Bananas thrown at Italy's first black Minister

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The Telegraphy

Outrage as bananas thrown at Italy's first black minister
Italy has seen an outpouring of disgust after a spectator at a party rally threw bananas at the country's first black minister, who has suffered an onslaught of racist slurs since taking office in April.
Italian Minister for Integration Cecile Kyenge
Italian Minister for Integration Cecile Kyenge Photo: REUTERS

By Hannah Strange and agencies

11:57AM BST 27 Jul 2013

Integration minister Cecile Kyenge, who was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was making a speech at the Friday rally when a member of the audience began to launch the pieces of fruit towards her. The bananas missed the podium where she was speaking but the incident drew a deluge of condemnation in the media, where politicians and commentators lamented the shame brought on the country by the actions of the far-right.

"Another shameful and disgraceful gesture. Solidarity with the Minister Kyenge. Now let's just isolate the idiots," Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno said.

"I am ashamed to share the country with people like this," wrote one Twitter user, Eugenio Iannelli, reflecting the dismay of many on the social media network.

The treatment of Ms Kyenge has thrown a spotlight on the ugly racist currents running through some strands of society in Italy, a country grappling with tensions over rising levels of immigration, particularly from North Africa.

Since her appointment in April she has suffered a campaign of harassment from far-right groups angered by her campaign to make it easier for immigrants to gain Italian citizenship.
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Shortly before Friday's incident, members of the right-wing Forza Nuova group left mannequins covered in fake blood at the site of the rally in Cervia, central Italy, in protest against Ms Kyenge's proposal to make anyone born on Italian soil a citizen.

"Immigration kills," was written on leaflets left with the dummies - a slogan Forza Nuova has previously used to highlight murders committed by immigrants in Italy.

Ms Kyenge, who has largely maintained a dignified silence in the face of the abuse, issued a restrained condemnation of the act, calling it "sad" and a waste of food, considering the economic crisis.

"The courage and optimism to change things has to come above all from the bottom up to reach the institutions," she added.

The insults directed at Ms Kyenge since she took office have frequently come from other politicians. Earlier this month a senior parliamentarian in the anti-immigration Northern League party likened her to an orangutan and only apologised after a storm of criticism.

Stay classy, Italy.

[Captain Seafort]

Nitpick: she's not the PM

[Elfdart]

How do you say "Teabagger" in Italian?

[Thanas]

Forza Nuova?

[mr friendly guy]

Stay classy, Italy.

Indeed. A female politician from another party has called for Cecile Kyenge to be raped.

[Ahriman238]

And that because she wants people born in Italy to be legally Italian citizens?

Out of curiosity, since I keep hearing this idea repeated in American politics, and Australian, and Greek, and British, has anyone bothered to demonstrate any evidence whatsoever that allowing immigrants into a country effects the crime rate?

Also, if racists won't have the decency to sit down and be quiet when the adults are talking, they seriously need new material. Calling black people apes? Throwing bananas? Those were tired cliches when my parents were in diapers.

[Spekio]

And that because she wants people born in Italy to be legally Italian citizens?

Stupider considering I'm an italian citizen just because my Grandparent was. I have a passport and everything.

[salm]

Also, if racists won't have the decency to sit down and be quiet when the adults are talking, they seriously need new material. Calling black people apes? Throwing bananas? Those were tired cliches when my parents were in diapers.

Are there any good neurological studies that show which disfunction exactly keeps racist brains decades behind normal people?

[Irbis]

Out of curiosity, since I keep hearing this idea repeated in American politics, and Australian, and Greek, and British, has anyone bothered to demonstrate any evidence whatsoever that allowing immigrants into a country effects the crime rate?

Yes, if you follow racist cries and keep the immigrants locked in ghettos without any perspectives instead of giving them opportunities to integrate, such as education and cultural help. Then not really.

Of course, racists and xenophobes are too dumb or too afraid to get that.

[Thanas]

The attitude here on display by nationalists is double funny because Italy wants to have more seats at the European table, which means higher number of citizens....

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Yes, if you follow racist cries and keep the immigrants locked in ghettos without any perspectives instead of giving them opportunities to integrate, such as education and cultural help. Then not really.

And then, when people turn to all kinds of crime and general "bad behaviour" to survive, racists hold their nose and pat themselves in the back because, in their minds, they were right to call the foreign people subhumans.

[mr friendly guy]

The attitude here on display by nationalists is double funny because Italy wants to have more seats at the European table, which means higher number of citizens....

I bet you that the nationalists have thought of that too. We need true <insert ethnic group here> to have more kids for the country.

[Melchior]

The attitude here on display by nationalists is double funny because Italy wants to have more seats at the European table, which means higher number of citizens....

It's especially hilarious because "native" italians have probably the lowest birthrate of any major ethnic group in the world (we once competed with the japanese for the title, but the current situation is even worse if partially obscured by residents with different origins).