My Italian love affair has endured for almost half my life. From studying the language at school, to dating (too many) Italian men and then living and working in the country it would be fair to say that I’m a fully paid up member of the Italophile crew. Yet when people ask my ‘but aren’t’ they a bit racist’, I’m always stumped for words.
If you’d asked me ten years ago my answer would most likely have been ‘no’. Yes, some Italians were without a doubt ignorant and even prejudiced, but to define their stance as racism, on my part, would have been too extreme. Any population that all of a sudden comes into contact with foreigners is likely to have a reaction that’s based on fear, even more so Italians who, despite their history of great migrations, tend towards the insular.
Yet there has definitely been a shift in the mood surrounding immigration; it’s not just Bossi and his cronies ranting about immigration and the flood of foreigners taking over Italy. In May, Amnesty International said it was concerned about the growing “climate of discrimination” in the country, in particular towards increasing attacks on the Roma community. Last month Abdul Salam Guibre, an Italian citizen originally from Burkina Faso was beaten to death in Milan after allegedly stealing a packet of biscuits. The death of Guibre was preceded by an attack on an Angolan student in Genoa in August and another on a 15-year-old boy from Sri Lanka in Milan in July.
From the reports I see in the Italian papers the country is beginning to seem remarkably similar to Russia where immigrants are beaten and even killed on a far too regular basis simply due to the colour of their skin.
Give immigrants a kick on the arse
So it’s interesting to see Daniela Santanche, former journalist and speaker for Francesco Storace’s La Destra party, is today moaning in a Corriere article about accusations that she represents the side of politics that throws petrol on the flames of intolerance. This, after all, is the woman who said illegal immigrants should “chucked out and given a kick on the arse”.
Last night in a special edition of the programme Anno Zero entitled “Italians, bad people”, politicians and journalists discussed the growing tide of violence against immigrants that is currently gripping the country.
Santanche claims in the Corriere article that during a break in filming, “two blacks insulted me with unjustifiable violence”. I’d never be one to excuse violence of any kind towards any human being but if these two unnamed “blacks” did insult her (Corriere appears to have made no to attempt to stand up Santanche’s assertions) maybe she now knows how the tens of thousands of immigrants who are verbally abused by Italians on a daily basis feel.
It is a deeply unsettling experience to see swastikas and neo-nazi crosses daubed on walls in pretty much every city centre. The last time I was in Bologna with a white French guy I was dating at the time a group of skin-headed neo-fascists tried to hand him a leaflet calling for the expulsion of immigrants from the country. Worse while on holiday near lake Garda a few years ago I had a young kid on a school trip point his fingers at me while imitating the sound of bullets flying towards my head.
Enduring love for il Duce
Still I try to question rather than to judge. For my final year dissertation I took the time to explore something that had always puzzled me about the Italian experience – the long held celebration of Benito Mussolini – whose face popped up all too frequently on lighters, tea towels, calendars and even bottles of wine in respectable restaurants.
I travelled to Predappio, the birthplace of Il Duce and place of pilgrimage for neo-fascist sympathisers from all over Italy. Walking into his tomb, accompanied by a British author who had penned about the fascist leader and coming face to face with a caped black shirt standing the guard of honour was a heart-stopping experiences (although the look on his face was probably more horrified than the look on mine).
Undeniably racist
I say all this to explain that I’m not some bleeding-heart lefty who’s quick to label Italians as racist but the current situation is disturbing and it would be remiss of me to downplay a trend in behaviour that is undeniably racist.
Maybe it’s the increasingly tense financial situation that’s making Italians turn in a violent manner against outsiders. I remember when I was living in Milan back in 2005, the rise in Chinese manufacturing and the ensuing pressure it placed upon the traditional Italian artisan was a constant topic of fear mongering in the media. Pejorative jokes commoplace, the Chinese were regarded as untrustworthy, almost inhuman; all in all it was like being in California in the 19th century.
I do love Italy. I feel incredibly privileged to have been given an insight into a deeply fascinating and complex country. None of this would have happened if I hadn’t been welcomed into the lives and homes of some of the most beautiful and loving people I have ever met. So why do I now have second thoughts about travelling to Italy on my own?
13 Comments
October 16, 2008 at 9:15 am
Thank you for this nice post!
I think that Italy is undergoing a complex process caused by the fact that its politic was blocked for more than 50 years under the so-called Democrazia Cristiana, because of the Cold War.
Italy today is like a ‘defrost’ society. Italians are starting partially from where the defeat of the Second World War and the political stagnation had left them. The fascination with fascism existed even before, only people feared to expressed it.
Today many Italians feel that, changed the political spectrum, to express appreciation for Fascism and Fascist ideas is honorable and any more controversial. A great number of Italians appreciated Fascism and racists ideas even before. Only they fear to public express it.
Today the hegemony of the ‘intellectual left’ is dead and the real face of a country mainly marked by fear and egoism is showing .
Italians are really at a difficult social political and cultural point. Only them can decide if going back to the dark age of ‘Faccetta Nera’ or start to engage with modernity and globalization, though tolerance and intelligent management of diversity.
I have written an analysis about this here
Gabriele
February 6, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Sorry, but I think you are confused. If you have lived in Italy and believe you know the country and its people, seems that you don’t understand the situation. How can you take sides? Those people have no jobs, nothing at all, and how they survive? Stealing or doing who knows what other business. Seems that you haven’t hit by the financial situation. There are no jobs for Italians… and I don’t blame them for not wanting more unemployed people in their country. Please, get real and stop the ‘discrimination’ drama. Is it that hard to understand the situation in Italy, where hundreds of illegal people arrive every single day? People that don’t agree with what the Italy government is doing, should ‘adopt’ some of those illegal individuals… feed them… make them feel comfortable… instead of accusing the Italians of being ‘racist’.
February 6, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Thanks for your comment.
Even without paying great attention to my article I think you’ll notice in the title of my post that I pose a question regarding racism in Italy rather than make the statement.
Indeed I take pains to state that: “I try to question rather than to judge”. So your assessment that I’m taking sides isn’t quite accurate and I am most definitely not “accusing Italians of being ‘racist’.
You also say that I “haven’t hit by the financial situation”. By this do you mean that I haven’t taken into consideration the impact that Italy’s faltering economy is having on society at large?
I did mention in my original post that maybe the “increasingly tense financial situation that’s making Italians turn in a violent manner against outsiders”.
But in the final analysis, there is no excuse for violence towards immigrants. To me, innocent people being killed and beaten simply because of their race is more than a “discrimination drama”.
February 7, 2009 at 1:13 am
Dear girovago80, you shouldn’t even address the issue. Why not talk about something else? I understand you are not living in Italy anymore so why bother? Not because there have been a few of attacks by ignorant people like the ones that accuse Italy as being racist, we have to condemn the entire country. I agree with them 100%. No more immigrants… close the doors, send them back from where they came from. Too bad they don’t like their own countries. Italy has her own problems too. And forget about fascism. Every time there is something that doesn’t please the left, the word ‘fascism’ comes handy. No more illegal aliens. Period.
And sorry if my comments upset you. This business of discrimination is getting ridiculous. Soon, the illegal immigrants will take over our countries and we will have to kindly smile to them in order of not being accused as ‘racists’. Pitiful!
May 29, 2009 at 3:48 pm
you want to close the door to immigrants but you want to keep selling your products all over the world and you want to keep being welcomed as tourists everywhere you go. If non-Italians were to stop buying Italian you would go back to milking cows for your own milk – some Italians are already there. There’s a lot of Italian immigrants in the US. Many of them are involved (even traditionally) in shady business. Less than 100 years ago the Italian-American stereotype was of the criminal mafioso. What if the US attitude towards them had been the same Italy’s currently is towards the Romanians?
July 6, 2009 at 8:24 am
I actually lived in Italy for about 13 years. I worked and schooled and it was really hard for me as a dark skinned person. Life in italy was hell. One of my first experience was when I was sent for a job interview in an italian office with my curriculum. When i first entered into the office and was waiting for the boss, some silly Italian lady was like almost lost her senses whyen she saw me. Then she came up to me and said “chi l’ha detto di entrare qua?” meaning who told you to come in here, who told you to come in here? Then she hurried to the other office rooms in the hallway complaining to the people inside “Chi l’ha detto a quel ragazzo di colore di entrate qua” meaning who told that coloured guy to come into this place then more italians kept taking a peek from their offices until the boss came along. While he was coming he was like telling the italian woman to relax or something like that. Then when he came towards me he was like too disgusted with a clearly false smile on his face. I worked there for like 3 months on contract and the boss did everything to send me away.So many things happened while i was in Italy. Sometimes when i am walking on the streets and when an italian sees me he/she will cross the road to the other side and i’ll laugh because almost all italians who saw me did the same thing. Almost all of them were alike. Doing exactly the same thing.An average black person can encounter racism like up to 4 or 5 times a day on average in Italy. Most times italians will ask me if i liked italy thinking that Italy is the best country on earth for them. They will even go as far as asking me if automobiles and aircrafts or buildings existed in my country. I was like woow are these Itaians really Europeans. But i am glad i left italy because it was the most horrible place i ever stayed in compared to all the other European countries i ever visited. Today I dont trust italians. I dont even wanna have anything to do with them.I know italians make a lot of good stuff but a country is over-racist then there is no how you can see any good from what it produces……
August 25, 2009 at 7:35 pm
As an italian i really feel ashamed just hope you have found a better country now. I’m not going to justify any of those bad episodes but please believe me i would never treat you wrong just cos of your skin colour. That’s just absurd, i’m sorry you didn’t get to know people like me ( aka normal people who are not crazy racists).
Best wishes
August 11, 2009 at 12:45 am
Hi,
I am from Milan, and I am deeply sorry to read this post and its replies. The most painful thing is that all true – as some responses from my fellow countrymen have so eloquently demonstrated.
One could say that Italy is going through a terrifyingly retrograde phase, but please understand that not all Italians are racist and xenophobic. There are some of us that are fighting life-long battles against a system that inhibits any kind of drift from mainstream, be it ethnic, religious, of sexual orientation or simply of lifestyle, and which is becoming more frighteningly conservative by the day. Neo-fascism gains ground while the left is losing its strength.
Please imagine what it’s like to be a young and thankfully educated Italian today and to see this madness happen, how deeply frustrating because of the incredible potential of this rich and beautiful country you see going to waste.
There is no tangible political entity to rely on in order to counter all this. The left is too busy with infighting to be a relevant force, and too drastically tied to an anachronistic past. The nation is ruled by old, angry, scared and often racist people, that rip on anything they don’t understand – including the nation’s youth.
But perhaps I may suggest my courage-giving vision: these old farts will soon die and the immigrants will keep coming, and they will have more kids than the somehow less fertile locals. A new generation of Italians will see the light, one where the ethnic and cultural make up of the country will be diverse and a discourse of real integration will be business as usual. This is how I hope that this nation will revive its spirit, and become once again a country worth loving.
But in the meanwhile, as you look at this difficult nation and maybe cringe, keep in mind that there also are those who spend their lives trying to make a difference, a minority though we may be.
August 13, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Gadi, thanks so much for your comments. It’s really refreshing to hear the point of view of an Italian frustated by the current state of affairs. You’re completely right – it would be foolish to think that all Italians are racist. It is indeed a “rich and beautiful country” and as long as people who think the way you do are around, its future looks bright!
August 13, 2009 at 6:14 pm
Ditto. Italy is wasting its great potential and harming itself by its inability to let go of certain toxic attitudes and ideas that for various historical, political and cultural reasons have been allowed to claim mainstream. It is really painful, even for me a non Italian, when I see people who supposedly represent the intellectual elite of Italy, use arguments, ideas and references that belong to the 40s, 50s and 60s. Italy has somehow fallen out of the progress train about 50 years ago and it needs to get back on. Cheers!
September 1, 2009 at 1:49 pm
I live in Italy and I can tell you for sure Italy is the worst place for living if you are black.
Italians are very racist with black people and dark skinned people like people from India and Bangladesh.
In Italy if you are a white immigrants like people from East European countries like Ukraine, Moldova, Albania etc. then you don’ t have problems, italians give you a job and treat you good, but if you are a black immigrants or a black English, a black French, a black American, a black Italian then italians treat you worst than an animal, no job, no respect nothing at all.
Italians say black immigrants bring crime in Italy but the most part of the crimes are committed by immigrants from East European countries like those ones that I mentioned before and they are not black they are white and also the very big part of immigrants in Italy are white immigrants not black immigrants.
My advice for black people is to avoid Italy even as a tourist, don’ t give your money to those racist people.
September 9, 2009 at 12:55 am
I am a black American citizen who has an Italian girlfriend. She was trying to convince me that a trip to Italy would be nice and that Italians were not racist. I have been reading accounts of Italy’s seemingly endemic racism and have concluded that I will be avoiding that nation at all costs. Thanks for the heads up.
September 9, 2009 at 10:34 am
Hi John,
Thanks for reading and commenting. Obviously you and your girlfriend will come to your own conclusion on this one but it would be a real shame if you didn’t visit the country because the ignorance of a minority of people.
Italy is a beautiful country and, as you can hopefully see from the comments here, there are many open-minded forward thinking people there.
If you are travelling to the country with an Italian girl I think it’s good to be fore-warned that you might get some funny looks and she might overhear some remarks, but I imagine that’s no different from the experience you might have in many parts of America too? Where are you planning to travel to? I’d love to hear more…