The Sicilian thesis

In late January 1990, during the celebration of Carnival in Florence, about forty youths, masked and armed and calling themselves “avengers,” beat several North Africans and a Slav. Chanting “get the Moroccan” and “sporchi spacciatori, tunisini di merda” (“dirty dealers, shitty Tunisians”), they chased immigrants, destroyed property, and clashed with police (La Repubblica, 1 March 1990). This brutal expedition to “clean up the city” was not an isolated incident. A week earlier, merchants in the historic center of Florence had sponsored a march to gain public support for their objections to the presence of unlicensed immigrant street vendors. Posters warned ominously of giustizieri della notte (“avengers of the night”) (La Repubblica, 1 March 1990). The neo-fascist party, the Italian Social Movement (MSI), joined the march and led the chants of “rimandiamoli a casa” (“let's send them home”) and “facciamo la giustizia da soli” (“let's take justice into our own hands”) (La Repubblica, 21 February 1990). The party's poster, depicting hands ripping apart a map of Florence, was plastered throughout the city. Although the party claimed the hands represented corruption, to observers they appeared significantly dark skinned.

From the vantage point of Palermo, these events, well publicized in the national media, prompted one to question why anti-immigrant violence and political mobilization had exploded in the prosperous north while the question of razzismo had remained muted in the impoverished south. Sicilians from all walks of life with whom I spoke tended to view the Florence episode – and similar ones to follow in other northern areas–as evidence of pervasive northern intolerance.