Rick Caruso, the Republican nominee for mayor of Los Angeles, has been criticized and ridiculed for claiming during the debate that he is not white but “Latino” because he is Italian-American.
He was answering questions about the racial identities of two candidates: him and African-American Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass.
Telemundo reporter Dunia Elvir, who moderated Tuesday night’s debate, said: “This question applies to both of you. The next mayor of Los Angeles will be either an African American woman or a white man.”
“I’m Italian,” Caruso said.
“Italian-American,” Elville said with a smile.
“Thanks, that’s Latin,” Caruso said.
After a pause, Elvir continued her question.
The debate is the last before the Nov. 8 election.One clip Or Caruso’s comments went viral on Twitter.
“White identity has always been resilient, and now certainly includes white Italians like Rick Caruso,” tweet Jamie Smith, writer for the Los Angeles Times.
“Italians should be equated with Latinos without a common ancestry, which is not so submissive. I don’t know if he’s trying to cater to Latino voters, or he’s rooting for them, or both.”
another user tweet: “Europeans will correct you so quickly because they reduce their heritage to ‘whites’. It’s the one who created the concept of race!”
other claim: “I think it proves that being white in Los Angeles is bad for your politics right now. It’s horrible self-possession for a Californian trying to disguise himself as the least racist in the country.”
The debate was about racist remarks made by Nury Martinez, the current former president of the Los Angeles City Council, against the son of council member Mike Bonin and others of Indigenous heritage. Amidst the explosive revelations.
The leaked audio led Martinez to resign as president and step down from the council.
It was one of the first questions raised in the mayoral debate. Bass said Martinez needed to resign. Caruso said he would have “zero tolerance for corruption” and would “change the culture at City Hall”.