LIGHT ON Bliki

The coach of the British Watford team, Dave Hughes, withdrawn the team in the second half of the match against the Latina Serie B club. The decision was taken as a consequence of alleged racist slurs addressed to Bernard Mensah, an African descent football player of the Watford team. As it was reported, Hughes was repeatedly addressed with expressions such as “Negri di merda” and “fucking nigger”. It is not known if these expressions came from Latina’s players, staff or supporters. These happenings took place in Latina (near Rome) on 12.12.2013, during the 19th international football tournament “Memorial Karol Wojtyla”, entitled to Pope John Paul II.

The Italian word negro, as its correspondents in many languages, has a widespread derogatory and racist connotation, and almost all dictionaries emphasize this word as offensive, especially when it is preceded or followed by adjectives such as bastard, filthy, fucking, shitty, asshole and so on. Referring to black people with such words recalls the idea of a natural hierarchy between different ethnicities. This belief comes from a biological (or essentialist) concept of the relationship among “races”, in which black people are considered as lower than European whites, hence they should only “stay in their own place”. This racist attitude could emerge when some people try to exploit any favourable occasion (e.g. as in a football stadium or on the Internet) to express their racist attitudes by insulting black people.

Laajalle levinnyt halventava ja rasistinen ilmaisu, etenkin, kun sitä käytetään sellaisten etuliitteiden kuin kusipää, vitun, saastainen tai paskainen kanssa.

Széles körben ismert lealacsonyító és rasszista jelentése van. Sértő, különösen akkor, ha olyan jelzőkkel társítják, mint például fattyú, csirkefogó, kibaszott, szaros, seggfej, stb.

Il termine “negro” ha una diffusa connotazione dispregiativa, razzista e offensiva, specialmente quando è preceduto o seguito da aggettivi come bastardo, sporco, fottuto, merdoso, stronzo e via dicendo.

Gre za široko razširjeno poniževalno in rasistično oznako, ki je še posebej žaljiva, ko je opremljena z vulgarnimi pridevniki, kot so baraba, umazani, jebeni, usrani, kretenski, ipd.

The incident took place during a football tournament and has been acknowledged in both Italian and British media. e.g.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/football/25347282
http://bit.ly/1v4ESr9