Racism and discrimination in the pandemic

In a climate of general social acceptance and of the “normalisation of hate”, the Italian situation has been struck by dark and alarming signals in more recent years: the rise of antisemitism, verbal and physical aggressions against foreign citizens, racist and xenophobic crimes, overt racism in stadiums against Black athletes, the wide spread of hate speech online. Drawing from the most recent empirical studies, the present chapter considers the Italian context pre-COVID, analysing the presence and spread of racism in its principal forms. In particular the chapter aims at answering to the following questions: does the spread of the Covid-19 foster the attitudes of hostility against and rejection of ethnic minorities? Which are the possible future scenarios regarding the interethnic coexistence in Italy in the light of the recent crisis? Indeed, the arrival of COVID-19, and especially of its socio-economic consequences, risks exacerbating tensions, leading to the search for an enemy to blame.