"Dirty Negro" Not Necessarily Racist Remark - Italian Court

[matcom]

<snip>

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.

The court on Monday ruled in favor of one of the men, who argued he was not being racist when he launched the assault with the words: "Sporche negre -- cosa ci fanno queste negre qua?" ("Dirty negroes -- what are these negroes doing here?")

Most Italians would have no doubt that calling someone a "dirty negro" was a racist insult. The term is seldom heard and is considered no more acceptable in Italy than it would be in Britain or the United States.

However, an insult should be judged racist "only if it is motivated by real hatred," or is likely to cause racial hatred in others or lead to "discriminatory behavior for reasons of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion," the court ruled.

On the other hand, the crime of racism is not constituted by expressions of "generic dislike, intolerance or rejection based on race, ethnicity or religion," which appeared to fit the case in question, the court said.

Politicians across the political spectrum criticized the ruling and said it could not have come at a worse time.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=2005-12-06T153531Z_01_DIT656107_RTRUKOC_0_US-ITALY-RACISM.xml&rpc=22

[Deep13]

1. Bill Bennet logic?

:shrug:

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

2. Sounds racist to me...

and I can confirm that calling someone a 'sporco negro' is very uncommon in Italy as it would be in the U.S.

[RagingInMiami]

4. My experience is that the Italians as a whole are less racist than

we are over here.

[Shell Beau]

3. Um, okaaay!

That is absurd. How can that term NOT be considered racist?