Black Lives Matter Italy | Rome Takes A Knee To Say Stop To Racism

by Johanne Affricot - Published on 09/06/2020
All the images © Lilia Carlone

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.

02. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione_
6. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone
10. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone
3. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone
9. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone
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’.

27. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

19. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

28. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

20. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone
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.

22. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

4. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

5- griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

13. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

12. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

8. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

25. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

23. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

11. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

24. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

21. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

26. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

7. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

30. griot mag george floyd roma italia piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

16. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

17. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

15. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

14. griot mag george floyd piazza dl popolo black lives matter manifestazione ©lilia carlone

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Visual and performing arts, culture and music, traveling: I could just live on this. Graduated in International Cooperation and Development, I am an indipendent Culture Curator and Producer, and Artistic Director of GRIOTmag and Spazio GRIOT.