abcnews.go.com
03.02.2022 / 19:11
Black Italian actress describes racist messages on live TV
Italy’s annual Sanremo music festival.Lorena Monroe Cesarini, 34, read some of the messages to the audience during Wednesday night's broadcast of the festival on RAI state television.“They invited you because you are Black,” read one message that said she did not deserve to be there. She quoted another one that read: “Maybe they called you to wash the staircase or water the plants.”Cesarini said it was the first time she had been the target of racism growing up in Italy, and that the messages started as soon as it was reported that she would be a guest of the festival.“Evidently for someone, the color of my skin is a problem,’’ said the actress best known for her role in the Italian serial drama “Suburra."Cesarini, who was born in Dakar, Senegal, to a Senegalese mother and Italian father, received shouts of support from the live audience, including one who yelled, “You’re Italian,” to which she responded, “Yes, and proud.”She told the audience that she remained perplexed by the messages: “Why do people feel the necessity to write such things on social media? Why do people have a problem with the color of my skin?”Incidents of racism in Italy have drawn more attention in recent years.