My point being, you tried to tell Vinman he isn't Italian after he has lived most of his life having to live as an Italian whether he wanted to or not. Things are different today, and there are no problems in most places, but after growing up being handed a shit sandwich because of your ethnicity, you tend to get a bit angry when someone says your not Italian, now that it's ok to be Italian.
Back when I was applying to universities, it was a major advantage to check the race and gender boxes for White and Male. 20 years later, these are both major disadvantages. So, you cannot require that I cehck the "Other" race box in 1984, and then tell me in 2000 that I must check "White". Try to disadvantage me like the Black Females of the old days, and I get pissed off too
Never did understand how they arrive at what race a person is, and have never known what to check. I mean, one box says
White: Of European Ancestry. Then
Hispanic includes Spanish and Portugese. So, when the hell did Spain and Portugal leave Europe. Since I'm Italian and feel closer in blood to Spanish and Portugese than I do to German and Swedish, I make my own and write "Latin (Non-Hispanic)".