Hate and Racism Will Not Prevail In Italy

Emmanuel Chidi Namdi is just the latest victim of the hate campaign that is spreading throughout Italy; the thuggish, racist ideology that is spreading with ever-greater speed thanks, in part, to the Internet. Sometimes this hate campaign consists only of taunts and insults, but other times it results in threats and violence, culminating with horrible incidents such as the murder of a young Nigerian man. His murder is so distressing because it was so senseless and because it was triggered by pure and simple disgust towards others.

This is not the Italy or the Europe that we want and I am certain that these ideologies will not prevail.

We must be particularly vigilant, given that the public image of our country is still associated with certain events from the distant past, although that is not to say these events could not reoccur. And in fact, looking at the vast amount of sites and blogs dedicated to extremist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic groups, it must, sadly, be admitted that these events have already begun to reoccur.

It is for this reason that I was particularly pleased a month ago when the biggest internet and social media companies agreed to collaborate with the European Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourovà in eliminating hate messages online. We succeeded and it was an important step in the right direction.

Economic and democratic crises add fuel to the fire of these movements that are deteriorating more and more into regimes characterized by discrimination and xenophobic tendencies. Unfortunately, they also lead to the increasing criminalization of immigrants with the result that anyone identified as different, or foreign is becoming a scapegoat onto which all this violence and frustration can be released. But this is not the Italy or the Europe that we want and I am certain that these ideologies will not prevail. We owe it to Emmanuel and to Chinvery, his lovely wife, to see that they do not.

This post first appeared on HuffPost Italy. It has been translated into English and edited for clarity.

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