exactly. I don’t care if someone makes a joke about Obama’s shade of tan, but knock those goofy ears, &–you’d better have proof of citizenship!
Wait, I got confused there…
I have to admit, I found it mildly funny. I had assumed it to be intended as a joke, though.
OK, it’s a joke. Say you’re Italian and the head of your nation just made fun of the soon to be leader of the free world. Even for Italian racists it had to be a nationally colective :smack: moment, like Bush puking on the Japanese Prime Minister.
Oh, sure, it’s not a good thing to have said. But it didn’t seem like a huge racist statement that should lead to a major incident between countries, either.
Damn! What an idiot. He said he had a nice tan. How awful. Previously he has commented that the Danish PM was a hotbody. Bastard! He has also said how he had done his utmost to charm the Finnish PM. Dastardly!
The whole world is going to be tip-toeing on glass the next four years, for fear that anything they say might however remotely in any way be construed as racist.
Leader of the free world? Is Obama to be president of France as well?
I just think it’s kind of tacky–he’s been elected president, why bother making remarks about his race? It reminds me of all those stupid “We can’t call it the White House anymore” remarks. Can’t we focus on what he’s going to do, not what he looks like?
FWIW, I think that Berlusconi meant it as a joke. It made sense in his head, just like every other stupid joke he makes that sounds very bigoted when it exits his rotten brain. The guy has no brain to mouth brake.
We had a president like that. And I don’t hold this against Italians anymore than it should be held it against me when our own Moron-in-Chief called a black cameraman a monkey during an interview in the US (it doesn’t sound the same way here).
So, to any Italians around here, it’s OK. I know how it feels. I like your country and hope to go back some day.
My take is that the joke was aimed at Medvedev - what Berlusconi said, roughly, is that Obama should get along great with Medvedev since they’re both young, good-looking and tanned.
Just to be clear - Berlusconi is still an asshole.
“Leader of the free world” is one of several traditional ways to refer to our President colloquially, alluding to the fact that the United States inspired the rest of the free world to embrace freedom. Where do you think the French got the idea for their Revolution?
I’m pretty sure it’s solely a Cold War colloquialism, due to the US’s leadership role in NATO and against the dirty Reds generally.