From the editor
What is the phrase for “white privilege” in Italian? How about “model minority”?
Turns out, there are no direct translations for either of those terms in Italian. But the experience of those conditions is nevertheless very real — in Italy as it is in the United States. Which is why Nadeesha Uyangoda and her co-hosts created "Sulla Razza" (About Race), a podcast that seeks to translate Anglo-American terms about race into the everyday experience of people of color living in Italy.
In Europe, racism is sometimes defined as an American problem, even though the continent has its own long history of conquest, colonization, and institutional racism. A lack of diversity in many European newsrooms exacerbates this perception. "Sulla Razza" is part of a group of recent podcasts across Europe starting to fill the coverage void of racism and race left by the mainstream media.
“All the podcasts I listened to were in English,” Uyangoda told Stefania D’Ignoti, who wrote our story on podcasts about race in Italy, France, and Germany. “I wanted to create something in Italian about race, but I noticed the language gap to explain certain topics was often impeding that — because in the Italian language many of these concepts simply do not exist.”
Sulla Razza and similar podcasts are bringing those concepts — and the language through which to talk about them — to Italian, French, and German audiences. In the process, they are creating a crucial public discussion about issues like police violence against people of color and the lived experience of first- and second-generation immigrants in Europe.
“It’s thanks to podcasts,” says Grace Ly, co-host of "Kiffe ta Race" (Love Your Race), one of France’s most popular podcasts on race, “that these conversations are becoming more accessible and are slowly changing the perspective of French people on local episodes of racism and police brutality.”
Sincerely,
James Geary
Editor, Nieman Reports
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