Shame on the Pier in Lampedusa
- By Roberto Saviano
(Photo by ANSA)
The insults hurled at Carola Rackete, captain of the Sea Watch 3, from the wharf in Lampedusa glanced off her untroubled expression. No dent was made in her self-composure: it was grounded in knowing that, out of a sense of her own responsibility, she had put her body on the line—not something to be taken for granted. Not in a country where the Minister of Internal Affairs, fearing an eventual conviction, recused himself from a kidnapping trial—the case of the 177 immigrants aboard the Diciotti—saving himself with a new law, pushed through by his parliamentary majority.
But let’s return to the insults. They were fairly predictable. In the uncensored part of the online video, Lampedusan supporters of the League and Five-Star political parties yelled at Carola: “I hope them n*gers rape you. They oughta give it to you on all fours.” And more: “You like black dick.” The pattern is typical: on one hand, sex is seen as aberration, insult, dirty, vice, and, on the other, the sense of inferiority in some when they imagine the sexuality of the African male.
As astonishing as it seems, one of the main motives behind the racism against African immigrants is precisely this sense of sexual menace: that’s how it has been in the United States and that’s how it is in Europe. All the racist rhetoric of Interior Minister Matteo Salvini about immigrants as scheming invaders—because those who arrive have athletic physiques, not starving, skeletal bodies—hides his obvious sense of inferiority. This comment about how “they ought to rape you” comes from the mouths of the same people that prattle on about rape every time they discuss immigration, chattering with crass ignorance about the Nigerian mafia, about which they know nothing.
In the video, at a certain point, a faint voice emerges, saying, “Boys, don’t talk like that.” A woman, ashamed of what she hears. It will be interesting to find out what the political leader of these oafs will say about their behavior, and what position he plans to take in this debate. Do these wretches realize that the Northern League used to use these same insults against anyone who tried to defend Italian immigrants from the South? The refrain back then was, “You’re defending them because you like to screw terroni” [a pejorative term for Southerners]. What rage it must provoke in the Leaguers to see a young woman who is able to make such a dramatic decision, able to manage a situation of this sort with steady nerves and with statements that demonstrate her commitment—a woman able to live her own autonomous life, without being defined as the girlfriend of, the wife of, the lover of. That’s precisely it—for the Northern League just imagining such a woman must be intolerable. And sexual insults against women are naturally the most predictable, easy way to disgorge your own frustration.
But there’s a second level in these insults, one that tells us a lot about Italy. We know plenty about the torches-and-pitchfork Italy that yells out “lock her up” and “crook.” This Italy spat on the media celebrity Enzo Tortora, because if you can’t be Enzo Tortora, it’s good when he falls in disgrace, because you feel less mediocre. This Italy throws its pennies at the politician Bettino Craxi, having feared and flattered him only minutes before. In such a dynamic, it’s unimportant who’s innocent (like Tortora) or guilty (like Craxi), all that matters is the degree of frustration and pettiness. In a tabloid murder case, these Italians root for or against the Italian Raffaele Sollecito and the American Amanda Knox, they rejoice at every arrest, at every subpoena, as if such measures somehow make their own suffering more tolerable.
If the forces of justice pretend that timing, calm, and accountability is impossible, then it is better to root for the misfortune of others—not that it will lessen your own, but it does help to vent. I grew up in a Southern Italy where, when a boss got arrested, folks cheered for the criminal and insulted the cops. Have a look on YouTube at the video where Antonino Monteleone filmed the arrest of the boss Giovanni Tegano in Reggio Calabria: you’ll see a crowd packed outside police headquarters, singing his praises. Not only relatives, fellow townspeople too, grateful for his strategy of opposing bloody deeds. When Cosimo di Lauro was arrested in Secondigliano, about a hundred people applauded him and took his side. In sum, that’s how it is, that’s the price of survival: you kneel before the powerful, fearing vengeance, you flatter them, hoping for a word from them that can change your life. With Carola, it’s just the opposite: she’s easy to attack and nothing happens to you if you do: you’re spitting on a woman who has only her body and dignity as symbol and defense. She won’t take your job away, she won’t threaten you, and there’s no favor you can ask from her.
Carola could do nothing other than what she did. Going ashore in Malta, Greece, or Spain would have meant acting outside the law, because Lampedusa was much closer; given the necessity to keep her crew safe, it was the answer. If she had decided to go on to other ports, she would have put people that had been rescued at sea in danger, violating maritime law. The crowd shouted that she was “corrupt”; in fact, Carola chose to actively use her talents in the service of a “sea ambulance.” She’s a woman who earns her pay honestly—more a reimbursement of costs than any lavish return.
It’s incredible that such things can be said by such a political party like: the League has never even explained why they went to negotiate with a Russian state enterprise in order to finance their electoral campaign. It’s incredible to hear all this in a country where the Interior Minister spent 5000 Euros financing racist posts on Facebook (with 500 of those announcing his political rallies). In such a country, we attack a person who, with her own effort, saves desperate people from suffering. And we defend, instead, people who hide everything, people with shady alliances and criminally political partners.
The mechanism never changes: if you’re a bandit, you can’t convince others that you’re not, but you can try to make them believe that all the others are worse than you. That’s the dirty game that Matteo Salvini and the League are playing with Carola. You need to listen to these insults, because they represent in full the rotten heart of our country. You need to figure out which side to take. Who do you want to side with? With people who want to lock up someone who saved lives? With people who tell a woman they hope she’ll be raped? Which side do you want to be on? With these name-callers or with those who consider freedom and solidarity the only universe worth living in?
Roberto Saviano is an Italian essayist and screenwriter. Among his many publications are Gomorra (2006), Zero Zero Zero (2013), and In mare non esistono taxi (2019).
Translated by Jim Hicks, and published by arrangement with la Repubblica by Roberto Saviano. All rights reserved.
