Nowadays we live in a world where your skin color, your religion, your nationality will design you as a person: if you‘ve blonde hair you‘re supposed to be stupid, if you are a shapely woman, they say “aren’t you ashamed of yourself? Stop eating”, instead , if you‘re skinny “ Poor girl, are you bulimic? Start eating”. If you‘re black, you‘ll always be suspected of crimes, if you‘re Chinese “ beware, he may have COVID- 19 !“, but I am most afraid of bad human behavior and racism, viruses that appeared at least five hundred years ago.
I have seen so many videos of people mistreated and killed in their own homes, in the streets. The saddest thing is that, often, no one records the scene, this because someone may be killed for his/her witness.
I was born and raised in Italy, but as my parents are from Senegal, I consider myself 100% African. Italians get always mad we I tell them it, but how I am supposed to considered myself Italian when my immigrant brothers and sisters are always discriminated?
Since I was four people made fun of me. Even my kindergarten teachers pulled my leg. Of course I forgive them, because people like that need help and not hate, but I will never consider myself one of them. Moreover, I was shocked when I found out that so many Italian influencers didn't speak a word about racism because they fear that brands they are collaborating with will drop them. Privilege is when people think something is not a problem because they aren't affected personally. Maybe white people are tired of hearing about racism: imagine how tired some people are of experiencing it.
We wish the world loved black people the way they love black culture and listen to artist such as Beyoncé and A. Nakamura. Common black people don’t have the freedom to enjoy their rights because they are black and instead are hated, insulted, charged and sent to prison and murdered.
We, black people, are still considered from most of Caucasian people as savage, poor people, involved in gang violence, who came to Europe and America to steal white people's jobs. Most still think that we have no talent and ideas. But, in the meanwhile, sanitary towels, remote controls, forks and the first phone were invented by black people. Also the first bank also was invented by a black person during slavery. The funnies fact to me, is that Corn rows are called French braids, whereas they were created by fulani people.
In conclusion, my opinion is that people should open their mind and understand the "one world concept" : we are all humans, born free and we have the same God. There is no reason to hate one another. I just hope one day we could see at one another as brothers and sisters, and not as "the foreigner", "the Latino" and "the black". That is what I would like to do in university. I will expose my themes, theories, ideas and I will give my contribution to fight racism. I will help people to do their best, inspire them and be a reference and an example.
Last year my high school organized a conference against racism and exploitation. My history teacher asked me to speak in front of more than 400 people about my experiences, my thoughts and to give some advices as black woman.
As introduction, I started with « und Vietnam und » , a collection of poems written by Eric Fried, a German author. I chose to describe the history and message of Fried’s work because everybody thinks that the Second World War was the most terrible and shocking war, whereas it was the Vietnam one. Indeed, the number of people who died is higher than any other war.
First of all, I justified my themes by saying that that two topics are getting more and more undervalued. Then, I exposed my ideas about racism and exploitation.
I asked my public why the American Indians, the Aborigines, the African enslaved and all the other ethnic groups oppressed for many centuries, have no international day of commemoration, as the Jews did January 27.
As predicted, no one knew the answer, but instead, someone asked me what I think about modern slavery. My answer was quite complex : Despite five hundred years have passed, many European leaders continue to steal African sources and resources. Moreover, many Europeans despise immigrants. The truth is that those who sow colonialism will reap immigration!
Next, I asked an Italian teacher, why he teaches in my school since 30 years only “white people’s history”?
He was very embarrassed. That is a shame that in many school our teacher teach us only Caucasian history or simply what they want us to know. Nowadays this affects our will to know what happens in other parts the world.
It almost seems that there are Class A facts, which are the Holocaust, the attack of the Bataklan of Paris and the exploitation of the children of the 19th century. century, and facts of class B, which one hardly speaks : the slave trade, the Christchurch attack in New Zealand and the current exploitation of Africa by European power. In my opinion, if something l happens in rich countries, everyone speaks about it with great interest. Then why nobody talks about Nearer Easter countries constantly bombarded, about hunger that kills many people?
I asked another teacher, why are we always told about Hitler and Stalin and not about Leopold II? It is true that Hitler killed 10 million European people, but why people tend to forget that Leopold killed 15 million of Africans?
I concluded my speech by urging European leaders to take their own responsibility, by urging my public to love one another and to understand our reasons. Every migrant would stay home with the family and friend if he could, but because the past mistakes of others, they‘ve to face the consequences.