Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

A bus carrying 60 immigrants who arrived on the island of Lampedusa pulls into the
village of Frabosa Sottana and the locals block their way, parking cars on the street to
the hotel where the immigrants are to be lodged and on the road leading into the
village. ‘Get out of here,’ they shout. ‘No second thoughts, these people have to get back
on their bus and go back where they came from. There are more densely populated
places in the outskirts which are better equipped to take them in. But not here.’ It’s local
shopkeepers who are most vociferous: ‘we’re not racist. But the economy of our whole
valley is at stake here.’ Source: targatocn.it
15 May 2011 Naples (NA), Campania
On the evening of May 9, on line 2 of the underground service from Montesanto to
piazza Garibaldi, an Angolan nun is assaulted by a gang of men in a crowded
commuter carriage. Thirty three‐year‐old Sister Delta Matureira Laurinda, from the San
Carlo Lwanga order, is insulted, jeered at for the colour of her skin, pushed about
violently, spat at, and has her veil ripped off. No one tries to help her. ‘There were eight
of them,’ the nun said afterwards, ‘all male, between 26 and 30 years old, and with
stubble on their chins.’ Source: levanteonline.net
17 May 2011 Fiumicino (RM), Lazio
Two Italian youths are arrested by the Carabinieri police, charged with grievous bodily
harm. The victim is a young Bangladeshi street vendor, who was beaten up on the
Lungomare della Salute beach. It began with a squabble between a woman on the beach
and the Bangladeshi man. The argument was heard by the woman’s son who, with an
accomplice, assaulted the Bangladeshi man, kicking and punching him. Another bather
called the emergency services. The victim was taken to hospital and treated for
widespread bruising, a dislocated rib and whiplash. Source: romadailynews.it
17 May 2011 Montecatini Terme (PT), Tuscany
The Northern League demands more severe measures ‘on civic decorum and the
invasion of nomads in the town.’ In a letter to the mayor they write ‘the picture, taken
on Sunday May 15 at 3pm, shows that this group of Roma, now familiar to everyone in
town, can do whatever they want by day and by night. It all starts in the morning: you
go into the station and you’ll see five or six of them sprawled across the benches or
begging from commuters. At lunch time they settle down on the steps of the former Bar
Veronica to eat their meal, surrounded by paper bags, rubbish and bottles; sometimes
they sit right on the pavement, so no one can get past. Then they lie down to rest under
the palm tree outside the station so that any tourist arriving by train gets a good idea of
what our town has become!’ The letter requests that Roma be expelled from the city
immediately, that regulations be introduced forbidding the consumption of alcohol and
begging in public places, and that ‘all forms of nomadic lifestyle’ be banned. Source:
valdinievoleoggi.com
19 May 2011 Milan (MI), Lombardy
Milan’s out‐going deputy mayor Riccardo De Corato, of the PdL (People of Freedom)
party, commenting on the presence of Abdel Shaari, the director of the Viale Jenner
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