Here is an article highlighting that things aren't exactly as kosher as White Europeans claim for being Black in Europe.
O_o!!!! SHOCKED FACE 5!
Again!? I'm not gonna yap! Just gonna post the article;
On Being African in Europe
By VITTORIO LONGHIROME — While the recent spate of deadly
police confrontations with
black men in America has sparked a renewed debate
about racism, the conversation in Europe about violence, social exclusion
and immigration has studiously avoided the issue of race.
But for some Europeans of African descent, the message
is clear.“Honestly, it’s quite tiring watching black people dying all the time,
” Tamara Gausi, a journalist who was born in London to parents of
Malawian origin, told me. “Whether it’s in Baltimore or in the
Mediterranean Sea, in the media it’s almost as if it’s completely normal
for black people to die, and that is a terrible message.”My talks with
Ms. Gausi revolve around the deep disappointment we feel
about the lack of outrage over the brutal experiences of black migrants.
Worse, most Europeans of African roots ignore what is happening on the
other side of the Mediterranean.
In Southern Europe, being black is often synonymous with being an
African immigrant or a refugee, and therefore an easy target. In 2013 and
2014, in Spain, Greece, Italy, Poland and Ukraine, hundreds of people of
African origin were physically assaulted, and many of them killed, the
European Network Against Racism reports.I am of Eritrean descent, though I
am light-skinned, and the issue of Afro-European identity
is new to me. I was raised in an all-Italian environment,
where my African heritage was largely ignored. Even my father, a
black man born in Asmara during Italy’s colonial period, rarely
acknowledges our ties with Africa. For a long time, I didn’t really question
color and seldom realized how frustrating the constant negative portrayal of
black people can be. Yet witnessing the oppression and the suffering of those
who are fleeing Africa shook my Eurocentric indifference.
There has not been a serious effort to build a narrative about the black
experience in Europe that takes into account class and power relations.
Though there are eight million blacks living in Europe, there is little debate
about the under-representation of people of color, who have lived and worked
here for generations yet rarely attain positions of power.Even in Britain, which many see as the most tolerant European country
for multiculturalism, most blacks receive inferior educations and have access
to low-quality health care. They generally work low-paying jobs, and their unemployment rate is high. In France’s suburbs, the third and fourth
generations of immigrants from North Africa face the same fate. This
situation has provoked violent riots in both France and Britain in recent
years and has created fertile ground for extremism. The neglect reveals ineradicable ties with Europe’s colonial history that clash with Europe’s
human rights values.
Creating a black narrative requires questioning old colonial symbols first.
This is happening, with a more aware and networked generation of activists.
One example is the campaign against Zwarte Piet, or Black Pete, the dull,
Afro-looking servant of Santa Claus, dear to Dutch and Belgian traditions.
In 2011, artists and human rights groups organized protests until Zwarte
Piet’s look was changed. He now appears without the frizzy dark hair and
big red lips, though his face is still painted black.
One reason such offensive symbols weren’t questioned until recently is
because of the fragmentation among black activists across Europe. In the
United States, there has been a comprehensive cultural construction of
African-American identity, and a movement that responds when there is
injustice or violence. We Euro-Africans still lack our own positive, inspiring symbols and leaders, our Martin Luther Kings, our Rosa Parks, our Barack Obamas.“We should be more active in telling our stories and not be afraid of
celebrating our culture,” Johny Pitts, a photographer born in England to an African-American father and a British mother, told me. Touring the
Continent, he has portrayed hundreds of black Europeans for a street
photography project called “An Afropean Odyssey.”“It is all about opening dialogue, and not just about race or for the sole
defense of blackness,” Mr. Pitts said. He is not interested in antiracism
militancy. He wants to reframe the image of black men and women in
Europe to highlight the dignity and the strengths of African descendants.Entrenched attitudes are hard to overcome. On a train to Rome recently,
I saw ticket collectors blocking access to first-class seats to a young black
man, Ivan Sagnet, an engineer from Cameroon. After Mr. Sagnet showed
his ticket, they let him in. He noticed my indignation and smiled. “This is
not the first time it happens, but I have learned not to react,” he said.
He told me he went to Italy’s Puglia region for the melon season four years
ago to earn money for his university fees. There, he helped organize farm
workers against exploitative labor practices. He now works for the trade
unions, assisting immigrants and raising awareness about worker rights.“I was happy to see some antiracism groups supporting our actions, but
we warned them that the exploited were not just black Africans, since many
were Eastern Europeans and Middle Eastern,” Mr. Sagnet said. “Our fight
was not about race, but injustice.”
Vittorio Longhi, an Italian journalist, is the author, most recently, of “The Immigrant War: A Global Movement Against Discrimination and Exploitation.”
No comments:
Post a Comment