A lot of black women feel as if Italy is a place where their “beauty is celebrated.” Unfortunately, there are a lot of prostitutes in Italy who are women of color from Brazil and Nigeria. That said, living here can be uncomfortable.
The mention of street harassment conjures up many different experiences.
I remember when I first arrived, I refused to go to the store alone after always having men slow down in passing cars.
I remember walking out of my house and having a group of Italian females in a passing car, make a “fellatio” gesture in an attempt to taunt me because they assumed I was a prostitute- based on brown skin alone.
Two days after the birth of my child, I was released from the hospital but my child needed clearance from the doctors. I returned to the hospital. I was wearing my husband’s Adidas warm up suit with my hair in a bun. As I walked, I heard someone whistling as if whistling for a dog. It was an old 60 something year old wrinkled man, trying to get my attention.
I could go on, but such is life for me everyday. It’s a beautiful country but there is no peace when you are a woman of color. That is, if they don’t know that you are American. If they look at you and think you are any other type of woman of color, the assumption is that you are “working’ the streets.
– Anonymous
Location: Italy
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LS says
I’m really sorry to hear about your experiences in Italy. I found your post very educational. I am a black woman living in the US and was not aware that black women were treated that way in Italy. It leaves me wondering about which countries in Europe are the best for black women to live or travel in. I have never been to Italy, but have been to France, Holland and Germany. I had no negative experiences in France and Holland, but I can say that I was met with hateful stares in Germany on several occasions by German men.
Anyway, I am very saddened and disheartened to hear this about Italy as I’ve always wanted to go there. It is also worth pointing out that as a black woman, you are a target for harassment from both Italian men and women. It seems like no matter where you go in the world, if you have brown skin, you can be the target of some sort of racist assumption, stereotype or just plain bigotry. Not that it should stop us from traveling, but just that we should be aware of the racial dynamics of the countries we travel to.
I send you positive thoughts from the Rocky Mountain region and hope there are enough positive experiences for you to make up for the negative.
Golden Silence says
I’ve never been to Italy either, but from what I’ve read it seems as if the men are pretty bad harassers. I’ve read a few short stories and blogs about black women in Italy saying they were flattered by all this attention, but in my opinion the attention (butt pinching, for instance) counts as harassment.
It’s true that our beauty isn’t valued as much as white women, and I feel that the black women who like this attention may confuse harassment with true admiration of beauty.
In Anonymous’s case, I am truly sorry that all that happened to you. Such negative racial/sexual harassment like that makes me sick.