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Staff and agencies
06 December, 2005



By Gavin Jones 57 minutes ago

ROME - Calling a foreigner a "dirty negro" in Italian is not necessarily a racist insult, Italy‘s highest court has ruled.

The verdict, relating to a case where a group of Italian men punched and insulted some women from Colombia, caused deep unease at a time when Italy is struggling to contain racism.

The court on Monday ruled in favour of one of the men, who argued he was not being racist when he launched the assault with the words: "Sporche negre -- cosa ci fanno queste negre qua?" ("Dirty negroes -- what are these negroes doing here?")

Most Italians would have no doubt that calling someone a "dirty negro" was a racist insult. The term is seldom heard and is considered no more acceptable in Italy than it would be in Britain or the United States.

However, an insult should be judged racist "only if it is motivated by real hatred", or is likely to cause racial hatred in others or lead to "discriminatory behaviour for reasons of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion", the court ruled.

On the other hand, the crime of racism is not constituted by expressions of "generic dislike, intolerance or rejection based on race, ethnicity or religion", which appeared to fit the case in question, the court said.

Politicians across the political spectrum criticised the ruling and said it could not have come at a worse time.

Soccer matches around Italy began late on Sunday as players unfurled banners saying "No To Racism" in response to an episode on November 27 when Marc Zoro, Ivory Coast defender for Messina in Serie A, the top division, threatened to walk off the pitch because of racist chants from Inter Milan fans.

"This judicial interpretation is astonishing," said Green Party lawmaker Paolo Cento.

Luigi Bobbio, of the conservative National Alliance party, said the verdict was the result of "a subtle poison (that) has seeped into our jurisprudence: originality at all costs".

The supreme court is no stranger to controversial judgements.

In recent years it has ruled that "an isolated and impulsive" pat on a woman‘s bottom at work did not constitute sexual harassment, and returned a verdict that a woman could not have been raped because she was wearing skin-tight jeans.

Carlo Fucci, the vice president of Italy‘s national association of magistrates, warned that the court‘s ruling "could blunt the weapons that can be used against racism".

As part of the campaign against racism, all but one of the parties on Milan‘s city council this week appealed to the mayor to grant Zoro Milan‘s most prestigious award, a golden statue of its patron saint, Ambrogio.

The populist Northern League party, which is often accused of racism, dissociated itself from the appeal.

(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer)

Thieving MudderfuKKKing Italians:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4472259.stm

So, in Italy:

* You can freely punch and harrass "dirty negros" since that's not racial hatred.
* You can freely smack a coworker's butt and not worry bout it being sexual harrassment.
* You can freely take sex off any woman on the street so long as she's wearing some tight pants (or presumably anything sexy), das not really rape.

Looks like Anthony B. had it right:

Fire Pon Rome

I came in here all ready to say that folks being oversensitive...but this is really amazing. Seems like the benches on the Italian Supreme Court is populated by a unique set of jackass thinkers.

Those darn racist wops!

marabunta, you are as racist as that judge. If you read the article you would see that many ITALIANS are protesting that ruling. it is obviously racist and there are obviously racists in italy. There are obviously non-racist italians who are combating those racists. Claiming all of them are racist and showing a link from the era of Mussolini's fascism and his attempt (failed) at conquering Ethiopia is no evidence of all italians being racist.

And mister, "I am polish" you should know better.

The comedic irony was done on purpose. You should know me better than that :P

Do you BELIEVE that he is saying ALL ITALIANS are RACIST??

We are speaking of marabunta dear.

I thought I was the only one searching and searching for where in mara's post or the link it talked about all Italians being racist. In fact, where in mara's post even hinted at a discussion about racism

The most anyone could come up with is that he was trying to show that Italy has a long history of the existence of racism within its society (which is the exact same thing I was hinting at with "Fire Pon Rome")....but you could hardly come up with "100% of the population are racist".

Oto, mi a tell yuh, let go of your apparent seething hatred for Mara. It continually blinds your comprehension to the point you just make up stuff...repeatedly. It's unbecoming, and pretty sad. Just...let...it...go.

I think it was the "Thieving MudderfuKKKing Italians" part.

I think you're sugar coating it just a bit too much. I doubt he's stupid enough to believe every single Italian is racist, but the point is when you say "Thieving MudderfuKKKing Italians", you're not excluding any Italians, thus you're still generalizing. Even if that is not your intention, you still come off as if it is.

What kind of reaction do you think i'd get if I posted an article about a couple of black men who robbed some old woman and typed "Thieving mother################ing blacks"?

Should it just be assumed that i'm specifically talking about the existence of thugs within the black community and not be taken as an offensive comment at all?

hmmmm.....i suppose.

somehow that doesn't strike me as a very good analogy...since when you're talking about race, it can only be one thing -- people; whereas in the context of world discussions, Italians could well used as shorthand about the country's government, etc.

For example, if someone was talking about "hawkish-Americans race towards war", would anyone really take that as a slight to all Americans, or would ppl know it was in reference to the government ala Bush/Cheney/etc? I'm thinking the latter, but I could be wrong I suppose.

Talking about the exploits of common citizens vs. that of people who represent the government (such as judges or politicians) are on a different scale in my mind.

I dunno, I just didn't come close to taking it as all ppl within Italy are racist.

As an INTELLIGENT person, I would HOPE that if such a COMMENT is MADE, based on the fact that your use of "a couple of black men who robbed some old woman" implies that YOU'RE referring DIRECTLY to those "couple of black men" who robbed the old woman.

And since one can get CAUGHT UP in an EMOTIONAL moment, especially after seeing an WOMAN getting robbed, one can see why someone, at the spur of the MOMENT, would RESORT to that type of emotional outburst or use of that type of LANGUAGE.

Also, one has to HEAR how that LANGUAGE was VERBALIZED to appreciate if it was in acknowledgement of the two individuals who robbed the old WOMAN or if those EXPRESSED words were meant to ECHO beyond that incident.