2023-04-18 07:36:57
Anna Maria Gehnyei, aka Karima 2G, author, singer, activist, was the voice of the Black Lives Matter Italy movement. She is the daughter of Liberian parents, she was born in Italy and lived in the United States. Racism like the dust hidden under the carpet, let’s sweep it away
The sentence that shook theAmerica and started the movement Black Lives Matter arrived ten years ago, Saturday 13 July 2013, late at night in Italy. Six jurors, all women, entered a courtroom in Sanford, California Floridaafter 16 hours and 20 minutes of deliberations in what is equivalent to our Council Chamber.
Verdict: George Zimmerman not guilty in the murder of the 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin.
Zimmerman, something of a neighborhood vigilante with an obsession with safety, was 29 at the time. He shot Martin on February 26, 2012, calling it an act of self-defense: he said the boy had hit him, that he had repeatedly hit his head against the sidewalk. The jury recognized self-defense.
That ruling reignited the debate on the racial violence in the United States, an account never closed, an account that America may never close. The then president also spoke Barack Obamawith harsh words: If I had a son, would look like Trayvon, She said. There was a wave of protests that swept across the United States.
The movement was born precisely from that sentence in Florida Black Lives Matter
(Black lives matter) — started as a hashtag and then became a global movement —, contemporary version of Civil Rights Movement which more than half a century earlier fought against the racial segregation and the discrimination of blacks, of which he was an immortal leader Martin Luther King.
Anna Maria GehnyeiItalian author, singer, producer of Liberian origins, daughter of a diaspora who brought her family first to Italy and then to the United States — her father was the first Kpelle man to be allowed to leave his homeland by the village leaders .
In 2020 Anna Maria Gehnyei was the Italian voice of the Black Lives Matter movement, when thousands of people took to the streets in our country to protest against the death of George Floydkilled on May 25, 2020 at Minneapolis
by a police officer who pressed her knee to his neck for 9 minuteswhile three others immobilized him.
Anna Maria Gehnyei, aka Karima 2G, has just published a novel, entitled The black body (edited by Fandango). the story of him. She looks back on her formative years in Rome, where she was born, and the difficulties encountered because of the color of his skin.
Ma The black body also the story of a generation, the second Italian generation, or that of boys and girls who they are only seen as children of immigrants.
What is the legacy of the Black Lives Matter movement, in Italy and around the world, ten years later?
After the death of George Floyd there has been a new wave of global protests. That anger from which I thought I was free resurfaced stronger than before. We all have the footage where Floyd is dying on the ground. That video took my breath away. After the Civil War in Liberia, many of my relatives had the opportunity to move to America. America felt partly responsible for that war, so it gave Liberians the option to move there. In George Floyd I saw their fear again, that fear that has always been talked about in the family. But I, at first, found it difficult to understand: I didn’t know what it meant to be black in America, what it meant to be stopped by the police because the only fault was the color of your skin. I was angry with myself because I realized I was deluded. I hoped that one day it would all be over. Floyd’s killing shocked me too, who was in Italy at the time. Fierce protests arose in America, Europe and other countries of the world. I learned that even in Rome some associations met to demonstrate. I contacted them. I had long ago decided not to take to the streets anymore. But this time it was different, something had to be done.
And what convinced her instead?
Sunday June 7, 2020, a date I will never forget. I can’t breathe. Black Lives Matter Roma, a peaceful demonstration to protest the injustice of systemic racism in the United States and around the world. Inspired by the American Black Lives Matter movement, the organizers wanted me as a guest and spokesperson for the event. I prepared my speech. I remember how many thoughts tormented me the night before. The next day we were thousands in the streets. We were all together, united. The Black Lives Matter Italy movement was born in that period, in the midst of the pandemic, seven years after the American one. I was not one of the founders but they wanted me as master of ceremonies (master of ceremony, ndr). We needed to fight racism in our communities as well, not just in America. We protested to honor the life of Floyd and all those who have been victims of a racist system. I made a special song, for all the victims. With all my voice I screamed their names, one at a time. And the crowd responded. With every name I invoked, I felt their presence. Our cry joined that of the world. Even here in Italy, victims have been made in the name of white supremacy. Today we can add to this list the name of Willy Monteiro, killed on September 6, 2020 by the Bianchi brothers. I was shocked to see so many young people that day in June, some from environmental and feminist movements. Our generation has a crucial job to do. Before that event the movements were divided and diverse, mostly led by white exponents, today things have changed. a good sign, because we need a new representation. We need to be seen, to speak with our voice.
What are the prospects of the movement in Italy?
Even if we are talking about a different context and a completely different story than the American one, I must say that since 2020, since Floyd’s death, greater visibility has been given to a generation that remained invisible for a long time in Italy. Today my mission, which I hope is also that of many black Italians like me, is to create new spaces in which to express oneself. Sneaky racism acts on several levels: there is micro-violence, systemic physical violence, verbal violence. School was the place where I suffered the first episodes of racism. I forgave those who offended me. Every time I talk about racism, even to students, I feel angry but I know it’s an opportunity to insist on a discourse of inclusion and representation.
Is there hope?
In my book The black body I tell the story of those who recognized the racist violence of which they were protagonists, of which they were guilty. There are those who recognized him and took a step forward. In that moment something is activated within you, from darkness you pass into light. Racism is the result of fear of welcoming the other, of fear of its history, of its culture, of its uniqueness, of its beauty. A beauty that is often not able to see. There has always been racism in Italy, my parents arrived here in the 1970s, they know something about it. Racism is like the dust hidden under the rugs, a dust that has accumulated over the years and needs to be swept away.
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