File spoon-archives/aut-op-sy.archive/aut-op-sy_1997/aut-op-sy.9709, message 99


Date: Wed, 24 Sep 97 12:28:09 +0200
From: Fiocco-AT-ccuws4.unical.it (Fiocco Laura)
Subject: Re: AUT: what kids are thinking in Italy ...


It may be true racism is increasing in Italy but this kind of "study" got
something wrong. What will *you* do if your parents suddenly become green?
Will you not be scared dead? Think how a child could be!
ciao laura




>ROME, (Sep. 19) IPS - "If my parents turned black I would have them
>>arrested by the police and would make them beat them and then kill  them,"
>>said one boy who took part in a study on racism among  children in Italy.
>>   The results of the study have been published in a new book entitled
>>"The Right Skin," whose publication has come only days after a city  in
>>northern Italy offered to pay a "bounty" to anyone who reported  illegal
>>immigrants.
>>   The reward, offered by a mayor belonging to the Northern League,  a
>>party advocating independence for the country's rich northern  region,
>>drew harsh criticism from the center-left government of  Romano Prodi.
>>   One boy who participated in the seven-year study wrote, "I wouldn't
>>want my parents to turn black, because black people are really  ugly. I
>>would help them get their color back. Maybe I could take  them to a
>>veterinarian."
>>   "Maybe it would be better to be a dinosaur than to be black," said  a
>>six-year-old girl from the northern community of Ferrara.
>>   The study, carried out by anthropologist Paola Tabet in primary  and
>>secondary schools with the help of hundreds of teachers,  gathered the
>>impressions of 7,000 children aged seven to 13.
>>   Tabet did not ask for opinions on racism itself, but rather  formulated
>>questions designed to get the children to express  themselves freely.
>>   The children commented on hypothetical situations such as "if your
>>mother and father were black," "one day in Africa," "an African  family
>>comes to live near your house," "imagine how  extraterrestrials would
>>describe black people and how they would  describe white people," "if your
>>parents were from the United  States," and "if they were black and rich."
>>   The selected children were born between 1985 and 1991, a period in
>>which the term "extracomunitario" -- people from outside the  European
>>Union, generally from the developing world -- began to  take on
>>disparaging connotations.
>>   The local press tends to stress an immigrant's "extracomunitario"
>>status when it reports on alleged criminal behavior by  non-Italians.
>>   There are currently 1.2 million immigrants out of a total  population
>>of 56 million in Italy.
>>   The flow of migrants towards Italy has picked up in recent years,
>>prompting racist and xenophobic comments from right-wing political
>>parties and the separatist Northern League.
>>   One of the children consulted said he would put his parents in a
>>washing machine if they turned black, and mentioned several leading
>>brands of soap.
>>   Another said he would simply "throw them out of the house, with a  kick
>>in the rear end."
>>   "If my parents were black, I would always be afraid," he added.  "Maybe
>>they'd be poor, and thus murderers, criminals and thieves,  and I would
>>look down on them."
>>   An eight-year-old girl from the northern industrial city of Turin
>>resolved the problem with "common sense: if they were black, I  would keep
>>them as slaves."
>>   "If I asked my (black) mother for something to drink and she  touched
>>the glass with some part of her body, I wouldn't drink it,  because if
>>someone is black I can't tell if they're dirty or not,"  she added.
>>   "If my mother were Moroccan and had to vacuum, like all housewives  do,
>>she wouldn't know how to plug the vacuum cleaner in," another  student
>>responded.
>>   "Blacks steal or sell drugs for a living. That's why the government
>>doesn't want blacks to come to Italy," said one boy.
>>   A six-year-old from Rome said, "If I were black, I would kill  myself."
>>   An 11-year-old said, "If I had a black father, I would throw myself
>>from the third floor."
>>   Not all the children referred to such drastic measures. Many  responded
>>that they would run away, disappear, take refuge in the  homes of their
>>grandparents or uncles, and, in the words of one,  would only agree to see
>>their "disgusting looking" parents at  Christmas.
>>   Tabet urged parents to teach their children better, and to
>>counterbalance the frequently negative messages broadcast by the  media.
>>   But the problem is even tougher if the parents are racist, she
>>stressed, adding that only a few children withstand such negative
>>influences.
>>   And even when children are raised in families that accept the idea  of
>>a multi-racial society, the influence of the media seems to  prevail. "My
>>dad told me that all men are equal, white or black,  but the TV shows that
>>blacks kill, and I'm afraid of them," said  one child.
>>   Some children took a different stance, however. When blacks "come  to
>>sell handkerchiefs or to beg, I think we should be more kind,  more
>>attentive to these problems. I feel sorry for those poor  people," reads
>>an atypical response.  COPYRIGHT 1997 IPS/GIN
>>    Copyright 1997
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
>distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
>interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
>educational purposes only.
>
>Be PART of the solution -- People Against Racist Terror/
>PO Box 1055/Culver City CA 90232-1055/310-288-5003/
>Order our journal "Turning the Tide." mnovickttt-AT-igc.org
>
>Free Mumia Abu Jamal! Free All POW's and Political Prisoners! Abolish the
>Racist Death Penalty!
>
>
>
>     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---




     --- from list aut-op-sy-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005