Racism continues to plague Italy and Serie A
Another week in Italy and Serie A bring more controversy surrounding racism.
Romelu Lukaku has already experienced the ugly side of playing in Italy and Serie A when he was the subject of racist abuse from Cagliari fans. The matter was made even worse when a section of Inter Milan supporters came out in defense of Cagliari and tried to justify the racist chants.
The mental hoops to justify the abuse was that a football pitch is somehow a bubble where anything goes. But the latest case of racism comes from outside the pitch in the form of a television pundit.
They were discussing Lukaku and his impact so far for Inter. The pundit, Luciano Passirani, was quite complementary of the former Manchester United striker but his praise took a more than unfortunate turn.
According to The Guardian, Passirani said, “This guy kills you in the one-on-ones, if you try to challenge him you wind up on the floor. Either you have 10 bananas to eat, that you give to him, or . . .”
Needless to say this quote was picked up rather quick and met with deserved criticism. Even if the intent was not to be racist, it’s unlikely Passirani was unaware the connotation his words would emit.
The show director, Fabio Ravezzani, was apologetic and confirmed that Passirani would not be invited back on the show.
The BBC report that he said, “Mr. Passirani is 80 years old and to compliment Lukaku he used a metaphor that turned out to be racist. I think it was a terrible lack of momentary lucidity. I cannot tolerate any kind of errors, even if momentary.”
It is yet another example of how normal this type of rhetoric has become and, unfortunately, it does not end there.
AC Milan’s Franck Kessie also suffered racist abuse in the club’s game against Hellas Verona where the Verona fans allegedly made monkey noises toward the players. Verona came out with a statement on Twitter vehemently denying the allegations and calling for “respect for Verona and its people.”
At this point it is difficult to give any Serie A side the benefit of the doubt because of the countless examples of players of colors being the target of racist chants from Italian supporters.
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The fact of the matter is that this matter needs to be taken more seriously both inside and outside the sport in Italy. However, given the reaction to previous incidents, much of this is going to be swept under the rug until another incident occurs.