A-Infos (en) Italy, FDCA, Cantiere #25 - Let's free ourselves today from our daily racism - Marilina Veca (ca, de, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

I was having lunch with a Congolese friend a few days ago: while we were 
drinking coffee, Didi asked me: "Don't you think that this country is 
becoming more and more racist?". I replied: "Do you feel it too? Do we 
have to go so far as to say that Italians are racist?". ---- Yes, 
'Italiani brava gente' ironically stated the title of a beautiful and 
unforgettable film from many years ago. But perhaps we are not so much 
"good people", and this stereotypical, buffoonish, saccharine image of 
the Italian with a heart of gold no longer works. ---- Days ago, in the 
bar where I always go, the bartender asked me: "Do you always go to 
Serbia?". And even before I could answer, a gentleman, whom I had never 
seen before, interjected: "What are you doing among those gypsies? In 
the Balkans...The Slavs, for goodness' sake... Those are dangerous...". 
Trying to stay calm, I replied: "Excuse me, which gypsies are you 
talking about? And which territories or populations are you referring 
to?". "Well, those, Romanians, Albanians, Hungarians...". I replied: "I 
regret to inform you that you have not mentioned even a single Slavic 
people, and that the Balkans have absolutely nothing to do with it." I 
finished my coffee a little distraught and went out asking myself: "How 
widespread is racism in our country? And is it increasing?".
Racism is a social disease determined by ignorance, fear of others, war 
between the poor, hegemonic presence of white culture/inculture: a 
social disease with terrible consequences, which includes anti-African 
phobia, anti-Semitism, anti-Gypsyism, 'Islamophobia: and most 
discrimination remains subtle, invisible, unreported, hidden.
Who among us has not witnessed, on the bus, on the train, on the street, 
on social media, displays of racism, expressed in the use of toxic 
words, expressions of hatred, faces distorted by resentment, by 
misunderstanding? And we are only talking about verbal violence: but, 
this type of hateful offense is sometimes followed by physical violence, 
unmotivated aggression, etc.
We remember November 11, 1938, the promulgation of the fascist racial 
laws against the Jews, but we also remember that racism in Italy is a 
historical, complex phenomenon, certainly still present.
The first movements explicitly linked to the myth of race, Aryan, 
Pan-Germanic or Italic, have their roots in the "scientific" racism of 
the 19th century, generator of xenophobia and racial segregation, the 
basis for the advent of European fascism of the 20th century, first in 
Italy with fascism and then in Germany with Nazism, in parallel with 
racist phenomena in American society, such as those expressed by the Ku 
Klux Klan against African Americans.
Alongside these well-known expressions of racism, other forms of racism 
and xenophobia have developed against the Romani peoples (Roma and 
Sinti) commonly identified with the terms gypsies, gypsies, or "nomads" 
(anti-Gypsyism).
We must recognize that in recent years – thanks to the increase in a 
junk non-culture propagated through social media and the internet, an 
objective economic crisis, housing and health difficulties – racist and 
xenophobic attitudes such as damage to property, discrimination, verbal 
violence and physical violence, directed towards foreign immigrants, new 
EU citizens and non-EU citizens.
We must pay close attention to specific forms of racism (anti-Semitism, 
Islamophobia) and to forms derived from the misunderstanding of unknown 
historical and cultural contexts (for example against the Balkan Slavs), 
and to the variable trend of information that alternates false or 
partial representations of racism to the almost total removal of 
discrimination and racist violence.
It is increasingly necessary to monitor and control the use of words 
derived from ignorance and fear of others, which pollute relationships 
between people: toxic words and behaviors generate toxic values, toxic 
gestures, tearing apart the relational world, favoring a real civil 
regression and deteriorating the quality and structure of our being 
together as human beings. Words, the tone we use, gestures, images, are 
never neutral, they are never inert tools, but define relationships 
between people and social relationships.
Data:
The Observatory of the ODIHR (Office for Democratic Institutions and 
Human Rights), an OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in 
Europe) body, reports 494 racial hatred crimes for Italy (reported, 
tried and finalised). ) in 2016 and 848 in 2019, recording an increase 
of 71%. The majority of racist and xenophobic crimes reported are linked 
to physical violence and violence against property. Only a small part of 
the crimes committed are formally reported and only a modest percentage 
of reports lead to a conviction.
https://hatecrime.osce.org.

The Fifth White Paper on Racism, published in 2020 by the social 
promotion association Lunaria, reports 7426 episodes of racial 
intolerance and discrimination reported between 2008 and 2020 by the 
national and local press. This is on average more than one episode per day.
  https://www.lunaria.org/quinto-libro-bianco-sul-razzismo-in-italia/.
UNAR (National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office), body of the 
Presidency of the Council of Ministers, reports 709 cases of ethnic and 
racial discrimination for 2021 (compared to 545 in 2020) and 241 cases 
of religious discrimination (183 in 2020), 170 of which referring to 
episodes of anti-Semitism, while episodes of anti-Islamism and apologia 
for fascism are also growing.
https://www.unar.it.
The extraordinary Commission for combating the phenomena of intolerance, 
racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to hatred and violence, established 
by the Senate of the Republic and chaired by the senator for life 
Liliana Segre, presented in 2022 the fact-finding investigation on the 
nature, causes and recent developments in the phenomenon of hate speech, 
which highlights the growing diffusion of hate speech and content in the 
media and on social media ("hate online").
https://www.senato.it/japp/bgt/showdoc/frame.jsp?tipodoc=SommComm&leg=18&id=1355283&part=doc_dc-editore_a#_ftn372.

Reading suggestions:
Mauro Biani, The banality of but, People, Busto Arsizio, 2019.
Alberto Burgio, Critique of racist reason, DeriveApprodi, Rome, 2020.
Giuseppe Faso, Lexicon of democratic racism. The words that exclude, 
DeriveApprodi, Rome, 2008.
Lorenzo Guadagnucci, Dirty Words. Illegal immigrants, nomads, vu cumprà: 
racism in the media and within us, Altreconomia, Milan, 2010.
Annamaria Rivera, Racism. The acts, the words, the propaganda, Dedalo, 
Bari, 2020.
Teun van Dijk, Racist discourse. The reproduction of prejudice in 
everyday speech, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli, 1994.
Drawings by Mauro Biani

https://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
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