Chronicles of ordinary racism 2011 - Cronache di ordinario razzismo

aforementioned article, and in two subsequent ones, Sartori recycled the usual cliches
and outdated notions, using unsuitable and superficial vocabulary, resembling street
jargon. For example, in order to back the claim that “Islamic people” are intinsically (by
nature) unable to integrate – so much so that “they have never managed to integrate,
over the centuries (for more than a millenium, in fact) in any (sic) non‐Islamic society 2 ”
–, he contrasts them with “Chinese, Japanese, Indian people”, who “settle in the West
with no trouble at all”. As well as perpatuating the age‐old, crude confusion between
nationality and religious affiliation (not worthy of a political expert), as well as
pretending to ignore that it is in fact possible to be both Indian and Muslim, Chinese and
Muslim, Moroccan and Christian, Tunisian and Jewish, Maghrebian and agnostic, Iraqi
and atheist and so on, he reveals himself to be completely ignorant of basic empirical
data. For instance, a statistic that, if we were to go by his criteria, should indicate scarce
integration on he part of “Asian people”: according to Foundation Ismu’s estimates
(relating to 2008, but still largely applicable today), the majority of irregular immigrants
in Italy come from Asian countries, with China in the lead. 3
And what should we make of the debate against “speedy Italianisation” Can it be
possible that the political expert is unaware of the vast gap between Italy and the other
European countries where immigration is common, with regard to the conferral of
nationality by the host‐county and the recognition of the right to asylum Suffice it to
say that the ratio of citizenships granted in Italy in 2009 to the number of foreign
residents stood at 1.5, whereas in Europe it is 2.4. 4
In order to fully grasp the Italian idiosyncracy – which trivializes intollerant remarks
and makes them acceptable to an unusually large portion of society– it is necessary to
attempt an exercise in decentralisation: is it conceivable that, in other European
countries, which have to deal with an equally increasing degree of institutional and
popular racism, independent newspapers similar to the “Corriere della Sera” – “Le
Monde”, “The Independent” or even “The Times”, for instance – would publish an
article of this sort, or, indeed, a violently Islamophobic booklet such as La Rabbia e
l’Orgoglio (The Rage and the Pride) by Oriana Fallaci
Now, to refute the eminent political expert is as easy as taking candy from a proverbial
baby, as he is not a reliable connoisseur of issues surrounding the life, status,
discrimination and rights of immigrants. If we give an account of this repartee it is not
because we too are falling prey to an obsession (it is not the first time we have criticized
Giovanni Sartori) but because it helps to illustrate how backward public debate in Italy
still is when dealing with the status and rights of immigrants and minorities,
particularly Roma and Sinti.
And it does not end here: the fact itself that the main Italian newspaper entrusts the job
of representing its editorial line to crassly Islamophobic articles, written not by an
2 The triple negative evidenced by our “sic” bears witness not only to the mediocre quality of his writing, but more
importantly to his overemphatic, bigoted, stylistic affectations.
3 In 2008, almost one third of the 651,000 irregular immigrants, that is 207,000 individuals, consisted of people who
had arrived from China (10% of all illegal migrants), Bangladesh (9,9%) and Pakistan (5%)
4 The highest percentages are to be found in Portugal (5,8 citizenship requests granted for every 100 foreigners),
Sweden (5,3) and the U.K. (4,5). Source: Eurostat Report 2010.
7