“Italy is not a racist country”.Denialism that prevents a real debate on systemic racism

Of Laetitia Leunkeu

The European football championships were, among other things, a celebration of symbols.Among these an image has spread which speaks more than the words one would like to force onto the skin of its subject:a black child immortalized while in a moment of joy he waves the tricolor to celebrate the hard-earned victory against the English together with the others.His body soon becomes a political symbol.On the profiles on which his image appears, there is talk of proof of integration, inclusion, belonging.“This is Italy!” they shout.

The instrumental use of a child is paradoxical, as in the painting in which he is portrayed and in the way the image is told, he appears as an anomaly, an irregularity of an established order, a banner to claim a notorious normality.Paradoxical as well as explanatory of a rather disappointing reality.

Yes, this is Italy.It is that tendency to "I don't see colors", said hastily to dismiss any discussion that tries to dissect the mechanisms through which racism manifests itself, to avoid having one's a priori questioned.It is that country in which, both on the right and on the left, black and migrant bodies become means, useful tools sometimes to heal this or that economic crisis (the famous "resources"), sometimes to gain electoral consensus on empty promises, and then decide to refinance who participates in their suffering in the first place.

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That photo is an example of how the public debate around racism in Italy still has elementary forms in which, often, the fight against discrimination is reduced to a passive observation of the most sensational realities.A social performance around which an aura of constant deresponsibility gravitates.

Any attempt at analysis that seeks to get to the root of the problem, which combines the institutional level (such as the Bossi-Fini law and his problems) even a criticism of individual dynamics, a denunciation of daily micro-aggressions and the pitfalls of political-media language around immigration, is seen as a "useless" extreme of the debate, especially if done by ethnic minorities themselves.

“Italy is not a racist country”

“We are the least racist country in Europe”

“Italians are not racist, they are just tired”

Repeating it to us on TV, in newspapers, on social media, at conferences, are white Italians for whom citizenship, equality, identity construction and belonging are taken for granted, those for whom the battles (of others) remain theoretical, philosophical questions on which debate by placing your voice and perspectives at the center of the discussion.

The historian and researcher Angelo del Boca, the greatest scholar of Italian colonialism, analyzed the process of mythologizing the Italian, who for centuries has used the subterfuge of clemency, the myth of the good Italian, to clear his conscience from the atrocities he has committed and which he continues to do, he wrote in his essay Italians good people?:

“The myth of the "Italian good people", which has covered so many infamies, [...] actually appears, when examining the facts, to be a fragile, hypocritical artifice.It has no citizenship rights, no historical basis."

“Rather than being upset about the inhuman universe they had created, they were clearly proud of it.This emerges clearly from official documents as well as from private correspondence.This pride was associated with the belief that only the Italians, due to their open, good-natured, tolerant character, were capable of bringing the natives to a higher level of civilization.The myth of the "good", "welcome", "non-racist", "accommodating" Italian also resurfaced in Africa and immediately imposed itself with vigor.

Today's denialism, therefore, would depend on a lack of process of decolonization, analysis and deconstruction of the historical legacies of those pages of history that we still struggle to recognize.

We can see it at work in the sentences of those who, as a typical white savior, invite "foreigners" to be grateful to Italy for its welcome and not to complain about their own condition;of those who say that in Italy racism, "the real one", does not exist because "there are only some ignorant people";of those who, finally, despite recognizing discriminatory attitudes in some people, refuse to question their own preconceptions and analyze the ways in which they themselves could contribute to that system which they would like to be opposed to.

The result is a selective myopia which is characteristic not only of the right-wingers, who hide behind nationalisms to make their statements clearly xenophobic, but also of the benevolentism of those on the "left" who would like to be spokespersons for the rights of the least.

Analyzing the different ways in which social phenomena manifest themselves in the specific context of one's own country, avoiding the uncritical assimilation of other people's battles, is the most correct way to find coherent and therefore effective solutions.Living in denial, distancing oneself from an evident reality, adds nothing to the discussion, but gives even more space to discrimination, which is then perceived as normality, making those who prefer blindness themselves an integral part of the problem.

Racism in Italy has been rampant for years:shines through in the way in which one perceives, represents and narrates theother, whether he is actually a foreigner in the land he lives in or very Italian.

The stories of Jerry Boakye, 34, died last year after spending the last three years of his life paralyzed following a racist attack on a bus, that of Musa Balde  committed suicide in the Repatriation Center (CPR) in Turin, by Edith beaten by 6 women and then discredited by the nurse who helped her or again Soumaila Sacko killed by corporals for having denounced the conditions of slavery in which he, his companions and many others like them in Italy lived, exploited in their precarious situation to bring low-cost tomatoes to our table, are only the most evident part of a well-rooted system.

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Racism manifests itself on a daily basis, when people have no problem perpetrating ignorance and xenophobia in front of you because they are not referring to you, because you are different, you "don't look African", because you don't embody the stereotype of an African person who they painted in the mind.When you enter an office and the first thing they ask you is "do you speak Italian?", even if you were born in Italy, because black - always representative of a plurality - is obviously only the immigrant, not "integrated", who may not have adequate knowledge of the language.When a girl with a headscarf is accused of being a terrorist on the street, to the laughter of those who listen.

Racism is institutionalized when tenders for jobs in the public sector they are almost all reserved only for holders of Italian citizenship and, by law, no non-Italian citizen can perform tasks that require managerial qualifications, those jobs that "involve the direct or indirect exercise of public powers".

Racism is cultural when sayings like “work like a ni**er” are part of our everyday language.

On those televisions, where politicians and commentators proudly parade to tell us that in Italy there is no major problem of social inequity linked to the ethnicity of its citizens (or rather residents because the title of "citizen" is still a luxury for a few) , how many non-white journalists do you know?Conductors?Meteorologists?Comedians?

The veil of Maya that everyone creates to free themselves from responsibility does not erase the reality that immigrants and their children have to face, perfectly aligned with their perennial condition of "different", aliens in a narrative always in the third person.Those who emigrate remain on trial for their entire lives.And in this process, it is often the sins of fathers and mothers that are passed on to innocent children that go to trial.Original sin is eternal.It's the color of your skin, your hair, your features that give you away.

What is sometimes lost even in anti-racist activism in Italy is the structural criticism of racism, which does not only concern populist leaders and their explicitly discriminatory utterances.

We live in a paradox in which it is more uncomfortable to talk about racism than to be racist.Half of the times when I talk about my experience as a black woman in a social context in which ethnicity still has a predominant value in interpersonal and non-interpersonal relationships, I hear the answer "not all Italians" and the other half "but this happens to everyone, not just blacks/immigrants.”

The difficulty many have in understanding that there are statistically more common experiences among a group of people, because these individuals have characteristics that push others to engage in those behaviors towards them, represents our difficulty in stemming the problems that arise from it.

What emerges from this tendency to defend, contest, minimize or ignore the experiences of those directly involved is a sort of extremely harmful racial fragility (i.e. the tendency to feel threatened every time one's preconceptions about race and racism are questioned). , starting from the fact that any criticism of the system is perceived as a personal attack.

Trying to question the racist attitudes considered relevant - always by others and never by those directly involved - in mainstream political rhetoric is legitimate, but making your interlocutor feel uncomfortable, implying his responsibility in the dominant system in which he is part and of which assimilate the point of view, it is inadmissible.

Fighting for your rights is fine as long as it is cautious, not annoying and maybe even silent.

This tendency to see today's demands as useless or too extreme starts from the rather widespread belief that the "real" struggles, those of other times, are now outdated and that what remains are only echoes of a reality no longer current and almost outdated, which do not require the same ferocity and the same means.

Every century has its moderates, its "true fighters", those who know better than you how to carry out your battles, because they are impartial and rational.

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Every century therefore has its "white moderate" who "cares about order more than justice;who prefers negative peace, i.e. the absence of tensions, to positive peace, i.e. the presence of justice;who always says:“I agree with you regarding your goals, but I disagree with your methods of direct action”;who believes, in his paternalism, that he can determine the deadlines for another's freedom;who lives by a mythical concept of time and continues to advise blacks to wait for a most propitious moment”.

The white moderate described here by Martin Luther King in the open letter written during his days of imprisonment in Birmingham in 1963, he is the one who today speaks of political polarization as the cause of fractures in society, of minority struggles as divisive issues, who says "it's right to fight for this, but perhaps there are more important issues to deal with now" or who, when faced with accusations of racism against a (public) subject, calls for caution, to analyze the intentions of the subject in question rather than the gesture itself and its consequences. 

When it comes to racism or any other form of oppression, the tendency to justify its manifestations with arguments relating to morality is quite common.

“It wasn't done maliciously!”

“He's not racist at all, he didn't mean to offend!”

Invoking a misunderstood intention is actually a common process that discredits the anger of those who are constantly subjected to the consequences of these actions.

Why, when we talk about racism and its related subjects, do we give so much importance to the intent behind the racist act?Because the accusation of racism is almost systematically perceived as an unspeakable flaw.

Telling someone that they are engaging in racist or prejudicial behavior and implying some direct responsibility in these dynamics is seen as a declaration of war, a sufficient requirement for those who suffer to be on the wrong side.

However, racism is rarely confined within the boundaries represented by fundamentally evil individuals (and indeed, few people still believe in 21st-century hierarchical theories of race).

“Intention” is of little importance in this context:what is interesting is to ask ourselves what makes our societies so permissive regarding racism, and to understand why, despite almost everyone saying they are ready to condemn it, it continues to assert itself through racist policies, and to condition our social relationships.

Focusing on intention erases the systemic interconnections within the individual and collective processes that drive racism.In doing so we do not question ourselves about the conditions of production and existence of racism.Likewise, declaring yourself "not racist" is of little use.It is nothing more than a declaration of neutrality that masks the lack of responsibility towards these issues and, above all, allows us to resolve all questions regarding the balance of power at play.

Preview image via Djarah Kan