Word: italianism
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...gaffe heard around the globe. Last November, just two days after Barack Obama's historic election victory, the world's collective jaw dropped when Silvio Berlusconi quipped that the next U.S. President was "young, handsome and even has a good tan." Though the Italian Prime Minister refused to apologize for the failed attempt at humor, Obama and his aides gave Berlusconi a pass. The incoming President was not going to be sidetracked by a diplomatic incident with a man already notorious as a loose cannon. Berlusconi kept his place that week on Obama's initial round of phone calls...
...squarely at India and neighboring South Asian countries. Designed by Indian engineers on the Fiesta platform, the new small car "is going to be a game changer," predicts Michael Boneham, president and managing director of Ford India. When it debuts next year, the Figo (the name means "cool" in Italian) will be made in India and powered by either a 1.2-liter gas or 1.5-liter diesel engine. Ford also plans to spend $500 million to double capacity at its Chennai plant in southern India to 200,000 vehicles a year...
...that's telling in itself. In many ways, mainstream Italian society is several generations behind the rest of the West when it comes to race. In supposedly polite company, one can still hear the word negro, (pronounced neh-grow) which essentially translates to the N word. A cleaning woman is often generically referred to as a "Filippina." Northern Italians joke that darker-skinned southerners are "Moroccans...
Unlike some of his political allies, Berlusconi has never seemed to suffer from mean-spirited racism. Still, his eagerness to continue cracking racial jokes shows how outdated he and a big chunk of Italian society are. The lack of outrage from ordinary Italians compounds the crime. (Read "The Berlusconi Tapes: 5 Ways to Evade the Scandal...
...decade, racism is becoming a front-burner issue. Aly Baba Faye, regional director in Rome of the Anti-Racism Observatory, says the Prime Minister's comments are indicative of attitudes in Italy and unhelpful in changing prejudices. "Berlusconi thinks he's funny, but he's not," says Faye, an Italian citizen who emigrated from Senegal 30 years ago. "For one world leader to talk about the skin color of another is utterly disrespectful and sets a bad example for ordinary folk." Faye says Berlusconi's comments make it more likely that people on the street in Rome will make...