Fists raised to the sky, chanting, signs, and a lot of powerful speeches to say Stop to racism. Following-up on the protests erupted throughout the United States after the killing of George Floyd, thousands of  people gathered in Piazza del Popolo, Rome, to say stop to racism, discrimination, exploitation and oppression, not only in the United States but also in Italy.

While it is true that there are deep differences among the two countries, many speeches shed light on Italy and its internal issues: the failure of the Italian citizenship reform, institutional racism, the lack of representation of black Italians in the media industry, the labour rights of migrant workers, to name a few.

The entire square took a knee for 8:46 seconds (the same amount of time Floyd was crushed under the knee of the agent who killed him – we talked about it here), certainly one of the most touching moments of the peacful protest, between the silence and the chants repeating George Floyd’s last words ‘I can’t brathe‘, to then get up and scream ‘George Floyd is here, Stop to Racism‘ and ‘No Justice, No Peace‘, followed by ‘We are all anti-fascist’.

From Rome to Milan, from Pisa to Florence, from Naples to Bologna, from Turin to Bergamo, many Italian cities gathered to demand Justice for Floyd, as well as to turn the spotlight on Italy’s internal issues.