Christopher Siters

ENGL 245
12/03/2022
When reading “Are Italians brown?”, I was struck by the idea of the “itinerant worker”

and their place in the spectrum of “brownness;” particularly, how phenotypically white

individuals still fall into a category that is largely based on non-white physical characteristics

(skin color, stature, facial features, etc.). Looking up the definition, “working and wandering…

especially for duty or business” fits with the examples of sailors and cowboys (Champagne, 5)

given in the text,

And while it might seem that this modern white homosexual

subject is embodied exclusively in the so-called “gentleman traveler,” this

emergent species also includes itinerant working-class figures (for

example, sailors and cowboys) … (Champagne, 5).

I wonder how accurate these labels still are in the 21st century; are “sailors” and “cowboys,”

people who still travel for work, considered itinerant in today’s global economy, where travel is

often required as part of job descriptions? And as such, are these itinerant workers still

considered “brown?” “…convey the brown body…through their legendary encounters with the

primitive, by themselves embodying brownness,” (Champagne, 5).

Specifically, I took this lens to reflect on myself. Obviously, most people today do not

have a “pure” bloodline without any sort of interaction with other “races” (I use quotations

around races simply for the fact that this is an ambiguous word, as, in the text, Italians are

considered both white and brown depending on context). But, as someone who was raised white,

it is odd to think that, in certain contexts, I could be considered brown.

Christopher Siters
ENGL 245
12/03/2022
Even so, it is clear that Enrico embodies the white gentleman

traveler in search of his sailor lover who represents an exotic, “brown”

sexuality – despite the fact that he is described as having, like a Norman

farmer, straight blonde hair…, (Champagne, 18).

Growing up, I was always told that my father’s side of the family was predominantly

German, and my mother was Italian; she was always darker complexioned, even during the

winter, and as such I do not get sun burned as much as most people (honestly, I rarely if ever

wear sunscreen). Though, with a grain of salt, I did recently find through those DNA testing

services that I have a somewhat significant percentage of Spanish/Portuguese (9.1%), and,

coincidentally, no Italian heritage whatsoever, so while I could not necessarily claim Hispanic

culture, I could claim Hispanic heritage. I also had a surprising percentage of other “brown”

genetics: 1.9% North African, 0.2% Peninsular Arab, 0.2% Levantine, and 0.2% Broadly Arab,

Egyptian, and Levantine. Again, these tests (and science in general) are not 100% accurate,

however, they are not inaccurate, so scientifically, my “brownness” has been verified.

Aside from science and genetics, looking at the factors surrounding the ideology of the

“itinerant worker,” these were typically people of lower economic standing which required them

to take these types of work out of necessity. In the text, sailors and cowboys are used to describe

this class of traveling manual laborers, but in researching what are considered itinerant jobs now,

some other examples were construction workers, agricultural workers/farmers, and oil rig

workers. Economically, farming is not as well paid as construction or oil workers, but they all

occupy the same socio-economic tier and are all still viewed as less intelligent due to the manual

nature of the work (which is of course ridiculous as these fields simply require a different

knowledge base than most people are familiar with).

Christopher Siters
ENGL 245
12/03/2022
By this definition, however, one could argue a number of jobs that could be considered

“itinerant” based on the seasonality aspect; retail often hires more people specifically for the

holiday seasons, so could retail workers be considered itinerant? What about food

service/hospitality/tourism? Often associated with lower socio-economic standing as well but

arguably not thought of as “working and wandering,” unless seasonality is factored in. I met

quite a few people while I was working in Florida who would work winters in Florida and

summers in Nantucket. Would this be considered itinerant work, even if it is not a “blue collar”

job? This also brings into question the people who regularly travel whether around the city, the

state, the country, or the globe. Would these people be considered itinerant even though they are

white collar? Or does itinerancy only apply to lower socio-economic individuals? This is of

particular interest considering the number of white people employed in these “itinerant” jobs,

because how does this factor into the brownness of itinerancy? And again, who is authorized to

say, “you are white” and “you are not?”

I have occupied a lower socio-economic tier since birth; it was one thing I was very

aware of growing up. My mother could have been considered an itinerant worker, as I remember

her working a number of main and side jobs throughout my youth. So, I suppose I was born and

raised in a more itinerant mentality than most who have parents with (relatively) stable careers. I

personally have worked in restaurants and hotels, and servers will “follow the money;” if one

restaurant starts doing better than the one I am working at, I am probably going to work there

instead, because of money.

As far as my military experience goes, the entirety of the staffing system is based on

itinerancy; most orders for one person typically only last two to three years before they have to

pick new orders to a new place (not always, sometimes you can get lucky and get orders to the
Christopher Siters
ENGL 245
12/03/2022
same place you already are stationed at). And with bases all around the world, in, say, 2020 you

were stationed in Norfolk, VA, but come 2023 you get orders to Yokosuka, Japan until 2026, and

then orders to San Antonio, TX, and then to Jacksonville, NC, then back to Norfolk, then to

Sigonella, Italy, then to…and it just cycles on every couple of years. That is one reason the

military places such emphasis on personal relationships with your fellow military personnel

because, while you might be somewhere completely unfamiliar, odds are you will know

someone or have a mutual friend with someone.

Turning back towards the sexual aspect of itinerancy, the military is still very much

sexualized and fetishized. There is still this fascination with the travel aspect regarding the

military. Often, from personal experience, military personnel (soldiers, sailors, Marines, etc.) are

seen as sexually deprived due to the imagery surrounding travel and deployments; looking at the

Baby Boom after World War II, these soldiers and sailors were away from their spouses for

months if not years, leading to this romanticized longing for loved ones (in reality, they were

more than likely having sex abroad, as most military people still do). There is this weird

dichotomy of the idea of military people being both over- and under-sexed. The nature of the job,

including the traveling (“exotic” places; a restless, wandering spirit), the possibility of war (and

by association weapons, fighting, etc.) make it easy to view military personnel as “primitive,”

animalistic,” “savage,” “brown.” And that was the whole purpose of these white “gentlemen

travelers” going to Italy…to have sex with “something less human” than they considered

themselves to be.

There have been many times where, talking to Black or Hispanic friends or what have

you, I have often caught myself saying “I’m white, but not that white,” usually regarding

something stupid or embarrassing that white people (possibly stereotypically) do, that I do not
Christopher Siters
ENGL 245
12/03/2022
do. Looking back, it seems like it would almost be easier, or at least perhaps more definitionally

accurate, to define myself as an itinerant worker and, by extension, brown. Between the science

of genetics and the inclusion of the historical and socio-economic factors surrounding the

itinerant worker, would it be inaccurate to consider myself brown? And would it be offensive to

consider myself brown? Who has the authority to decide whether I am white or brown?
Christopher Siters
ENGL 245
12/03/2022
References

Champagne, John. “Are Italians Brown? Categorical Miscegenation and Early Twentieth

Century Italian Homosexuality.” Giornale di Storia (2021): n. pag. Print.

“Definition of Itinerant.” www.dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/itinerant.