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Racism in Italy – Part 2 – Prejudice

Part 1

 

Back in time, it was the scientific and religious communities who spread prejudice as an attempt to justify slavery and colonization.

The folks were successfully brainwashed.

I wonder if we should always trust these “organizations” blindfolded, but that’s not what I’m supposed to talk about now.

 

Nowadays, it’s pretty much the opposite. The main reason why racism still exists is propaganda, as I mentioned in my previous post.

It isn’t just the fake news alone, but those that are incomplete and possibly the lack of balance between the good and the bad ones. And rumors, word of mouth, of course.

This tool is often used by politicians. In fact, political parties spend most of the energies throwing dung at each other instead of discussing concrete solutions and sharing them with the potential voters.

It might be different elsewhere, but here in Italy the majority of political confrontations are about immigration, and unfortunately the arguments from both sides tend to be poor.

 

Because of propaganda, Italians tend to fear minorities and feel uncomfortable around them. However, very few people hate or show hostility. These tend to be either elders who were brainwashed by Fascism, or members of extremist groups.

 

While I firmly believe there’s no excuse for racism, like there is no excuse for crime, it’s also important to keep in mind that environmental factors are often involved.

Propaganda is one thing, but there’s another issue that’s unique of countries like Italy. That would be “homogeneity”.

When a society has never experienced diversity, its people think of nationality as a synonym for race or ethnicity. The issue we encounter is that, while rights are granted to everyone, Italians often can’t accept that people of foreign ancestry are given citizenship.

Again, it is not a matter of rights or prejudice, but of identity.

This also leads to cases of hypocrisy and incoherence.

If the “foreign citizen” is an athlete, Italians tend to be more judgmental about the performance, but racism in sports is something I’ll elaborate in another post.

 

This situation might change just like it changed elsewhere. Italy has no experience and, while this creates way too much of inconvenience, patience is required.

 

My intention is not to promote or justify prejudice, or harm anyone in the process of explaining my views about it. My main goal is to inform and sensitize about a phenomenon that’s becoming dangerous, by using my country as an example.

Many believe that civil wars in Europe are unlikely, but I don’t think so. If we don’t do anything about the monsters who feed mutual hatred, we’ll get in trouble.

I know mankind can do better than pointing fingers at each other.

I know mankind is able to be respectful and understanding.

I know mankind can take pride and give credit at the same time.

I know mankind can learn how to take care of individual needs without harming anything and anyone in the process.

Perhaps I’m naive, but I have faith in mankind.

  • Question of

    Do you agree propaganda is the main cause of prejudice?

    • Yes
    • No – please comment
  • Question of

    I didn’t mention ignorance and lack of education but I’ll do now, though it was implicit. Are there other factors that lead to prejudice I forgot to mention?

    • Yes – please comment
    • No

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What do you think?

17 Points

Written by sabtraversa

28 Comments

  1. I guess sometimes its the conduct. You just need a few idiots from your country or race to create chaos in another country and the “racism” will comes in.

    And when it comes to sports athletes, sometimes the hate comes from the original country of the athletes … How should I put it… Like B country “imported” athletes from A country and then when B won a match the citizens/netizens from A country will point it out that its still A country which won … and that B country just sucks at sports and can’t have their own athletes … blah blah … this obviously is not going to promote love to both A and B and the foreign athletes.

    1
    • Whatever makes them proud and happy, I guess. ?
      That’s sad though, no need to insult another country, you can just be proud that the athletes who share the same roots as yours performed well and stop there, but such are people. It’s easier to criticize others than to admire them.
      Yes, a rotten apple makes the whole basket look bad.

      1
  2. Politics and political parties play a big role in our country. They make the most of bad propaganda, dividing people into two camps. I always say that not all people are good nor are they all bad. This also applies to emigrants.

    1
    • You’re right, good and bad people can be found everywhere. When the environment is bad, there are higher chances to find bad people but it is not entirely their fault, it’s human nature acting like a sponge. We should do our little to make the environment better by being kind and respectful to each other. Thank you very much for commenting! ?

  3. There is not much to add except that in studies done here the most prejudiced people are ones who have had little or no contact with those they are prejudiced against. This has offered me some hope. When one meets people they can change their mind.
    Politicians do use fear of others often. It is good to remember that “more rights for others does not mean less rights for you. It’s not pie.” This contradicts the idea behind the way politicians try to use fear I think. It’s not a zero sum game.

    1
    • Indeed. The best way to prove someone wrong is through facts and real life experiences, though it would help to have mainstream media reporting good stories more often. Thanks for commenting, Howard! ?

    • Agreed. Well, racism is on the rise here mostly because of the migration crisis and politicians who instill fear into citizens to gather some votes. It wasn’t a thing 10 or 20 years ago. Hopefully it will decrease and eventually disappear soon.

    • Yes, it’s quite unfortunate and makes me feel ashamed of my countrymen. At the same time, I don’t feel like blaming them too much as they’re victims of a system that wants them to think like that.

    • The first draft of this post had the word “patriotism”, you’ve brought up a good point. Well, I still believe being proud of one’s cultural heritage is a good thing. It becomes bad once the man who has nothing to be proud of decides to gain self-confidence by slandering and denigrating others, the way it happens for racism.

  4. We fear that which is new /strange or alien to us. But I guess politicians love to divide and rule. They don’t care for the country they only care for the vote banks.

    1
  5. I suspect there are many factors in the reality of what is racism in the world.

    1. is simply the reality of difference – it scares people (fear).
    2. education as you mentioned –
    3. distance – easier to hate those not near you.

    The reality for me is that people often say things like he made me or she made me angry. The reality of our anger is that it is our anger.

    1
    • Thanks a lot for commenting! Yes, biology somehow motivates us to give priority to people who look like us than anyone else, to preserve the gene pool.
      I think you’re right about anger, though we often can’t help but react to provocation. I guess both sides should take responsibility for their actions and reactions.

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