Even today this is interesting topic. Where I grew up in Rhode Island it's about half Italian and it's a given there that Italians are white. Different from the Irish, German and what have you in nationality, but certainly not race. In Rhode island if you were to say to someone "you aren't white, you're Italian" you may very well have a fight on your hands. However, here in California I can't tell you how many so called Italians I've heard say "I'm not white, I'm Italian." Granted, CA is a strange place. I've also heard Irish claim they aren't white here. Like you can get whiter than an Irishman. It all comes down to definitions. What is "white"?