Wednesday, December 07, 2005

"Sporche negre -- cosa ci fanno queste negre qua?"

"Dirty negroes -- what are these negroes doing here?"

ROME (Reuters) - "Calling a foreigner a "dirty negro" in Italian is not necessarily a racist insult, Italy's highest court has ruled.

The verdict, relating to a case where a group of Italian men punched and insulted some women from Colombia, caused deep unease at a time when Italy is struggling to contain racism."

That the women were punched brings me to apoplexy and beyond. That a European would call someone of darker skin negre sporche, or the local equivalent, is just too ho hum for someone who's been called a lot worse by the milky-white Brits and Aussies, and yes even the Fwench. Wog, wop, dago, and yes, blackie or nigger-inside-out are just a few of the salutations I've heard whispered behind my back but never to my face, and after one learns how the real world works the anger dissipates and is replaced with pity for those who can't see past another's pigmentation.

These idiots should be sent to the Italian version of a chain gang for their horrid behavior, but the judge knows that making it a crime to hurl an insult would be interfering with a long standing Euro tradition and the lines of people awaiting prosecution would be longer than those awaiting the release of the new Kong.

It IS a shame that the world cannot legislate idiots as far away from civilization as possible. And while we wouldn't miss the bigots, a world without liberals wouldn't be as funny.

Same thing, you say? Got me there.

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