Mixed Identities in Italy: A Country in Denial

Building space for belonging: The Critical Race, Diasporas, and Migrations Caucus (CRDM)

“…Approaching the topic from cultural, sociological, and political perspectives, these studies trace the history of migration to Italy, its impact on Italian society, and the political struggles ensuing around immigration (Andall, 2017;Giordano, 2008;Nathan, 2017;O'Healy, 2019;Orton, 2018;Parati, 2013;Zhang, 2019). In the past 15 years or so, a more limited number of studies has analyzed the changing nature of Italian society in postcolonial times and the cultural productions of mixed-race Italians (Brioni, 2017;Greene, 2012;Hawthorne, 2017;Lombardi-Diop, 2012;Pesarini and Tintori, 2020;Ponzanesi, 2000). Building on this important work, one of the goals of the CRDM is to focus on the rich history of cultural diversity in Italy as both a lived reality and an aesthetic of contested Italianness.…”

Languages of Discrimination and Racism in Twentieth-Century Italy

“…Thus, a child born in Italy to non-Italian parents (namely people who are unable to trace a blood connection to an Italian national) is classified as a straniero, a foreigner until the age of 18 when it is possible to apply for citizenship. Even then, citizenship is not guaranteed, and the application involves a great deal of bureaucratic processes, long waiting periods and is costly (Pesarini and Tintori 2019). Despite many attempts from organisations of the second generation-that is, individuals born in Italy but unable to get Italian citizenship from birth as born to non-Italian nationals-to modify the bill, 19 it was only in 2011 that 20 associations launched a campaign called L'Italia sono anch'io (I am Italy too) in order to push for a change of the law, supported by the national newspaper La Repubblica.…”

The fiction of colorblind Italy and Orio Vergani's Io, povero negro (1929)

“…It takes aim at the myth that il razzismo non esiste in Italy by exposing the fictions that underpin this specific expression of racism, fictions that give life to the deceit that Italy is colorblind. By setting Vergani's novel and its fiction of blackness into conversation with the critical scholarship and activism on race and racism in Italy (Giuliani, 2019;Hawthorne, 2017Hawthorne, , 2021Hawthorne, , 2022Patriarca and Deplano, 2018;Pesarini, 2020a;Pesarini and Tintori, 2020;Proglio et al, 2021;Welch, 2016;Wong, 2006), it aspires to add a new dimension to the constellation of race-thinking in Italy that precipitates anti-black racism. In doing so, it entreats us to pay attention to the lived fictions that structure the everyday practices of racism, which, to varying degrees of violence, impact the lives of actually existing people who are welted and worn by sustained imperial duress (Stoler, 2016).…”