Italy increasingly racist. A Senegalese model barbarously insulted on social media in Sardinia.
A photo reportage shoot by Andrea Zucca Pais with a Senegalese model dressed in the traditional dress of Sardinian women unleashes an orgy of racism and insults on Italian social media. The shameful episode is unfortunately further confirmation that twenty years of populist policies of the right and the racist Lega Nord party have turned a large part of the Italian people into blind racists. Unfortunately, the governments of the so-called “left” have also contributed with wrong and contradictory policies. The only alternative comes from Pope Francis: “We need to grow an economy of integral development.
In the small town of the island of Sardinia: Codrongianus near Sassari, the Italian photographer Andrea Zucca Pais made a photo reportage with the Senegalese model Kary Khouma, 21, dressed in the traditional dress of Sardinian women. Kary Khouma lives in the city of Olbia.
Many appreciated the author’s idea that “in every culture there is a bit of all of us” and “traditional clothing does not imply any distinction of color, but emphasizes its polychrome”. But then racist comments also arose: those who predict the end of Europe due to blacks to those who fear that whites will sooner or later be forced into a counter-exodus to Africa, or those who claim this photo does not respect morals, the traditions and history of Codrongianus. An avalanche of insults and defamations against the young Senegalese was thrown up on various social networks including Facebook and Twitter, then spread via WhatsApp.
The interviewee, our Italian compatriot in fact Kary Khouma replied: “These insults do not affect me. Those who are stuck in this vision do not know that they are talking about a Sardinian girl, born and raised in Olbia, proud of her Senegalese origins but linked to Sardinia, her homeland. I am a model. I was on the set for something else, the owner of the dress asked me to wear it and to be able to photograph myself “.
Kary Khouma was born in the city of Olbia to Senegalese parents who had been transplanted to the island for thirty years, a couple with four proud children of the island. “I’m more Sardinian than Senegalese, I think it’s normal — he explains — I absolutely don’t deny my origins, I’m proud of it, but I was born and raised here and I want to live here”. Thinking about the future, she studied nursing in Sassari. “I wear more Sardinian clothes than Senegalese”.
The shameful episode is unfortunately a further confirmation that twenty years of populist policies of the right and of the racist Lega Nord party have turned a large part of the Italian people into blind racists when it was known that Italians are welcoming and sociable people being a melting pot of races: Latin, Greek, German, French, Spanish, Arabic, African.
In the last ten years, immigration from Africa to Europe, passing through Italy, has been the pretext for right-wing parties and the Northern League to increase their electoral support through populist policies aimed at racism. The “blacks” would be the cause of the escalation of national crime, they would steal the jobs of the Italians, and so on. The only solution is the hermetic closure of the borders.
Racial politics was unfortunately not a prerogative of the right. Left-wing governments have done worse by applying a contradictory and business-minded policy to immigrants. For example, the government of Matteo Renzi on the one hand had signed agreements with the European Union to welcome all African refugees and migrants who tried to reach the Old Continent and on the other, through the Minister of the Interior, Marco Minniti, entered into agreements with the worst African dictatorial regimes to “mitigate” migratory flows from Africa.
From the Renzi government onwards, Italy has allocated millions of euros to the Sudanese Islamic regime of the dictator Omar El Bashir and to the Libyan government of Tripoli which had been given the task of blocking illegal immigration. Unfortunately, the “monster” members turned out to be more shrewd than the Italian rulers. Since 2014, a paradoxical situation has arisen where these dictatorial and unstable regimes receive from Italy (and the EU) fine millions of euros to block migratory flows and at the same time were this regimes are the main promoters of human trafficking from Africa to Europe. Double gain. These policies open serious moral and ethical doubts and the risk of co-responsibility for the crimes against humanity that are being committed in the trafficking of human beings from Africa.
Left-wing governments from Renzi to Conte have also created (involuntarily) a real market for assistance to immigrants who have arrived in Italy. Various associations were born out of nothing to assist migrants by receiving 35 euros per day per assisted person. The assistance offered is often inhumane and a real outrage to human dignity. On the 35 euros a day, the assisted migrant barely reaches 3 euros. All the rest … Unscrupulous business associations operate alongside serious Catholic associations that care about the social integration of immigrants and use most of the funds received to achieve this goal. In the last 5 years, even the Italian mafia organizations have entered the lucrative business of assisting immigrants.
It is true that in the last ten years crime in Italy has increased and more and more African migrants are involved in drug dealing and prostitution deals. Some African mafias, such as the Nigerian one, have taken root in Italy. This helped spread racism or among the Italians to the full advantage of the right and the Northern League. Until now, no Italian politician has wanted to examine the real causes of this increase in crime. The African “criminals” are actually the workforce of the powerful Italian mafia organizations: Mafia, Cosa Nostra, N’dangheta, Camorra. The Nigerian mafia (well organized in the country) receives the sale of drugs and the management of prostitution in the streets under contract from the Italian mafia cartels.
This situation has worsened due to the lack of control policies of the national territory by the Italian police forces. For example, in many cities, “Nigerians” peddle in parks or in front of train stations without the police intervening to arrest them. This neglect has contributed to increasing racism in a period of social, political and economic decline that Italy is experiencing.
The absurd management of migratory flows by various Italian governments contrasts with the reasoned migration policies of various African countries. Let’s take the example of Senegal, the country of origin of the model insulted in Sardinia. Any Italian citizen can reside in Senegal without any problem. Visa is even free. If the stay is longer than one year, the Senegalese authorities ask the Italian immigrant to request the temporary residence card, giving reasons and the source of their finances.
It should be emphasized that there is still a substantial part of Italians who are not affected by racism and who consider that immigrants can bring added value to our country. Unfortunately, this slice of the population is becoming a minority due to the wrong policies of the left governments and the populism of the right.
Recently Pope Francis spoke on the issue associated with poverty in general that is spreading in the so-called “First World” countries. “We need to grow an economy of integral development of the poor and not of welfare, which I do not want to condemn: volunteering is one of the most beautiful things that the Italian Church does, but we must go further”.
