The validity of the Classical and Modern Racial Prejudice Scale by Akrami and colleagues, in its full 17-items form and a new reduced 15-items form, was assessed in an Italian context. Study 1 was carried out on 300 participants and study 2 on 310. Confirmatory factor analyses showed that classical and modern prejudice may be distinguished one from the other. The construct validity of the scale – convergent and discriminant – and the criterion based validity were also evaluated. The findings not only confirm the validity of the scale, but also highlight the relevance of ideological orientation in ethnic prejudice.