Worldwide Race Issues

Often in the life that I lead I am aware of how I am treated by society. I am a relatively tall African-American and am very dark skinned. I am sometimes treated as if I will physically hurt the person I am interacting with because I am assumed to be violent. I see fear in the eyes of persons occupying an elevator that I enter. Purses are shifted away from me as if I will snatch them and run in a closed elevator. I am sometimes treated as if I will be a diva and act sassy because of my ethnicity. I have been told to my face that I am not able to do many things based on the assumptions that because I am African American I will inevitably be a failure.

During my vacation in Italy I was often made aware that the many race issues are not specific to The United States. My tour guide during my Sicilian travels was a Northern Italian who performed his duties superbly. During the many excursions throughout Sicily, he talked of the pride of The Sicilian people. He intimated that this pride, while it evolved naturally from the self assurance of Sicilians, was also derived from and used as a deterrent to views held by many other Italians that all of the island of Sicily and its occupants are slovenly and lazy. This message of pride was repeated often, daily, on the many excursions throughout Sicily, during long drives on our tour bus. When we encountered miles and miles of farms that were obviously painstakingly cultivated into rows of marvelous harvests of lemon and other agriculture, the tour guide pointed to them as proof of the hardwork Sicilians put into their lands, and further stated that they put such effort forth in all of their endeavors. At the end of our tour Francisco wanted us, who were from all over the globe, to go to our respective countries and let the people of those lands know that Sicilians were a proud people and not what they were long reputed to be. Unbeknownst to me, I did not know that Sicilians were considered dirty, lazy, and uneducated.

I, from watching some of Spike Lee movies, and from my living in NY City and thus interacting with and knowing Italians, knew that there were some Italians who were very dark and had very curly hair that resembled some African American's hair. I also knew of Hannibal The Conquers history of traveling on elephants from his homeland of Tunisia into Sicily when trying to conquer that land. During the second Punic War legend has it that the African troops of Hannibal mated with many a Sicilian woman and the progeny of such unions resulted in many dark skinned, curly haired Sicilians. I have to now wonder did this notion that those who are Sicilian are lazy come about because they are the darkest of Italians. Francisco the tour guide who was a Northern Italian stated that many Northern Italians looked down upon their Southern brethren, The Sicilians, and thought of them in a very negative way. Some, when vacationing in Sicily, and Francisco happened to be their tour guide, often stated to him how surprised they were at how clean and orderly they found the land and people of Sicily. They expected the fulfillment of the stereotypes.

I understood, after imbibing all that Francisco said, that Sicilians are looked down upon, because of the color of their skin, that though they are Italian, they are of a darker hue, and thus are seen as less than. I found this concept amazing. I found this concept amazingly sad and so similar to what is found in The United States. It seems that the darker you are, the more you are seen as less than. This notion is world wide. And no matter where in the world this racism happens, it opens wounds that fester for hundreds of years. The legacy of racism translates into many languages.