On Saturday 6 March 2021, around noon, Belgian singer Lous and the Yakuza was stopped at the airport in Milan while she was leaving for Belgium. The artist, who performed on Thursday 4 March 2021 at the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy’s most important musical event, broke the news in an Instagram story, in which she explained why she was put in custody. “Just got stopped by the police at Milan’s airport – wrote the artist – Got grabbed by the arm like a child, yelled at in Italian, got insulted just because I didn’t know I was going the wrong way.”
“Of course they were three men… against me – continued Lous – They kept me for an extra 20 minutes not explaining anything to me. They released me after realizing I wouldn’t stop talking and screaming because I know my rights.” Finally, she concluded by writing: “LOL, I almost forgot I was black for a second. Always the same shit. Fuck that.”
The Show went on
The reactions to this story were extremely scarce, considering the success of the performance of Lous and The Yakuza two days earlier, when she duetted with Gaia, one of the contestants of the festival, on the notes of “Mi sono innamorato di te” (I fell in love with you), one of Luigi Tenco’s most famous songs. In fact, Gaia was the only contestant of the festival event to comment on the fact, and to express solidarity to her friend and colleague. “In 2021, it is no longer acceptable that such facts take place, and we cannot ignore it – she commented – We can do better, it is our duty.” She then concluded by saying to Lous: “I love you.”
If one out of the 26 artists of the music contest showed support to Lous, the same cannot be said about the artistic direction of the event, the hosts or the guests: the Festival’s Twitter account posted about everything except Lous’s unmotivated police custody. Among the online and offline Italian media outlets, only two online local news websites – Milano Today and Cronaka – and the weekly celebrity magazine Novella 2000 wrote about the fact over the weekend.
Almost nobody cared
Even more impressive was the indifference of almost all Italian Twitter users, especially the LGBTQIA ones who are among the most passionate followers of the Sanremo Music Festival. The social network is widely used to comment on anything regarding the festival, (on and off-stage) during the four day-long music festival, which is viewed by millions of viewers across the country and abroad.
Yet, considering as well the massive support to the Black Lives Matter movement, few Italian users have tweeted, or retweeted, about the serious discrimination Lous and the Yakuza had. The only exception was the “non-white ItalianTwitter”, among whom the activist and author Oiza Queens Day Obasuyi, and writer and activist Espérance Hakizwamana Ripanti, who related the fact and spoke against the performative activism of many social media users.
Almost a year after the death of George Floyd, which sparked a wave of protests in Italy and in the rest of the world, we can only observe sadly that, as long as there is no corpse (in the United States, though) on which to desperately cry, the discrimination that non-white bodies suffer in our country does not interest anyone.
Stefano Duc
©2021 Il Grande Colibrì
images: Il Grande Colibrì
