The recent murder of a crippled Nigerian street vendor named Alika Ogorchukwu in Italy, according to Italian-Eritrean filmmaker and podcaster Ariam Tekle, was without a doubt a “racist murder.”
This is true despite the fact that the 39-year-murder old’s in the beach town of Civitanova Marche was not motivated by prejudice, according to the local police.
He was reportedly being hunted and beaten to death while selling handkerchiefs. Nobody who saw the incident in broad daylight seemed to step in to stop it.
Filippo Claudio Giuseppe Ferlazzo, a white male, is a suspect who has been told to stay in custody until the inquiry is conducted.
According to a police investigator, Mr. Ogorchukwu was attacked as a result of the trader’s “insistent” pleas for spare change from the culprit and his accomplice.
Another Nigerian man, Emmanuel Chidi Namdi, was slain in Fermo, central Italy, in 2016, after defending his wife from racial abuse.
Two years after Mr. Ogorchukwu’s death, a far-right extremist killed six African immigrants in a drive-by shooting in a town about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) away.
He was wrapped in the Italian flag when the police apprehended him, shouting “Viva l’Italia” and claiming he planned to “murder them all.”
In fact, Fratelli d’Italia, a far-right party, has been in power in this Le Marche area since 2020. (Brothers of Italy).
It is led by Giorgia Meloni, who, if successful in a quick election to be held in September, might become Italy’s first female prime minister.
The party is a part of a larger conservative alliance that also includes the right-wing Lega (League), led by Matteo Salvini, and the conservative Forza Italia (Forward Italy), led by former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. The party is anticipated to emerge as the single largest.
According to Ms. Tekle, the growth of far-right anti-immigration groups has “normalized” racism in Italy by making it a common occurrence for black people to encounter racial violence, police harassment, and discrimination.
However, she continues, the majority of Italians are brought up believing that racism is not a major issue in their nation.
“They usually blame ignorance or some other factor. They are unwilling to acknowledge that racism exists in Italy. They frequently claim that the US or the UK is worse.”
The nation has struggled to adjust to this historical reversal and successfully incorporate immigrants into Italian society.
Ms. Tekle was born and raised in a Milanese working-class neighborhood. She feels marginalized in a society that, in her words, won’t accept her as one of them despite the fact that her family has lived in Italy for five decades.
“Even though I have a Milanese accent, people constantly ask me where I’m from.”
Additionally, Italy makes it harder for people born to migrant parents to get Italian citizenship since they must wait until they are 18 before applying and because it is not an automatic entitlement. This makes them feel more alienated.
Even though Alessia Reyna, a student and part of an anti-racist network, is very Italian, she claims that because she is a black woman, no one will ever recognize her as such.
Ms. Reyna was born in Rome to an Afro-Peruvian mother and an African-American father who had fallen in love after meeting outside the Colosseum in the Eternal City.
She was raised in a tiny hamlet close to Milan. She attended a local school but decided to pursue her education in the UK.
According to Ms. Reyna, Italy is not prepared to examine issues related to systemic racism.
She cites another recent incident in which Beauty Davis, a young Nigerian dishwasher employed by a restaurant in Calabria, southern Italy, claimed she received a slap after requesting her pay.
“She merely requested payment when she was attacked. A white woman probably wouldn’t have been attacked “Says Ms. Reyna.
An award-winning Italian-Somali novelist named Ubah Cristina Ali Farah has a similar viewpoint.
Under the fascist rule of Benito Mussolini, Italy was the colonial authority in Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, and Libya.
The family of Ms. Ali Farah has been in Italy for more than 50 years, but according to Ms. Farah, “How will they ever recognize those people who arrived on boats to Italy or their children as Italian if they don’t recognize those of us with colonial roots to Italy as being Italian”?
