Italy has been racked with violence in the past couple of days. In Calabria, which is in southern Italy, there have been confrontations between African immigrants and the locals. Multiple injuries from guns and clubs. The government is trying to settle it down.
There is no doubt that Italy has been beset with a wave of immigrants from various places, but most especially from Africa. When I visited Italy three years ago, I was struck by the number of African people on the streets and buses of Rome. When I lived there thirty years ago, I scarcely saw one.
In many ways, I fear, the Italian people are experiencing what we Americans faced in the 1960s. We were faced with our racial biases, and the economic injustices that perpetuated these biases in part. Italians for decades were a fairly homogeneous people. Their experience of Africa was during their conquest of Libya and Ethiopia in the early part of the Twentieth Century.
Let us pray for an end to violence on both sides. Let us pray that the immigrants to that country do not resort to violence to address their grievances. Let us pray that the local Italians do not for long fall into the trap of racism.
If you read Italian, log on to the either of these websites for information:
www.repubblica.it
www.corriere.it
