This is a very powerful letter written by an Italian girl living in the UK to the Italian President where she airs her concerns about the racism and distrust of foreigners that is presently permeating her country.

Thank you Damien.

To me, this is the most poignant paragraph in the letter:

"Siamo in EUROPA e credo sia assurdo leggere ancora sui giornali, titoli come "ragazza italiana violentata da un romeno". Con questo non voglio sminuire affatto la bruttura del reato, mi auguro soltanto che la giustizia faccia il suo corso indipendentemente da chi lo ha commesso. Quindi mi chiedo quale sia il bisogno di sottolineare la diversa nazionalità?"

Couldn't pose the question better myself.


Here's my attempt at an artful translation for those who might want it in english:
"We are in Europe and I believe it's absurd to still read in the papers headlines like, "Italian woman attacked by Romanian man." By this I don't intend to diminish the heinousness of the crimes at all, but only to say that justice should follow it's course independently of those who commit them. As such, I'm wondering what the need is to underline different nationalities?"

This always struck me in the States too. If a crime was committed by an American white man, the media say it was "a man". Any other race, ethnicity, nationality, and they make a point of mentioning it "a black man, "a Mexican", etc.
Makes one wonder, are people keeping score?

Same thing in Australia, only the labels change. "Aboriginal" is always popular, "Muslim" has obviously become immensely popular, and, about a year or so ago, "Sudanese" emerged.

Excellent points. I'd even say that that kind of thing finds it's way into casual conversations as well. I'm reminded of George Carlin's take on it in his classic "Things That Piss Me Off" bit:

" I’d like to mention something about language. There are a couple of terms being used a lot these days by guilty white liberals.
The first is 'Happens to be'.
“I have a friend, who happens to be black”... like it’s a f***ing accident.
"Happens to be black?"
"Yes, he happens to be black."
"He has two black parents?"
"Oh yes, yes he does."
"And they f***ed?"
"Oh indeed they did."
So where does the surprise part come in? I’d think it’d be more unusual if he just 'happened to be' scandinavian. "

quote:

Originally posted by Bill 2:
This always struck me in the States too. If a crime was committed by an American white man, the media say it was "a man". Any other race, ethnicity, nationality, and they make a point of mentioning it "a black man, "a Mexican", etc.
Makes one wonder, are people keeping score?

Actually I've seen plenty of times where the crime is committed by a white male and the news article/media news say 'white male'.... and then gives a description, height, wt. etc. Don't you think they are describing the person so people are on the lookout to catch the perpetrator? Unless of course they've already caught him/her....

No, if you read the Italian papers they inevitably state if the person is an immigrant and which country they're from. And I've seen plenty of newstories in the States where the ethnicity is gratuitously stated, not as part of a detailed description for public identification purposes.
Maybe North Carolina is more advanced than Alabama or New Mexico.

I believe the BBC have editorial guidelines that referring to race/nationality should not be included in news stories unless it is of particular relevance. I believe certain newspapers have similar but I can't provide any links atm.

I believe that to be correct, Sue, and it was instated quite some time ago. In fact, you can't even refer to, say, Scottish, without it being germane to the subject.

So true! In the never-ending democratic primary I am SO SICK of hearing the 80% of the commentary focus on stats such: "well, in X county 70% of the white, working class males between the ages of 30-45 voted for Clinton, which in the neighboring county with a large black population 80% of white males with at least 2 years of college education and a golden retriever voted for Obama"... huh? I can't keep track anymore! What does all this mean, anyway?

An interesting (if only UK based) link to a pdf file.

www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs06/s95race05.pdf

Should we all be known as "IC0"?

I think you see this in all aspects of life. For example we have state tests which the kids take in school at the end of the year. When the results are posted they are categorized by ethnicity. It will list the % of blacks, hispanic, whites, asian and even biracial kids that passed. I'm not sure why this is done but in respect to the hispanics a large percentage don't do well only because (I think) of the language barrier. Maybe it's done to focus and help certain groups?

Sounds like No Child Left Behind

A shame they don't focus on helping individual children who are having trouble with their studies.

Whenever I see a questionaire (or similar) that requests my "ethnic origin", I often write in the word "ALIEN" (but more usually, somesuch other "undesireable" expletive!)

I object strongly and refuse to co-operate with information gathering of this type.