Italy's first black minister defiant in face of racist slurs

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

ROME — Italy's first black minister has responded to a barrage of sexist and racial insults by saying she is proud to be black, not colored, and that Italy is not really a racist country.

Cecile Kyenge, an eye doctor and Italian citizen originally from Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), was named integration minister by Prime Minister Enrico Letta last Saturday, one of seven women in the new government.

Since then, she has been the subject of taunts on far-right websites, which have branded her with names such as "Congolese monkey", "Zulu" and "the black anti-Italian".

She also faced race-tinged insults from Mario Borghezio, a European parliament member of the pro-devolution Northern League, which has been allied in the past with former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

In reference to Kyenge, Borghezio called Letta's coalition a "bonga bonga government" - a play on the "bunga, bunga" antics under Berlusconi - and said she herself appeared to be "a good housewife but not a minister".

Kyenge dismissed the comments, which the speaker of the lower house Laura Boldrini labeled "racist vulgarities". Kyenge plans to push for legislation, opposed by the League, that would allow children born in Italy to immigrant parents to get automatic citizenship instead of waiting until 18 to apply.

Kyenge, who is married to an Italian, said she did not view Italy as a particularly racist country, and believed that hostile attitudes stem mainly from ignorance.

"Italy has a tradition of welcoming and offering hospitality towards others. We need to recognize these traditions and apply them day to day," she said.

Boldrini herself told a newspaper on Friday that she had received daily death threats online and a stream of messages containing sexually violent images.

"When a woman takes up public office, sexist aggression sets off against her, and whether simple gossip or violent...it always uses the same vocabulary of humiliation and submission," Boldrini told La Repubblica newspaper.

"We shouldn't be afraid to say that this is an underground culture, shared in some way. In my view: an emergency in Italy," she said, pointing to regular cases of Italian women being murdered or abused by men, often by husbands or partners.

http://xfinity.comcast.net/articles/news-world/20130501/US-ITALY-MINISTER-RACISM/

[JensJrny2Ray 367]

I've been reading about this, this past week. It's really sad that this is going on. There was another German born woman elected to Italy's government also, yet nothing being said about her, at least in public anyway. Good on Kyenge for rising above it .