Dear Blog Readers —
Back in May I did a blog post on Italy’s first black Minister, Cecile Kyenge, “Call Me Black”. Sadly she’s only been at her new job for a few months and she has been bombarded with racial slurs and even death threats. One insult came this past week from the Deputy Speaker of the Italian Senate, Roberto Calderoli, a member of the xenophobic Northern League Party.
Speaking at a party rally he said, “When I see images of Kyenge I cannot help think, even if I don’t say that she is one, of a resemblance to an orangutan.”
After widespread calls for his resignation, today Calderoli stood up in front of the Senate and officially apologized and said he would send her flowers. Groan.
(A little aside here, my wise Italian friend Catia once told me,”Beware of a middle-aged Italian man bearing flowers or jewels as gifts, if he is your husband, it means he is cheating on you, and if he is not your husband it means he wants to cheat on his wife with you.”)
While I’ve been fuming over the Calderoli comment, Kyenge has faced this affront with her usual imperturbability. For three days I have been chasing an interview with her and finally was given an appointment today a half hour before I was supposed to meet my daughter’s doctor. The usually working Mamma clash. The Minister was late to arrive and as I waited I became steadily more tense.
Eventually I left my questions with a colleague to run off to my Mamma duties. I flew out the door of the Minister’s office, hopped in a taxi and headed off before I suddenly realized I had no cash. Luck was on my side, because I ended up with the nicest taxi driver I’ve ever met in 20 years in Rome. He said he would take me where I was going for free because he was heading off duty anyway, and besides, there are bigger problems that one has to face in life, so who cares about one little taxi fare. Gold Star for him today. But back to Kyenge.
Later looking at the video tape of the interview, I was once again impressed with Kyenge’s grace and calm. She simply said, “I ask everyone, to translate their discomfort (with people of different races) into a different language, not a violent one, but a message that might improve the system.”
Kyenge, who is 48, first came to Italy when she was 18 to study. She went on to become an eye doctor, married and Italian and has two children.
Back in May, I spoke to Kyenge’s sister Dora who told me her sister was a fighter explaining that Kyenge had nearly died when she was a few months old in the Congo but had managed to survive. When asked about her determination to overcome adversity today Kyenge answered, “It is clear that my path has not been an easy one, it is been difficult in terms of integration, and for professional affirmation, and even for the possibility to study. Therefore every step was more difficult than the last. It is clear that all this is part of the path to help me understand what are the most important things and make a choice about which things one needs to dedicate more attention to.”
As Minister of Integration one of her top priorities is changing the law on citizenship. As it stands now, a child of immigrants born in Italy cannot apply for citizenship until he or she becomes 18. Kyenge would like to make it possible for any baby born in Italy to have Italian citizenship.
Many Italians are not comfortable with Kyenge’s proposal to change the law, her postion as Minister and with immigrants in general. And somehow Kyenge has become a lightning rod for the racism in Italy. One local politician — again from the Northern League- wrote recently on Facebook that someone “should rape Kyenge.” Where others might become angry and bitter, Kyenge shrugs it off. “I don’t take it personally,” she told us today.
Despite the brutal verbal attacks, Kyenge never flinches, she proceeds with dignity in the face of danger and has been continuing her visits across the country to talk to Italian citizens. When I think about Kyenge’s poise and courage, Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. come to mind. Nobody is going to stop her, not a foolish, blubbering, racist Roberto Calderoli, or anyone else.
Today I watched a video clip of Kyenge’s 17-year-old Congolese-Italian daughter Giulia who was born and raised in Italy. A link to the clip, in Italian, is attached below and I will just translate her last line in which she says how to combat racism: “live in peace, travel a lot, and read a lot, then one day racists will realize that their attitude is useless.”
gawd awful man.. she is bella and I would take an orangutan over this horrible fat italian hardly a man… any day. disgusted in lugano.
She is bella. As far as I can tell she is bella inside and out– a person to be admired by all of us.
Mrs. kyenge have wrong approach with Italy.
She did not understand Italy, although she lived here for many years.
Newly appointed minister she said “l’Italia è meticcia”. What did she expect?
L’Italia non è meticcia, e molto probabilmente non vuole diventarlo.
She wants to impose his vision to the country, but the country most likely does not want.
Italy is not a multicultural or multiracial country. And most likely It does not want to become one.
She is creating problems for the government, and consequently to the country, at a sensitive time. It was very difficult to create a government in this historical moment, and she is not making an easy life to the government.
She wants to impose to the country a crazy law, as the so-called “ius soli”.
A law that does not exist in Europe, except in France (and also in France is not the pure “ius soli”).
For hystorical reason the so-called “ius soli” exists only in the so-called “New World”.
There are several negative comments in the newspapers on the work of Mrs. Kyenge. For example, this is an interesting comment http://www.corriere.it/editoriali/13_luglio_17/terzomondismo-salsa-italica_59ba1a3c-ee9a-11e2-b3f4-5da735a06505.shtml
Mrs. kyenge have wrong approach with Italy.
She did not understand Italy, although she lived here for many years.
Newly appointed minister she said “l’Italia è meticcia”. What did she expect?
L’Italia non è meticcia, e molto probabilmente non vuole diventarlo.
She wants to impose his vision to the country, but the country most likely does not want.
Italy is not a multicultural or multiracial country. And most likely It does not want to become one.
She is creating problems for the government, and consequently to the country, at a sensitive time. It was very difficult to create a government in this historical moment, and she is not making an easy life to the government.
She wants to impose to the country a crazy law, as the so-called “ius soli”.
A law that does not exist in Europe, except in France (and also in France is not the pure “ius soli”).
For hystorical reason the so-called “ius soli” exists only in the so-called “New World”.
There are several negative comments in the newspapers on the work of Mrs. Kyenge. For example, this is an interesting comment http://www.corriere.it/editoriali/13_luglio_17/terzomondismo-salsa-italica_59ba1a3c-ee9a-11e2-b3f4-5da735a06505.shtml
Max, I am not sure what to say except that I disagree with you. Italians need to face the fact that Italy is becoming a mixed race society. Minister Kyenge represents the future and I think you need to accept that hanging on to the past will not help Italy.
Fine post! Here in the US we are still reeling from the Zimmerman verdict, and Anderson Cooper’s interview with a juror, broadcast yesterday, shows the hard core of racism, which is unconscious indifference, not vile dislike such as your Senate veep showed. It is amazing that someone like him could be in a position of power in Italy, and I trust that, through work like yours, that will be forced to change. But we all have to work on the ways in which we make racism like Zimmerman’s possible, with stand-your-ground laws, and with jurors (citizens) who are simply oblivious to race and refuse to see what is happening before their eyes. Posts like this are the best education for the public. Bravo!
Thank you Nancy, but sadly I am not sure how much difference my little post can make….the racism is so harsh, so present, so deep-rooted, I feel like I need to do something more but not sure what. Like Kyenge I have gotten Italian citizenship through an Italian husband, but being white and American I feel that all doors have been flung open to me. Italians have been welcoming, kind and given me opportunities. If the color of my skin had been black, I think my experience might have been different.
Calderoli’s behavior is nauseating. Makes one just want to circle the wagons around Kyenge and protect her from such idiots. Kyenge takes the high road and encourages the public to take a stand. I hope there is complete outrage in Italy! She is such an impressive woman!
There are many Italians who are vocally supporting Kyenge, but there are many who also continue to attack her; she has an uphill road ahead, but she is clearly determined to move forward no matter the risks and I admire her for that.
Oh, I do not know what to say. Calderoli’s orangutan remark makes me think of the many representations of President and Mrs. Obama as monkeys. Even after all his years in office, the slurs continue. One in particular stands out in my memory. Shortly after President Obama was elected, Mrs. Obama announced that a White House food garden would be planted. A cartoonist drew a photo of the White House lawn transformed into a watermelon patch. Res ipsa loquitur.
I agree with you Adri, racism is still very much present in the US, and the Obamas have seen their fair share. I guess wherever racism rears its ugly head we all need to rise up and knock it down.
I undestand Minister Kienge attempt at changing the law, but Italy is a country like no other in Europe. After the Risorgimento, in the 19the century, Massimo D’Azeglio, a patriot of Italian unification process, once sad:”Abbiamo fatto l’Italia, e ora dobbiamo fate gli Italiani!” ( “We have made Italy, and now we have to make the Italians”). I wonder, and I am not the only one, IF we can talk about ITALIANS. Do they actualy exist?!?.. We are more loyal to our “town” than to Italy ( if you look at Tuscany, for instance, you see this fact clearly). We speek dialects at home even if our parents are well educated. My father, who is an engineer, spoke only “comasco”until he was six and went to school ( where a Southern teacher taught him Italian language with a lot of effort, since she did not undestood a word of what my father and his schoolmates were saying ). Even today, in some parts of Northern Italy, Southerners are still treated not very kindly.. Minister Kienge wants to integrate foreigners,ok, but after 20 years and more in Italy, this woman has not understood that “Italian identity” is a very frail concept, not very well rooted in the country. Even Balotelli speaks “bresciano” dialect; there are Maroccan workers in Veneto who only spoke Veneto dialect ( and not the “pure” official, Florentine Italian, the language of Dante and Manzoni.. ). Minister Kienge should seriously think about this. It is necessary not only to integrate the foreigners with “ethnic” Italians, but to reconcile Italians with the idea of “Italian nation”. Otherwise we go nowhere. Ciao, Silvia
Silvia — Thank you for this very interesting comment. You are right, I have often noticed that Italians have much less a sense of “nation”. There is loyalty to family, to region in Italy, but much less “nationalism” than in the US. As an American from Boston my English sounds very different from someone in Texas but we all know how to sing the same national anthem and take enormous pride in our country. Still, I think Italians need to accept the need to integrate immigrants wherever they are in Italy. The Italian birth-rate is nearly flat and it is the immigrant numbers and births that are increasing the population. Immigrants will be an enormous source of productivity and positive energy for this country in the future. Just think how much the Italian Americans who emigrated to the United States contributed to the country. Immigrants need to learn to adapt to the Italian culture and legal system while enriching it with their own knowledge and traditions.
I am appalled by Calderoli’s remark and very impressed by the high road that Kyenge has taken. It does remind me of the Obama’s, who have demonstrated grace in the face of these ignorant people. Yea for your kind cabbie.
. . terrific post Trish – this lady represents humanity in all it’s colours and complexions – power to her compassionate elbow (Max, you do talk some crap! T you can edit!)
Thanks Alan. Kyenge is one tough lady and as you say she does “represent humanity in all its colours and complexions”. As far as Max’s comment is concerned, I think he has honestly and openly given voice to what so many Italians are thinking and afraid to say. Many Italians are frightened of a mixed-race society and would prefer to turn back the clock.
Calderoli would NEVER lie down that orangutan remark in the US, apology or not.
I’m sorry you missed the opportunity to interview Minister Kyenge in person. Hope your daughter is okay. Thank you for blogging about Ms. Kyenge, who puts her detractors to shame with her intelligence and dignity. She is living Gandhi’s advice to “be the change you wish to see in the world” as exhausting as this must be for her. Thanks also for the link to the interview with Ms. Kyenge’s daughter. Fabulous!
Thanks for your comment Lisa. I wasn’t really thinking of it when I wrote it, but it is interesting that Kyenge and I are close in ages with children of similar ages. Her daughter is so articulate and charming and gives me great hope for the future of Italy.
I’m sorry you missed the opportunity to interview Minister Kyenge in person. Hope your daughter is okay. Thank you for blogging about Ms. Kyenge, who puts her detractors to shame with her intelligence and dignity. She is living Gandhi’s (?) advice to “be the change you wish to see in the world” as exhausting as this must be for her. Thanks also for the link to the interview with Ms. Kyenge’s daughter. Fabulous!
I’m sorry you missed the opportunity to interview Minister Kyenge in person. Hope your daughter is okay. Thank you for blogging about Ms. Kyenge, who puts her detractors to shame with her intelligence and dignity. She is living Gandhi’s (?) advice to “be the change you wish to see in the world” as exhausting as this must be for her. Thanks also for the link to the interview with Ms. Kyenge’s daughter. Fabulous!
Inspiring woman and her daughter is out making a difference….I only hope one day our daughter is as passionate and well spoken,
thank you for shining a light on this family they deserve it!!
lisa x
I agree Lisa, they are a beautiful and inspiring family. And, like you, I thought, I hope my daughters will be so caring and passionate.