Italy is one of the most popular countries in the world for tourism, and it’s not hard to see why. You can visit fascinating cities full of rich history, enjoy stunning, warm beaches and devour the most delicious bowl of pasta you’ve ever tasted.
But no country is without its faults. And unfortunately, racism can be found all over the globe, including in the beloved nation of Italia. Below, you’ll find a video that content creator Xeviuniverse recently shared on TikTok, detailing the blatant racism he experienced in Italy.
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After encountering a blatantly racist woman in Italy, content creator Xevi decided to share his story online
Image credits: Michele Bitetto (not the actual photo)
“Y’all have experienced racism, but most of y’all haven’t experienced level 9 advanced racism”
“I’m in a club in Italy, walking inside an elevator. As soon as I stepped inside, this promoter, she was a woman, puts her full palm on my chest and stiff arms my black *** outside that elevator.”
Image credits: Donny Jiang (not the actual photo)
“And I’m a pretty big guy. You know how much force she had to put in that ***** to throw me out of the elevator? I’m looking inside the elevator and she has the biggest customer service *** smile I’ve ever seen in my life. Like she was doing my *** a favor.”
Image credits: Jason Dent (not the actual photo)
“I think that a lot of people don’t realize that Africans in most European countries are treated like ****”
“But the thing that she didn’t realize was, that although I am African, I’m also American. So I did what any American would do and I put my foot on the elevator, opened that ***** up, and walked right in front of her. Everyone then begins to look up at me like ‘this monkey’s bigger than I thought’. She immediately begins to look down, continuing her customer service smile.”
Image credits: xeviuniverse
“I began to cuss her out. And I’m talking really cuss her out. Like saying **** I don’t… I ain’t never said before”
“Like, do you know where I’m from? Did you put your hands on me? As soon as they heard that accent, that American accent, **** flips. Her coworker loses his ****. ‘Hey, what… what floor did you want to go to?’ I said, ‘Hey, shut up your mouth. I’m not speaking to you right now. Push 3.’ All of a sudden, this random man steps in from the crowd and says, ‘That is not us, that is not Italian.’ Everybody started talking about, ‘That’s not Italian. That’s not Italian. That’s not Italian.’ Oh, that… she had me hyped. I felt like Rosa Parks with that *****.”
You can hear Xevi tell the full story right here
@xeviuniverse Shout out my dogs in the elevator #fyp #tiktok #storytime ♬ original sound – Xevi
He also provided additional context about the situation after the video went viral
Unfortunately, racism is still very prevalent in Europe
Image credits: Markus Spiske (not the actual photo)
When we think about combating racism in the modern day, many people focus on what needs to be done in the United States. There’s no question that white privilege is prevalent there, and unfortunately, there’s still a long way to go in creating a truly equal society. But people often overlook the fact that much of American culture came from European colonizers, and Americans certainly didn’t invent racism.
According to the Being Black in the EU report from 2018, one third of respondents said they had been racially harassed in the previous 5 years, and 5% said they had been physically attacked. A quarter of Black residents in Europe say they have also faced discrimination when searching for jobs, and 14% say that private landlords won’t rent housing to them.
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Nearly half of the Black population in Italy says they’ve experienced discrimination
Image credits: jurien huggins (not the actual photo)
24% of the study’s respondents report that they’ve been stopped by the police in the past 5 years, and 41% of those stopped believe it was due to racial profiling. Of the 12 nations included in this study, Italy came in, tied with Germany, as having the 4th most widespread racism against Black people. 48% of respondents from Italy say they’ve experienced racism, with only Finland, Luxembourg and Ireland reporting hiring rates of discrimination.
According to The Translation Company, about 95% of residents in Italy are white, while another 2.5% is made up of Albanians, Romanians, Ukrainians and other Europeans. Africans make up 1.5% of Italy, and other minorities make up the last 1%. While these demographics are certainly no excuse for racism, they do provide some insight into why this behavior may have gone unaddressed for so long.
As Xevi mentioned in his video, Italy definitely is not the only European nation with a history of racism. The European Network Against Racism (ENAR) reports that unemployment rates are 3 times higher for people of African origin compared to the national average in Finland, and in Sweden, 17% of hate crimes committed in 2014 targeted Black people. Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Black people are at least 6 times more likely to be stopped and searched by police than white people.
Racism has even been on the rise in several European nations in recent years
Image credits: Jon Tyson (not the actual photo)
In fact, a 2022 study by the European Agency for Fundamental Rights found that racism in Europe has been on the rise in Austria, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Ireland and Italy since 2016. If this issue is never addressed or completely brushed over, it’s never going to be eliminated. That’s why groups like ENAR are working to fight Afrophobia in Europe through recognition of the problem, collecting data, and demanding equal access and rights for people of African descent and Black Europeans.
We would love to hear your thoughts on this video in the comments below, pandas. Have you ever experienced racism in Europe? Feel free to share, and then if you’re interested in reading another Bored Panda article discussing similar themes, look no further than right here.
Viewers chimed in to applaud Xevi and echo his statement that racism is nothing new in Europe
The post “I Felt Like Rosa Parks”: Black Man Shares His Experience Encountering Racism In Italy first appeared on Bored Panda.
Source: boredpanda.com