Almost three years down the line, Lunaria has gone back to telling the Tales of everyday racism that define public and social life in our country. We have done so, this time, by casting our sights towards Europe, where last spring’s elections revealed a growing tide of nationalist, xenophobic and populist sentiment.
This study is the result of the daily monitoring, reporting, information and awareness-raising work that Lunaria undertakes on the cronachediordinariorazzismo.org website. The analisys is based on 2566 cases of discrimination and racially motivated violence recorded on an online database between 1 September 2011 and 31 July 2014, and on daily monitoring of the public, institutional and media debate.
‘Everyday racism’ takes place in many different contexts: buses, trains, clubs, restaurants, hotels, stadiums, shops, radio, TV (including variety shows), newspapers, football games, churches, schools, workplaces, cemeteries, streets, apartment blocks, supermarkets, public services, police stations, courtrooms and every type of institution, and, of course, the endless maze that is the internet. On the other hand, the cultural, social, political and institutional tools used to fight it are still utterly limited and inadequate.
This is the picture we are able to build from the tales of ‘everyday racism’ that we have collected over the past three years (or thereabout). The events featured here have not been chosen at random, but they certainly do not cover the whole spectrum: each of the places mentioned can be traced back to specific cases of racism which we were able to monitor by analysing newspaper articles and, more and more frequently, information provided by readers and other organisations. We recorded daily episodes of verbal aggression, from insults to threats and actual harassment, to propaganda (statements, public speeches, articles, posters, banners, flyers, comic strips, documents, press releases, publications, websites, blogs and posts on social networks) and public protests; of physical violence (assaults in the street, on public transport, in schools and carried out by the police itself) and discrimination that is endemic in Italian society and, with disappointing frequency, also in the actions of the media and institutions.
Our account is necessarily incomplete and selective but it gives a contribution in understanding the recent evolution of discriminations and racism in Italy.
Chronicles of Ordinary Racism, Third White Paper on Racism in Italy, is on line here.
