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Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso refused to be called a white man during a debate because he's "Italian," which he says makes him "Latin."
On Tuesday (October 11), Caruso, a billionaire real estate developer, declared his racial identification during a debate against U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D), who seeks to become the city's first Black female mayor.
The debate came amid the controversy surrounding the Los Angeles City Council over three of its members' involvement in a racist conversation that was recorded and leaked.
Touching on the scandal, Telemundo anchor Dunia Elvir said, “The next mayor of Los Angeles will be either an African American woman or a white man."
“I’m Italian,” Caruso interjected.
Elvir responded, “Italian American," as Caruso insisted to be identified on his own terms.
“That’s ‘Latin,’ thank you,” Caruso said.
During the debate, the LA mayoral candidate said he's worked for decades to bring more education opportunities and increased access to health care to Black and Latino communities across the city.
"I connect with the Latino community, but quite frankly my job as mayor is to connect with every community — the Latino community, the Black community, the Asian community, right? The Jewish community," said Caruso, who is running as a Democrat.
"If one group rises, we all rise. We do this together in unison, and we don't separate, we don't divide," he continued. "But we all say to ourselves we can do this and we can have a better city."
Caruso's "Latin" identity comment has been widely shared and criticized on social media.
"Wow, did Caruso just say he is Latin? That he is not a white man?" community activist Alberto Retana tweeted Tuesday. "I am floored. We cannot let him do this. Terrible."
"Can’t wait for Rick Caruso to claim Columbus was a Latino immigrant," comedian Nick Jack Pappas wrote on Twitter.
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