JASON COLAVITO
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search

Why L. A. Marzulli Is Wrong about History, Heritage, and His White Privilege

11/21/2016

55 Comments

 
​Every time I mention politics on my blog, I receive howls of protest that it’s inappropriate to talk about how bad ideas about history relate to current events, as though history doesn’t inform how we live today. At the same time, no one seems to complain when the purveyors of these bad ideas about history use the platforms their popularity affords them to advocate for political positions. We have seen, for example, Jim Marrs use the popularity of his ancient astronaut and anti-government conspiracy theories to advocate for rightwing political positions, alongside transparently ridiculous anti-Obama propaganda, such as his claim that Obama was conspiring liberal elites to commit mass genocide against conservative Americans. We have similarly seen Steve Quayle use his quack claims about Nephilim and the coming reign of Satan to openly accuse Democratic politicians of being in league with Lucifer and of being actual demons. (This is ironic because last week Steve Bannon, the chief strategist for the candidate Quayle supported, Donald Trump, cited Satan as a role model.) But it’s not just that; specific claims about history serve to underline and underscore the way we think about current events, as when pro-Trump political action committee spokesman Carl Higbie cited Japanese internment as precedent for creating a national religious registry for Muslims.
​Like it or not, bad ideas from history and about history cannot be separated from the political moment, and never more so than when they are used to justify injustice. It is on this point that I want to call to your attention the rant that Nephilim theorist and Christian proselytizer L. A. Marzulli delivered on his blog last week demanding that he not be exposed to people and ideas that disagree with him. His list of reasons was very long, so forgive me for condensing somewhat to make the point:
​I’m a white guy. To be more precise, I’m an Italian White-guy and I’m tired of being called a racist just because I agree with president-elect Trump that we should build a wall. I’m tired of hearing that I’m privileged or “I didn’t make that” when all my life I’ve worked hard and no one gave me anything. […] I’m tired of hearing about the plight of men who think they’re women trapped in a mans body and then want to use the woman’s bathroom. […] I’m tired of hearing that it’s a woman’s right to choose, which, in my opinion, is the most fallacious argument of the 20th and 21st century. […] I’m tired of being told that Evolution is a fact when the fact is Evolution is the biggest bunch of hooey ever foisted on the public. […] What I’m not tired about is knowing that Jesus is the Messiah and He will return to set up His literal millennial kingdom.
​Yes, L. A. Marzulli is a precious little snowflake who needs his safe space to get away from all the hate. I won’t even complain today that his plea to be left to his ideology came only days after he ranted that “snowflake” Millennials like Miley Cyrus need to be confronted with truth so they can “wake up.”
 
No, I have a different point to make today.
 
Did you catch what he said in his second sentence? This is of such importance that I’m going to put aside the conservative boilerplate that fills his unoriginal screed to explain in detail to L. A. Marzulli how his ignorance of history has led him down the road to hypocrisy.
 
L. A. Marzulli says he is white and Italian: “I’m an Italian White-guy,” he writes. Now as it happens, I, too, am an Italian-American (on my father’s side) and know the century of struggle for acceptance than Marzulli blithely dismisses as a false accusation of “privilege.” The fact of the matter is that L. A. Marzulli can claim to be both Italian and white precisely because Italian-Americans were able to join into the privilege of whiteness. This was not always the case, even in the lifetimes of Italian-Americans still living. To pretend otherwise is a lie and offensive to all those who lived and died unable to enjoy the same privileges as Marzulli and I do.
 
I know I bring this up a lot, but it’s important to repeat: When the fringe historian Thomas Sinclair ranted about how “the threatened Spanish or Latin domination,” by which he meant Italians and other southern Europeans, was destroying the moral fabric of white America in 1893 and called for an end to immigration from Italy and the other southern European countries, he was not speaking in isolation. His was the opinion of perhaps a majority of those who identified as “white” in the nineteenth century—Anglo-Saxons, Scots, Welshmen, Germans, and Scandinavians, essentially the so-called Aryans, Anglo-Saxons, and those politically aligned with them. Sinclair contrasted Aryan ingenuity against Latin laziness, and Protestantism against Catholicism in what he viewed as a race war between whites and Latins (then the word for southern Europeans, not Latinos), or what he called “a gigantic Armageddon contest of blood and belief.”
 
When he wrote, this wasn’t just the idle bluster of wealthy conservatives engaging in the prejudice of comfortable privilege. Two years earlier, on March 14, 1891, the largest mass lynching in American history took place in New Orleans, Louisiana. Several Italian immigrants were found not guilty of murdering the police chief of New Orleans, and white Louisianans dragged eleven of them into the streets and lynched them all, setting off a wave of anti-Italian hate crimes across the United States. Teddy Roosevelt declared the hate crimes to be “rather a good thing,” while the New York Times thundered that the Italian immigrants were “sneaking and cowardly Sicilians, the descendants of bandits and assassins, who have transported to this country the lawless passions … of their native country.” Calling Italians “a pest without mitigation,” the paper compared them to rattlesnakes and declared that the criminal justice system should not apply to Italians, and that “every good citizen” (read: white man) would be happy to see Italians lynched.
 
Just as Donald Trump has called on Muslims to report fellow Muslims for jihadi activity, a New Orleans mayoral committee of fifty white citizens told Italians to report their family and friends for terrorist activity or face “harsh and stringent methods outside of the law.” They meant that white people would simply kill Italians at will, with the sanction of the government. The man who signed his name to those words, white supremacist Edgar H. Farrar, would become the president of the American Bar Association.
 
Oh, and the guy who started the wave of hate crimes by leading the lynch mob? He got elected governor of Louisiana, saying while in office that Italians were “just a little worse than the Negro, being if anything filthier in habits, lawless, and treacherous.” In fact, Parker told Italian-Americans, in a letter to a leading Italian-American newspaper, that Italians had to be careful because their crimes and general unsavoriness created a “stigma” which all white people will ascribe to the whole Italian race.
 
Compare the strikingly similar rhetoric about Mexicans today: “They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.”
 
And here’s the rub: Like Donald Trump today, that governor, John M. Parker, considered himself a champion of the people and a radical reformer. He was even progressive, fighting for women’s suffrage and the end of the KKK. (OK, so he wasn’t that much like Donald Trump.) His hatred and his politics were somewhat at odds, but it was par for the course at the time, and again today.
 
Such hate did not end there but continued for decades. H. P. Lovecraft, that bottomless font of racism, gave voice to the worst instincts of the anti-Italians, writing in a letter of October 12, 1928 that politicians were going too soft on immigrants, saying that Democratic presidential candidate Gov. Al “Smith, to my mind, is a direct exponent of the newer-immigration element—the decadent & unassimilable hordes from Southern Europe & the East whose presence in large numbers is a direct & profound menace to the continued growth of the Nordic-American nation we know.” Lovecraft wanted to make America great again by making America white again, and white was synonymous with Nordic.
 
I think you get the point.
 
This is why I find L. A. Marzulli’s rant not just the pious fraud of a holy hypocrite, but offensive to all those, like my own family, who suffered under the burden of not being white enough to please the self-appointed Aryan elite, whether they called themselves WASPs, Nordic, Anglo-Saxon, Teutonic, or just American. When my great-grandfather immigrated to this country, he had to live in the Italian ghetto because “white” Americans wouldn’t rent rooms to him anywhere else in town. His son, my grandfather, fought for the United States in World War II at a time when “white” Americans questioned whether an Italian could fight for the United States without secretly trying to aid Italy. The U.S. government declared Italian immigrants to be “enemy aliens,” though the worst government actions fell on those who had not yet gained U.S. citizenship. Even in my father’s lifetime, “white” Americans still hurled anti-Italian slurs (“dago,” “wop,” and the ever-present “garlic-breath”) openly on the street.
 
Nor was this confined to Italians, even among the groups today considered “white.” We all remember “No Irish Need Apply,” which some modern scholars have tried to whitewash from history. Even Finns—lily white as anyone!—were discriminated against and accused of being secretly Asian. My mother’s side of my family is Polish, immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In the city directory of Auburn, New York, deep into the twentieth century, their names and addresses were listed separately from “real” citizens, in a section in the back of the book reserved for all the scum of Eastern Europe, lumped together as “Austrians.” Their names couldn’t appear alongside the “real” Americans.
 
This changed over time. L. A. Marzulli and I can identify ourselves as white only because the self-proclaimed “real” whites promoted Italians (and Poles) to what social scientists often call “provisional whites,” people who could be counted as white when convenient but who retain the taint of ethnic identity. The people who were “real” whites at midcentury—WASPs, Scots-Irish of the heartland, Nordics and the Teutonic—let Italians and Poles into the club because of fear of a greater enemy: Blacks and Latinos. Worried that “white” Americans would no longer be a racial majority in the United States, they expanded the definition of whiteness to preserve a somewhat diminished hegemony. Within a few decades, this was forgotten, and the label of “white” now fits more securely, thanks to the shrinking pool of “white” Americans, down now to just 63% of the population, or 77% if Hispanic whites are allowed “provisional” status in the counting.
 
When Marzulli crows about his white privilege, he either ignorantly or offensively omits the fact that the privilege he resents being told he possesses isn’t the natural birthright of all free men but a specific set of political, economic, and social privileges created by the consent and consensus of “mainstream” society. Marzulli might want to forget this, but I have not, and it makes me angry to hear someone who emerged from the same history of discrimination and oppression wield those same cudgels against others, as though to say “I’ve got mine. Go away.”
 
None of this is to say that one can’t be Italian and against immigration or for conservative politics (God knows my uncle is all of these) but rather that it is the height of hypocrisy to openly advocate specific arguments against new immigrants that were used against your own ancestors, within living memory, while pretending they did not and should not apply to you, as Marzulli has done at many points over the course of the long election cycle. Any privilege that comes to us by the acquiescence of the self-described “real” Americans can be taken away just as easily when the definition of a real American changes, and we should not forget that. There is a reason there are a dozen or more ethnic insults for Italians and Poles and almost none for rich WASPS. More importantly, there is a reason that Americans of British ancestry call themselves only American while Marzulli felt compelled, even in his denial, to qualify his whiteness with the adjective Italian​.
55 Comments
David Brody
11/21/2016 11:39:30 am

I'm sure this was heartfelt, Jason. But it rings shallow coming from a man who had no qualms plastering the "Nazi" label on an elderly Jewish woman.

Reply
Only Me
11/21/2016 11:50:16 am

What Jason ACTUALLY wrote about Halpern:

>>She worked on “translating” gibberish from the fabricated stones from Burrows Cave (and publishing with Burrows Cave advocate and ex-Nazi leader Frank Joseph* in his publications), and she has gone by many descriptions—from historian to Hebrew expert to Knights Templar expert.<<

From http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/hunting-the-ark-of-the-covenant-on-curse-of-oak-island.

Uh oh, David. It seems your accusation doesn't hold water.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 12:10:51 pm

I didn't call her a Nazi. I called Frank Joseph a Nazi, which he was. Lots of people have worked with him or for him, unwittingly or not, including your bosom friend Scott Wolter, who published articles in Joseph's magazine and anthologies, and David Childress, who did the same. Wolter even carpooled with Joseph to the AAPS conference, which Joseph wrote about online a few years ago. "Ex-Nazi leader" is a fair description of who Joseph is, and a good indication of where he came from. Since he was a key advocate in the Burrows cave saga--Richard Flavin noted that he seems to have entered the story when he met Burrows, a prison guard, while serving time for child rape in the prison where Burrows worked--how could it not be relevant that he also helped to midwife Halpern's work on fringe history after she worked on the material from that same cave? If you feel it is too shocking to note that he was a Nazi, pray tell: Why should I be complicit in hiding that fact from those who might want to believe in the claims he pushes?

Reply
Paul Beau
8/3/2018 03:03:59 am

I only needed to go one third into this article to realize it wasn't worth venturing any further. ...Poorly written, and so obviously filtered through the author's leftist nonsense. ...Not worth any more of a comment.

Reply
Only Me
11/21/2016 11:41:13 am

Superb post. It's saddening that some would want to erase the history of discrimination against certain groups, like Italians and the Irish.

Hell, my dad and I enjoy Westerns and it is commonplace to see the Irish shown as working and living alongside the Chinese building railroads. I've seen films where the Irish character was called a Mick or Irish, as if it was necessary to identify the character as such. The Godfather was a hugely successful film, but I'm sure it left many people assuming Sicilian and Italian were synonymous. It seems Rocky was the one film that portrayed an Italian in a positive light.

I would argue that there is still discrimination against certain whites. I'm from the south, Texas to be exact, and I can't tell you how many times I was asked, even if jokingly, if where I was from had people like in the movie Deliverance. It pains me to know the assumption all Southern people are backwoods and inbred still remains.

As for Marzulli, I'm still amazed he thinks women have no choice. Of course they do. He doesn't have to agree with it, or like it, but he better learn to deal with it. In fact, he needs to learn to deal with a lot of things.

Reply
Shane Sullivan
11/21/2016 11:19:59 pm

"I've seen films where the Irish character was called a Mick or Irish, as if it was necessary to identify the character as such."

I can beat that; I had a Grand-Uncle who went by Muckle back in the 40s and 50s. He worked for the rail road (As an engineer, not in construction), and when the train arrived in St. Louis from Chicago, the railway employees would stay in a hotel over night. Trouble was, he, the other engineer and the conductor were all named John McCarthy. So the hotel clerk, not wanting to look like he had written the same guy's name three times, called them John "Mickle" McCarthy, John "Mackle" McCarthy, and John "Muckle" McCarthy.


The nickname stuck, and thirty-five years after his death everyone in the family still calls him Uncle Muckle.

Reply
Valerie
11/27/2016 08:05:31 pm

Hopefully you like Trae Crowder as he wants to 'drag Dixie out of the dark'.

Reply
Tom
11/21/2016 11:56:15 am

In the histories of most of the countries that I have read over the years there does seems to be these cycles of initial dislike or even hatred followed by grudging acceptance then full acceptance.
In the case of Mr Trump and his wall etc, the business community will not be long in pointing out the enormous source of cheap labour over the border but also the expanding market for American goods and capital in any Mexican boom. As the American financed industrial base develops in Mexico and both workers and guest workers earn their families the money to spend this wealth will spread inside Mexico and then back into the US so I can imagine that in ten years time those troubled by immigration and guest workers will have seen the benefits.

Reply
Joe Scales
11/21/2016 12:16:36 pm

Howling? That's quite a characterization. Preferable to whining perhaps, but either way it's clear you're going to inject your political views into your blog topics regardless. That's fine by me of course, as you are the host and I am simply your guest... well, while the general conversation remains polite.

The issue of immigration has changed over our history. Initially it wasn't regulated as building our population was in our nation's interest. Then came the end of the nineteenth century when it was regulated, and you can color that as you will. But their are laws, and currently they are being broken. Sure, people can point fingers and accuse opposition to current immigration as being racist or xenophobic, but then they have to ask themselves an honest question. Do they believe open immigration at this point is some sort of human rights issue, or do they simply want cheap laborers and/or more votes for their political party.

It's always about politics, deep down. Take your side, embrace your cause, then pat yourself on the back for having the more noble intentions. The other side does it too, by the way. That's how it works until one side overtakes the other by force, which is truly the only way things actually change given our history on this rock. But looking back at the smaller picture, the problem is our government is built around compromise; when nobody wants it.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 12:27:52 pm

The issue I was commenting on here isn't a question of whether to have immigration or not (which is a political issue that can be argued on rational grounds--specific numbers, education level, etc.), but the specific argument Nativists tend to make, explicitly or by implication, that immigrants are bad because foreigners, non-whites, and non-Christians are somehow fundamentally bad people. It's why it becomes disturbing that "immigration" bleeds so easily into distrust and even hatred of the racial, ethnic, or religious groups from which immigrants come.

Reply
Joe Scales
11/21/2016 02:04:23 pm

One day I would love to see political issues argued on rational grounds. Just the dreamer in me, I suppose. Till then, it's best realized that it often colors even our otherwise rational arguments, no matter the stated intent.

Mark L
11/22/2016 06:50:34 am

Joe, rational debate is a lot more difficult when self-appointed internet-police feel the need to tell everyone how pointless all debate is.

Joe Scales
11/22/2016 11:22:36 am

Mark,
I know of some very intelligent and entertaining privately owned online discussion groups. As a rule, politics (and religion) are not allowed, and for good reason by their hosts. I certainly understand that such divisive topics will touch on the conversations here that take place after the blog posts. It is of course my choice whether or not to partake of same. To express displeasure at what I see as an open invitation to partisanship in the form of recent arguments made, many of which have taken the fallacious ad hominem form of association, is simply my contribution. Partisans will never see it. They will cheer it in fact, so long as it goes their way.

You don't have to heed my words of caution, nor my distinct impressions that once politics invade the conversation, they are necessarily dumbed down accordingly by an affecting bias. The host certainly doesn't care and it's not for me to argue this point any longer, nor am I able or willing to "police" the place. But it's bad enough that compulsive characters disrupt discussions regularly, and I don't think I need to name them. Add politics to that and you have quite the sewer. Enjoy it if that is to your liking. Me, I've had enough of politics with the recent election cycle. I'm going back to ESPN.

V
11/21/2016 04:51:09 pm

Personally, I DO believe that open immigration, or at least more-open immigration, is a human-rights issue. When thousands of people are attempting to flee their own imminent murders, they need SOMEWHERE to go. Given that my own ancestors came here at the expense of the people already living in this land, it's hypocritical to say that here shouldn't be it.

But I agree, it's always about politics, for the simple reason that politics is ultimately about how the populace interacts with itself. Households have politics, offices have politics, and of course anything larger than offices has politics. The only thing I argue with is "the other side," because frankly, there are a minimum of three sides in any given political interaction, and usually way, way more than that.

As for arguments of rational grounds, I could make an argument that immigration should be limited to levels that allow immigrants to integrate into society without causing massive disruption, and that would be a rational argument, the specifics of which would be made up of various points involving research into anthropology, psychology, and resource management, but suffice it to say that real-world evidence highly suggests that our current limits don't even remotely approach that particular rational argument, since we have so many undocumented foreign nationals within our borders without any signs of national or local collapse of economies.

You will probably never see a real discussion on that basis, though. I've tried to get one going, but people never seem to want to engage in it. They'd far rather deal in rhetoric, the vast majority of which is bigoted and boils down to "I'm afraid I won't be special anymore if Those People get the same things as me," or to "I'm afraid someone is going to take away from me to give to Those People," or both.

Reply
Joe Scales
11/21/2016 10:26:24 pm

In summary then, it's a rational discussion if someone agrees with you. If not, it's because.... well... fill in the blank with some demeaning thing to say about them.

Mandalore
11/21/2016 01:02:39 pm

Here's an article about the use of the classics by the alt-right.

https://eidolon.pub/how-to-be-a-good-classicist-under-a-bad-emperor-6b848df6e54a#.vo4qec1ga

Reply
Alex Stallwitz
11/21/2016 01:38:29 pm

One of the saddest things to see is to turn on a tv and watch people with last names like Hannity and O' Reily ranting about too many Mexicans and Syrian being allowed when 200 years ago. They wouldnt been allowed in the country if the people in their postion had have their way

Reply
crainey
11/21/2016 02:18:27 pm

Well said, Jason!

Reply
#BlackLivesMatter
11/21/2016 02:22:36 pm

Jason is a joke. As white as it gets. He went to exclusive white college and hides in white neighborhood. He's a closet racist.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 02:34:18 pm

Huh? I went to Ithaca College, which was neither "exclusive" nor "white." I live in Albany across the street from an immigrant Chinese family and two doors down from a Black family on one side and Southeast Asians on the other.

Reply
#BlackLivesMatter
11/21/2016 03:18:11 pm

Your school currently has less than 3% African Americans. When you were there it was less than 1%. And ONE black neighbor. That's white privilege. You are a pretender. You do nothing about racism but make it worse.

Only Me
11/21/2016 03:34:53 pm

#BlackLivesMatter, what are YOU doing about racism? All you've done thus far is accuse everyone on this blog of being a racist.

Oh. Wait. THAT'S what you're doing about racism. You're keeping it alive and well.

David Bradbury
11/21/2016 03:53:45 pm

"And ONE black neighbor."
Because anybody not meeting the American definition of "black" is automatically Not One Of Us?
OnlyMe has summed up the situation quite accurately.

Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 04:47:00 pm

Not to put too fine a point on it, but there are plenty of people around me from all different ethnicities. I don't know them personally because like most Americans I don't make eye contact with most neighbors.

DaveR
11/22/2016 12:23:18 pm

You're the pretender.

Reply
Time Machine
11/21/2016 03:00:45 pm

There is a superior White Race of which this Blog knows nothing.

The White Race, as of 2016, is still grinding down the North and South American Natives and the Aborigines and the Maoris.

I don't see them ever gaining independence from the Superior White Race,

Basic common sense continues to be missing from this idealistic and misleading Blog.

Reply
Only Me
11/21/2016 03:11:57 pm

Final score: 0/10

You're neither the troll we need nor deserve. Perhaps you should look into an internship with someone who has experience.

Reply
Paolo
11/21/2016 03:19:04 pm

As an Italian myself, I'll never understand those countrymen of mine who spend their lifes ranting about immigrants in general, making exactly the same arguments that a century ago were made against their (our) ancestors and/or relatives who went to America (I have some cousins in the East Coast, not sure exactly where).

Reply
Chris
11/23/2016 03:57:38 pm

And before Italians it was the Germans (my grandmother's family) who were recent immigrants, characterized as ignorant, stupid, dirty, tasteless, disease-ridden, et cetera. At various times it's also been the Polish, the Yugoslavians, and the Chinese. Back in 16th-century England it was the Welsh who were regarded as universally stupid, dirty, and thieving.

Reply
Paolo
11/24/2016 05:29:27 pm

Which is quite ironic if you think about it, since the english royal family in the 16th century, the Tudors, was of welsh origins.

Oliver Smith link
11/21/2016 03:36:29 pm

The reason a pan-European ("white") identity formed in the US is because ethnic Italians, Germans, Poles, Irish, Scots, English, Swedes over time have mixed. Trump for example has German ancestry on his father's side and Scottish ancestry on his mother's side. It's hard to find an American who has ancestry from only one ethnic group. This is the same reason a "black" identity formed; African Americans also descend from many different ethnic groups.

In Europe and Africa this "white" and "black" identity doesn't exist - people identify with their local ethnicity or culture. One thing I have to laugh at is white nationalists from America claiming Brexit was a boost the white nationalism. In reality the reason for Brexit is because people in UK are fed up with mass immigration from Poland and Eastern Europe via the freedom of movement of workers. American white nationalists don't seem to understand their pan-Europeanism ideology doesn't exist in Europe.

Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 03:59:02 pm

The ethnic mixing is kind of a mixed thing in itself. It probably depends on the region. When my parents got married, my grandparents disapproved a bit because my mother wasn't Italian, and throughout my life my Italian family never really thought of me as being an Italian like them. Most of the kids I grew up with had parents from the same ethnic group. I imagine it depends on how strong ethnic community identity remained in any given locale.

Reply
Uncle Ron
11/21/2016 08:49:36 pm

The whole America-as-melting-pot thing is part of what has made and will continue to make this country successful. For immigrants there is something comforting about living with others who share your native language and historical customs. There is, however, the autonomous-enclave mentality of some groups (yes, I'm referring to the Muslims in Paris who want their neighborhood to be run by sharia law and off-limits to the French police) that should give us pause. Chinatown and Little Italy and other ethnic neighborhoods may have had their own internal civics but they recognized at some level that they were subject to the surrounding legal authority, and each successive generation became more diluted as the kids met and married those of different backgrounds (often against their parents wishes). When I was younger I knew a mixed-race couple who moved away because they felt intimidated by the people around here. "Back then" it was something that stood out like a sore thumb. Today very few people get really upset about it and there are two mixed-race marriages in my extended family. We should allow as many people to immigrate as we can accommodate but the first and foremost consideration should be that we are a nation of laws and those who want to come here should, first and foremost, have to follow the laws about coming and staying here.

Kal
11/21/2016 04:28:33 pm

White American mutt here. I'm a mix, nearly 1/2 generally mixed, but 1/4 Italian faux Catholic (north central, not south like Sicily), and 1/4 Irish Protestant, but most if it is mixed and there might even be some Canadian there. Born on the west coast but ancestry traces back to midwest, and far enough back, upstate NY too. What a coincidence, but several generations back, (great, great grandparent, father's side, from Fries land).

Local area here is mainly Latin (native American Mexican) and Chinese (or Asia proper) in the neighborhood, with some Islanders of various dialects (southeast Asia).

I was just thinking that hyper neocons like O'reilly and Hannity would probably freak out if they had to walk into a store in San Jose and shop for clothes, like in as Wal Mart or something, but they would not be caught in a Wal Mart. They would go to Sacks or Neiman Marcus. It would be unheard of for Bill O'Reilly to actually go to San Francisco much less land in the Tenderloin on the evening BART (commuter train). For all how hollering about Kate's Law stuff, he's never actually been there (only sent his stooges).

Although there is a small Muslim population here, most of them are confused by local neocons, and in may cases they are not Muslims but Indians from India, but racists tend to be ignorant.

Actually the Sicily thing is older than the Godfather. It stemmed from Prohibition times when the Mob got really big bootlegging, and that was 50 years before the movie came out.



Reply
Jason Colavito link
11/21/2016 04:45:55 pm

Oddly enough, my great-grandfather (who was an Austro-German married into a Polish family) was the bootlegger in my family. He ran rum from Canada to New York during Prohibition and stared down the IRS when they raided his home looking for the liquor. He put a sign on my grandmother's bedroom saying it was quarantined for scarlet fever and dared them to raid a sick girl's bedroom. They didn't, and he was never caught.

Imagine that: An immigrant who was a criminal and illegally crossing the border over and over again ... to feed Anglo-Americans' booze habits. Politics makes for strange bedfellows.

Reply
Eman
11/21/2016 06:51:27 pm

Is it fair to say that when someone introduces himself as a "white guy" you should simply stop listening to him?

Reply
Titus pullo
11/21/2016 08:55:28 pm

If you have to define yourself by your race or whatnot and not your beliefs...I agree with you

Reply
Titus pullo
11/21/2016 08:53:10 pm

Excellent post! And I'm a conservative libertarian grandson of Italian immigrants on both sides. The history of souther European people's coming to America is insightful to the immigration hardliners and the multiculturalists. The past is a sunk cost and you can't determine economic force by govt using moral judge,ents on what group deserves more. Govt should not discriminate or force others to but all Americans have the right to discriminate in their own lives to achieve their own pursuit of happiness. Groups don't have rights only individuals do and we all have the same natural rights. Original sin is bs regardless of race,

Reply
RobZ
11/22/2016 06:20:30 am

Well said Jason.

When will people realise there is only one human race? And there is no such thing as 'white' or 'black', only shades of pinkish brown.

If one were to walk from the North Pole via the Middle East to Cape Town, there is nowhere a point where one could say: "Ah here is the line between 'white' and 'black'. It's a gradual change.

Also, there are African groups who -genetically- have more in common with certain Scandinavians than with their 'next door neighbours'.

Strict divisions in race and skin colour within the human race are illusions.

Reply
Joseph Gagné
11/22/2016 09:29:28 am

Jason, I'm glad you brought up this topic.
White racism is such an ironic term considering racism exists even among various white groups. Racism is racism, period.
A true cognitive dissonance I've seen as well is in my own family: we're French-Canadian. In Canada, racism against French-descended people has always been alive and well (I've stopped counting the times I've had racist comments thrown at me walking down the street as some jerk overheard me speak French to a friend). Yet, I have family members who said though they hated Trump, agreed with his policy against immigrants.
"Immigrants are stealing our jobs"... a comment which is quite rich considering 60 years ago the WASP population of my Ontario home town was saying the same thing about my grand-parents that had not only moved to town, but created jobs by founding a lumber mill...

Reply
DaveR
11/22/2016 12:19:12 pm

As an Irish, Scottish, English, Norwegian, Austrian, Russian white guy, I'm tired of all this hooey about how terrible Vikings were. Now I'm going to my safe space with my teddy bear and a six pack.

Reply
Kal
11/22/2016 02:36:56 pm

Most of what we know about Vikings is hearsay and from popular operas written centuries later. They did not have horned helmets, did bathe, were actually quite clean, and were actually quite advanced in terms of religion and social strata, but the later conquerors made them off as barbarians.

Most of what we assume was Viking was in fact Germanic Austrian, not Norseman. March of Valkyries is from Austria. They weren't vikings!

Norseman later settled beyond Normandy, Francos moved in and made it France. (It was still called Normandy during ww2). The Russ tribes of Norsemen then went northeast and founded Russia.

Some of them founded Turkey, or parts of it.

Others the Netherlands.

The Visigoths were said to be barbarians by the Romans when they got taken.

In Africa there are multiple origin stories for humankind and different tribes and customs, some of them advanced, but because of oppression from invaders, not so much anymore.

Scientists and anthropologists have traced the cradle of civilization to Africa and also to the near east. Technically all the white racist ignorant types owe it to the African ones that they are even there, having gone ahead of the near eastern ones (modern day Babylon region and Egypt regions) to intermingle with the Neadrethals (only named that for the valley in Germany the bones are in). The supposed aryan race therefore would have been originally black, quite black, until over time being north in the snow changed them over generations.

Asia appears to be from the later near east migrations and is all populated by humans descended from north Africa and the area, so technically biologically racism is illogical.

We are all the same species genetically. If they want to be technical even, the influence of white Neandrethal genes, about 4 to 7 percent, made white less pure.

The racists will of course deny genetics altogether.

Donald Trump is clearly some new alien like subspecies and proof the evolution sometimes makes mistakes. Ha! .

Reply
RobZ
11/22/2016 03:22:13 pm

Another misconception: Vikings were not a people or a tribe. Viking was an occupation.

Reply
Kal
11/22/2016 02:48:40 pm

These early pro civilizations were before Egypt and much later Meso Americans, leading some credence to the ancient origins idea of there being something before what we consider civilization.

These people that actually lived in the Younger Dryas and before would likely be considered primitive today, as they did not leave stone temples or traces of lavish houses and cities, but they did leave behind something genetically that became us.

Maybe some did leave stone structures, but they were not aliens. They were humans.

Multiple migrations happened, but most seemed to have started in the near and far east, Africa and the like, and went on from there.

The ancient origins people got it wrong though, as when they tink inherited racial memories they think some kind of magic that makes people recall tens of thousands of years back, which is not how that works.

If it worked like that, the stories of fables from Victorian times would be passed down from before time somehow, which is not how that works.

It is interesting that for instance the Egyptians wrote down their stories in picture art, the ancient Mongols and Chinese at the same time wrote in pictures, the basics for Sumarian language also used, and that these were more reliable in some way that modern languages because a picture of a thing seems better than a word describing that thing.

So even the racist illiterates can thank people who write in pictures for proper language. So they best not make fun of any near eastern languages because without them there would be no European languages!

.

Reply
At Risk
11/22/2016 05:34:23 pm

Jason, it's hard to catch you goofing up on something historically noteworthy, but you missed the mass hanging of 38 souls in 1862, in Mankato, Minnesota. This is more than three times the number of poor Italians hanged in 1891, and about 30 years earlier. (Native Americans still hold the record, as far as I know.)

The more than 30 large, machine-made stoneholes I found on a ridge near Appleton, MN, were most likely made by a railroad surveying crew in the 1870's - 1880's, not many years after this mass hanging. The location is directly across from where the Pomme de Terre River discharges into the Minnesota River.

Astonishingly, this is the exact same spot where the 5 stonehole rocks making up the Norse Code were created several hundred years earlier, if I understand genuine medieval Norse stoneholes right. Apparently, the modern crew weren't able to decode the stonehole rocks, but it would have been extremely difficult without also finding the "backup" code-stone slightly away from the ridge...showing in miniature the encoding on the ridge.

Admittedly, I would never have found any of this, or understood what this mystery is about without also being a veritable Stonehole Nut. Ultimately, this is about something being purposely buried, to be unearthed at a later time. That was the playful idea behind the burial and stonehole rock encoding, and the idea is still at play....

Reply
Americanegro
11/22/2016 11:13:22 pm

Jason, in your photo you look part Filipino with Chinese ancestry, but don't seem to mention it. Am I close? Just curious, not looking for an excuse for a slur.

Reply
LJB
11/23/2016 04:50:10 pm

First time poster and I must say I love you site.

I was listening to NPR the other day and they were interviewing a couple of 14/15 yr-old girls in Uttica, NY. Both girls were Muslim, wore headscarves, long dresses, etc. Their families had come to the US from Somalia during the the countries civil war. But, listening to them you would have thought they were WASP kids. In fact, they spoke better English then some folks that I've met from the southern US or Donald Trump for that matter. And to top it off, both were planning on taking their Oaths of Allegiance in the near future.

Reply
PostModernPrimate
11/24/2016 05:19:59 pm

Top notch stuff, Jason. Really. I know some of the others complain about the political tone of your recent writings but I've quite enjoyed it. You cannot separate history from politics and given the historical epoch we are living in it would be foolish to do so. As I always used to tell my students: Context matters!

Reply
Bob M
11/27/2016 12:30:17 pm

It's funny how these guys don't know their own history. Well not funny I guess so much as tragic. Because we have all sorts of white nationalists who wouldn't have been accepted by the person they seem to worship – Hitler. Poles, Russians, the list just goes on. They certainly wouldn't have been accepted as Aryan, I don't know so much about white :).

Reply
Seamus
11/28/2016 04:01:55 pm

The term ' special snowflake 'has been said to refer to the burnt remains of Jews after they were put into ovens during WWII. I think it's an alt right(white supremacist/neo-nazi) term. If true, should it be used?

Reply
JSV
11/30/2016 08:31:45 pm

Do you have a source to back that claim, Seamus?

Reply
reynard61
6/26/2018 07:34:02 pm

These days it's pretty much come to mean someone who believes that they're somehow "unique" or "one-of-a-kind" (as, supposedly, the real things are); but, like the real thing, they -- or at least their precious egos -- tend to be extremely delicate and melt when subjected to the heat of close scrutiny.

Reply
Riley Venable
1/19/2017 05:15:46 pm

OMG, OMG, OMG.

I found your site a few days ago and have been very impressed.
I had know idea until I read this post just how brilliant you are.

I'm a Cajun/Cherokee mix from Louisiana. Part of the hatred of Italians and Irish in New Orleans goes back to the organized crime these two groups ran beginning in the mid to late 1800s.

They pushed the French and "American" gangs out of business. No one likes competition.

Some time when you are bored (probably never) read the history of Louisiana Creoles. They were not Black (African) until the "Americans" messed up the social structure of Louisiana.

Reply
reynard61
6/26/2018 05:33:21 am

"I’m tired of hearing that I’m privileged or 'I didn’t make that' when all my life I’ve worked hard and no one gave me anything."

So, your mother never fed you or gave you milk? You were simply born and, like a baby shark, you immediately had to fend for yourself; eating whatever you could find on the streets? You paid for your own clothing...how? (Or did you just run around barefoot and in rags like some sort of semi-feral child out of a Kipling- or Dickens-esque dystopian novel?) You paid for your own grade-school education...how? (Or did you learn to write as Tarzan did by drawing the shapes of letters and guessing at their pronunciation?) You paid for your secondary education...how? (Or did you loan yourself that money to go to college?)

It's quite obvious that you got things (food, clothing) and services (education) from other people. You may not have gotten them directly (Your father must have gone to work and earned the money to give them to you. And this is how you thank him? And your mother must have stayed home for some period of time so that she could devote it -- and other resources -- to you. And this is how you thank her? What an ingrate!), but somehow you got them.

So, yes; you most certainly *ARE* privileged! You had the privilege to grow up in something that must have resembled a "normal" (for the White, privileged value of "normal") home. You got lucky. A lot of people aren't that lucky. Some people have the bad luck to be born with "Red" skin (Native American), "Brown" skin (Latino, Arab, Romani, etc.) or "Black" skin. (African American.) And those people sometimes have the bad luck to be born into poverty with no way out in their native lands, so they try to come here to find a better life for themselves. And then we have self-righteous, self-serving, self-glorifying assholes like you who, as Mr. Colavito so rightly points out, denegrate others while conveniently forgetting that those of their own ancestry -- possibly including their own parents -- were themselves denegrated for being both "foreign" and not-White-enough.

So here's some news for ya, snowflake: You may indeed be "White" (even if only provisionally so as bestowed upon you by your Anglo-Saxon & Teutonic/"Aryan" overlords) and privileged; but you're a dime-a-dozen in terms of those who think that they're somehow "Special" (in *both* senses of the term) and More Entitled Than Thou to the American Dream. You may *think* that you worked for it all by your lonesome; but if you were to hop into a time machine, I'm pretty sure that you'd discover (and be made painfully aware) that you had a *LOT* of help and support from *other* people -- people
that you should thank when you get down on your knees and pray tonight. (And you might also thank what ever God you fanboy over that he's let you be as privileged an asshole as you are without consequence...so far...)

'Nuff said.

Reply
Wendi Broussard
3/8/2020 03:23:36 pm

I just read your article on "Why L A Marzulli is Wrong..."...and I couldn't DISAGREE with you more! I'm an Italian white girl who agrees with Marzulli 100%!

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Blog
    Picture

    Author

    I am an author and researcher focusing on pop culture, science, and history. Bylines: New Republic, Esquire, Slate, etc. There's more about me in the About Jason tab.

    Become a Patron!
    Tweets by JasonColavito
    Picture

    Newsletters

    Enter your email below to subscribe to my newsletter for updates on my latest projects, blog posts, and activities, and subscribe to Culture & Curiosities, my Substack newsletter.

    powered by TinyLetter

    Blog Roll

    Ancient Aliens Debunked
    Picture
    A Hot Cup of Joe
    ArchyFantasies
    Bad UFOs
    Mammoth Tales
    Matthew R. X. Dentith
    PaleoBabble
    Picture

    Categories

    All
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative Archaeology
    Alternative History
    Alternative History
    America Unearthed
    Ancient Aliens
    Ancient Astronauts
    Ancient History
    Ancient Texts
    Ancient Texts
    Archaeology
    Atlantis
    Conspiracies
    Giants
    Habsburgs
    Horror
    King Arthur
    Knights Templar
    Lovecraft
    Mythology
    Occult
    Popular Culture
    Popular Culture
    Projects
    Pyramids
    Racism
    Science
    Skepticism
    Ufos
    Weird Old Art
    Weird Things
    White Nationalism

    Terms & Conditions

    Please read all applicable terms and conditions before posting a comment on this blog. Posting a comment constitutes your agreement to abide by the terms and conditions linked herein.

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010

    RSS Feed

Picture
Home  |  Blog  |  Books  | Contact  |  About Jason | Terms & Conditions
© 2010-2023 Jason Colavito. All rights reserved.

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
    • Legends of the Pyramids
    • The Mound Builder Myth
    • Jason and the Argonauts
    • Cult of Alien Gods >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Foundations of Atlantis
    • Knowing Fear >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Hideous Bit of Morbidity >
      • Contents
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
    • Cthulhu in World Mythology >
      • Excerpt
      • Image Gallery
      • Necronomicon Fragments
      • Oral Histories
    • Fiction >
      • Short Stories
      • Free Fiction
    • JasonColavito.com Books >
      • Faking History
      • Unearthing the Truth
      • Critical Companion to Ancient Aliens
      • Studies in Ancient Astronautics (Series) >
        • Theosophy on Ancient Astronauts
        • Pyramidiots!
        • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • Fiction Anthologies >
        • Unseen Horror >
          • Contents
          • Excerpt
        • Moon Men! >
          • Contents
      • The Orphic Argonautica >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • The Faust Book >
        • Contents
        • Excerpt
      • Classic Reprints
      • eBook Minis
    • Free eBooks >
      • Origin of the Space Gods
      • Ancient Atom Bombs
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Ancient America
      • Horror & Science
  • Articles
    • Skeptical Xenoarchaeologist Newsletter >
      • Volumes 1-10 Archive >
        • Volume 1 Archive
        • Volume 2 Archive
        • Volume 3 Archive
        • Volume 4 Archive
        • Volume 5 Archive
        • Volume 6 Archive
        • Volume 7 Archive
        • Volume 8 Archive
        • Volume 9 Archive
        • Volume 10 Archive
      • Volumes 11-20 Archive >
        • Volume 11 Archive
        • Volume 12 Archive
        • Volume 13 Archive
        • Volume 14 Archive
        • Volume 15 Archive
        • Volume 16 Archive
        • Volume 17 Archive
        • Volume 18 Archive
        • Volume 19 Archive
        • Volume 20 Archive
      • Volumes 21-30 Archive >
        • Volume 21 Archive
        • Volume 22 Archive
    • Television Reviews >
      • Ancient Aliens Reviews
      • In Search of Aliens Reviews
      • America Unearthed
      • Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar
      • Search for the Lost Giants
      • Forbidden History Reviews
      • Expedition Unknown Reviews
      • Legends of the Lost
      • Unexplained + Unexplored
      • Rob Riggle: Global Investigator
    • Book Reviews
    • Galleries >
      • Bad Archaeology
      • Ancient Civilizations >
        • Ancient Egypt
        • Ancient Greece
        • Ancient Near East
        • Ancient Americas
      • Supernatural History
      • Book Image Galleries
    • Videos
    • Collection: Ancient Alien Fraud >
      • Chariots of the Gods at 50
      • Secret History of Ancient Astronauts
      • Of Atlantis and Aliens
      • Aliens and Ancient Texts
      • Profiles in Ancient Astronautics >
        • Erich von Däniken
        • Robert Temple
        • Giorgio Tsoukalos
        • David Childress
      • Blunders in the Sky
      • The Case of the False Quotes
      • Alternative Authors' Quote Fraud
      • David Childress & the Aliens
      • Faking Ancient Art in Uzbekistan
      • Intimations of Persecution
      • Zecharia Sitchin's World
      • Jesus' Alien Ancestors?
      • Extraterrestrial Evolution?
    • Collection: Skeptic Magazine >
      • America Before Review
      • Native American Discovery of Europe
      • Interview: Scott Sigler
      • Golden Fleeced
      • Oh the Horror
      • Discovery of America
      • Supernatural Television
      • Review of Civilization One
      • Who Lost the Middle Ages
      • Charioteer of the Gods
    • Collection: Ancient History >
      • Prehistoric Nuclear War
      • The China Syndrome
      • Atlantis, Mu, and the Maya
      • Easter Island Exposed
      • Who Built the Sphinx?
      • Who Built the Great Pyramid?
      • Archaeological Cover Up?
    • Collection: The Lovecraft Legacy >
      • Pauwels, Bergier, and Lovecraft
      • Lovecraft in Bergier
      • Lovecraft and Scientology
    • Collection: UFOs >
      • Alien Abduction at the Outer Limits
      • Aliens and Anal Probes
      • Ultra-Terrestrials and UFOs
      • Rebels, Queers, and Aliens
    • Scholomance: The Devil's School
    • Prehistory of Chupacabra
    • The Templars, the Holy Grail, & Henry Sinclair
    • Magicians of the Gods Review
    • The Curse of the Pharaohs
    • The Antediluvian Pyramid Myth
    • Whitewashing American Prehistory
    • James Dean's Cursed Porsche
  • The Library
    • Ancient Mysteries >
      • Ancient Texts >
        • Mesopotamian Texts >
          • Atrahasis Epic
          • Epic of Gilgamesh
          • Kutha Creation Legend
          • Babylonian Creation Myth
          • Descent of Ishtar
          • Berossus
          • Comparison of Antediluvian Histories
        • Egyptian Texts >
          • The Shipwrecked Sailor
          • Dream Stela of Thutmose IV
          • The Papyrus of Ani
          • Classical Accounts of the Pyramids
          • Inventory Stela
          • Manetho
          • Eratosthenes' King List
          • The Story of Setna
          • Leon of Pella
          • Diodorus on Egyptian History
          • On Isis and Osiris
          • Famine Stela
          • Old Egyptian Chronicle
          • The Book of Sothis
          • Horapollo
          • Al-Maqrizi's King List
        • Teshub and the Dragon
        • Hermetica >
          • The Three Hermeses
          • Kore Kosmou
          • Corpus Hermeticum
          • The Asclepius
          • The Emerald Tablet
          • Hermetic Fragments
          • Prologue to the Kyranides
          • The Secret of Creation
          • Ancient Alphabets Explained
          • Prologue to Ibn Umayl's Silvery Water
          • Book of the 24 Philosophers
          • Aurora of the Philosophers
        • Hesiod's Theogony
        • Periplus of Hanno
        • Ctesias' Indica
        • Sanchuniathon
        • Sima Qian
        • Syncellus's Enoch Fragments
        • The Book of Enoch
        • Slavonic Enoch
        • Sepher Yetzirah
        • Tacitus' Germania
        • De Dea Syria
        • Aelian's Various Histories
        • Julius Africanus' Chronography
        • Eusebius' Chronicle
        • Chinese Accounts of Rome
        • Ancient Chinese Automaton
        • The Orphic Argonautica
        • Fragments of Panodorus
        • Annianus on the Watchers
        • The Watchers and Antediluvian Wisdom
      • Medieval Texts >
        • Medieval Legends of Ancient Egypt >
          • Medieval Pyramid Lore
          • John Malalas on Ancient Egypt
          • Fragments of Abenephius
          • Akhbar al-zaman
          • Ibrahim ibn Wasif Shah
          • Murtada ibn al-‘Afif
          • Al-Maqrizi on the Pyramids
          • Al-Suyuti on the Pyramids
        • The Hunt for Noah's Ark
        • Isidore of Seville
        • Book of Liang: Fusang
        • Agobard on Magonia
        • Book of Thousands
        • Voyage of Saint Brendan
        • Power of Art and of Nature
        • Travels of Sir John Mandeville
        • Yazidi Revelation and Black Book
        • Al-Biruni on the Great Flood
        • Voyage of the Zeno Brothers
        • The Kensington Runestone (Hoax)
        • Islamic Discovery of America
        • The Aztec Creation Myth
      • Lost Civilizations >
        • Atlantis >
          • Plato's Atlantis Dialogues >
            • Timaeus
            • Critias
          • Fragments on Atlantis
          • Panchaea: The Other Atlantis
          • Eumalos on Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Gómara on Atlantis
          • Sardinia and Atlantis
          • Santorini and Atlantis
          • The Mound Builders and Atlantis
          • Donnelly's Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Morocco
          • Atlantis and the Sea Peoples
          • W. Scott-Elliot >
            • The Story of Atlantis
            • The Lost Lemuria
          • The Lost Atlantis
          • Atlantis in Africa
          • How I Found Atlantis (Hoax)
          • Termier on Atlantis
          • The Critias and Minoan Crete
          • Rebuttal to Termier
          • Further Responses to Termier
          • Flinders Petrie on Atlantis
        • Lost Cities >
          • Miscellaneous Lost Cities
          • The Seven Cities
          • The Lost City of Paititi
          • Manuscript 512
          • The Idolatrous City of Iximaya (Hoax)
          • The 1885 Moberly Lost City Hoax
          • The Elephants of Paredon (Hoax)
        • OOPARTs
        • Oronteus Finaeus Antarctica Map
        • Caucasians in Panama
        • Jefferson's Excavation
        • Fictitious Discoveries in America
        • Against Diffusionism
        • Tunnels Under Peru
        • The Parahyba Inscription (Hoax)
        • Mound Builders
        • Gunung Padang
        • Tales of Enchanted Islands
        • The 1907 Ancient World Map Hoax
        • The 1909 Grand Canyon Hoax
        • The Interglacial Period
        • Solving Oak Island
      • Religious Conspiracies >
        • Pantera, Father of Jesus?
        • Toledot Yeshu
        • Peter of les Vaux-de-Cernay on Cathars
        • Testimony of Jean de Châlons
        • Rosslyn Chapel and the 'Prentice's Pillar
        • The Many Wives of Jesus
        • Templar Infiltration of Labor
        • Louis Martin & the Holy Bloodline
        • The Life of St. Issa (Hoax)
        • On the Person of Jesus Christ
      • Giants in the Earth >
        • Fossil Origins of Myths >
          • Fossil Teeth and Bones of Elephants
          • Fossil Elephants
          • Fossil Bones of Teutobochus
          • Fossil Mammoths and Giants
          • Giants' Bones Dug Out of the Earth
          • Fossils and the Supernatural
          • Fossils, Myth, and Pseudo-History
          • Man During the Stone Age
          • Fossil Bones and Giants
          • American Elephant Myths
          • The Mammoth and the Flood
          • Fossils and Myth
          • Fossil Origin of the Cyclops
          • Mastodon, Mammoth, and Man
        • Fragments on Giants
        • Manichaean Book of Giants
        • Geoffrey on British Giants
        • Alfonso X's Hermetic History of Giants
        • Boccaccio and the Fossil 'Giant'
        • Book of Howth
        • Purchas His Pilgrimage
        • Edmond Temple's 1827 Giant Investigation
        • The Giants of Sardinia
        • Giants and the Sons of God
        • The Magnetism of Evil
        • Tertiary Giants
        • Smithsonian Giant Reports
        • Early American Giants
        • The Giant of Coahuila
        • Jewish Encyclopedia on Giants
        • Index of Giants
        • Newspaper Accounts of Giants
        • Lanier's A Book of Giants
      • Science and History >
        • Halley on Noah's Comet
        • The Newport Tower
        • Iron: The Stone from Heaven
        • Ararat and the Ark
        • Pyramid Facts and Fancies
        • Argonauts before Homer
        • The Deluge
        • Crown Prince Rudolf on the Pyramids
        • Old Mythology in New Apparel
        • Blavatsky on Dinosaurs
        • Teddy Roosevelt on Bigfoot
        • Devil Worship in France
        • Maspero's Review of Akhbar al-zaman
        • The Holy Grail as Lucifer's Crown Jewel
        • The Mutinous Sea
        • The Rock Wall of Rockwall
        • Fabulous Zoology
        • The Origins of Talos
        • Mexican Mythology
        • Chinese Pyramids
        • Maqrizi's Names of the Pharaohs
      • Extreme History >
        • Roman Empire Hoax
        • American Antiquities
        • American Cataclysms
        • England, the Remnant of Judah
        • Historical Chronology of the Mexicans
        • Maspero on the Predynastic Sphinx
        • Vestiges of the Mayas
        • Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel
        • Origins of the Egyptian People
        • The Secret Doctrine >
          • Volume 1: Cosmogenesis
          • Volume 2: Anthropogenesis
        • Phoenicians in America
        • The Electric Ark
        • Traces of European Influence
        • Prince Henry Sinclair
        • Pyramid Prophecies
        • Templars of Ancient Mexico
        • Chronology and the "Riddle of the Sphinx"
        • The Faith of Ancient Egypt
        • Spirit of the Hour in Archaeology
        • Book of the Damned
        • Great Pyramid As Noah's Ark
        • Richard Shaver's Proofs
    • Alien Encounters >
      • US Government Ancient Astronaut Files >
        • Fortean Society and Columbus
        • Inquiry into Shaver and Palmer
        • The Skyfort Document
        • Whirling Wheels
        • Denver Ancient Astronaut Lecture
        • Soviet Search for Lemuria
        • Visitors from Outer Space
        • Unidentified Flying Objects (Abstract)
        • "Flying Saucers"? They're a Myth
        • UFO Hypothesis Survival Questions
        • Air Force Academy UFO Textbook
        • The Condon Report on Ancient Astronauts
        • Atlantis Discovery Telegrams
        • Ancient Astronaut Society Telegram
        • Noah's Ark Cables
        • The Von Daniken Letter
        • CIA Psychic Probe of Ancient Mars
        • Scott Wolter Lawsuit
        • UFOs in Ancient China
        • CIA Report on Noah's Ark
        • CIA Noah's Ark Memos
        • Congressional Ancient Aliens Testimony
        • Ancient Astronaut and Nibiru Email
        • Congressional Ancient Mars Hearing
        • House UFO Hearing
      • Ancient Extraterrestrials >
        • Premodern UFO Sightings
        • The Moon Hoax
        • Inhabitants of Other Planets
        • Blavatsky on Ancient Astronauts
        • The Stanzas of Dzyan (Hoax)
        • Aerolites and Religion
        • What Is Theosophy?
        • Plane of Ether
        • The Adepts from Venus
      • A Message from Mars
      • Saucer Mystery Solved?
      • Orville Wright on UFOs
      • Interdimensional Flying Saucers
      • Flying Saucers Are Real
      • Report on UFOs
    • The Supernatural >
      • The Devils of Loudun
      • Sublime and Beautiful
      • Voltaire on Vampires
      • Demonology and Witchcraft
      • Thaumaturgia
      • Bulgarian Vampires
      • Religion and Evolution
      • Transylvanian Superstitions
      • Defining a Zombie
      • Dread of the Supernatural
      • Vampires
      • Werewolves and Vampires and Ghouls
      • Science and Fairy Stories
      • The Cursed Car
    • Classic Fiction >
      • Lucian's True History
      • Some Words with a Mummy
      • The Coming Race
      • King Solomon's Mines
      • An Inhabitant of Carcosa
      • The Xipéhuz
      • Lot No. 249
      • The Novel of the Black Seal
      • The Island of Doctor Moreau
      • Pharaoh's Curse
      • Edison's Conquest of Mars
      • The Lost Continent
      • Count Magnus
      • The Mysterious Stranger
      • The Wendigo
      • Sredni Vashtar
      • The Lost World
      • The Red One
      • H. P. Lovecraft >
        • Dagon
        • The Call of Cthulhu
        • History of the Necronomicon
        • At the Mountains of Madness
        • Lovecraft's Library in 1932
      • The Skeptical Poltergeist
      • The Corpse on the Grating
      • The Second Satellite
      • Queen of the Black Coast
      • A Martian Odyssey
    • Classic Genre Movies
    • Miscellaneous Documents >
      • The Balloon-Hoax
      • A Problem in Greek Ethics
      • The Migration of Symbols
      • The Gospel of Intensity
      • De Profundis
      • The Life and Death of Crown Prince Rudolf
      • The Bathtub Hoax
      • Crown Prince Rudolf's Letters
      • Position of Viking Women
      • Employment of Homosexuals
      • James Dean's Love Letters
      • The Amazing James Dean Hoax!
    • Free Classic Pseudohistory eBooks
  • About Jason
    • Biography
    • Jason in the Media
    • Contact Jason
    • About JasonColavito.com
    • Terms and Conditions
  • Search