The Italian White Burden: Anti-racism, Paternalism and Sexism in Italian Public Discourse

Abstract

This chapter aims to contribute to a deconstruction of public discourses on, and iconographies of, race and whiteness in Italy, through an analysis of the Italian white normative imaginary of disembarkations in mainstream media and political discourses (2015–2019). It focuses on both securitarian and hegemonic humanitarian narratives, paying particular attention to the mediatisation of the figure of Carola Rackete, a ship of the German NGO “Sea-Watch” who, in 2019, violated the ban imposed on Italian ports and landed forty-two migrants. Described as a criminal in securitarian public and media discourses, Rackete was instead represented by hegemonic anti-racist humanitarianism through the colonial iconograpy of the white saviour. In order to unpack the symbolic implications of such visual narratives, the chapter applies a critical discourse analysis to newsmedia, photojournalism and cinema. Our analysis is supported by interviews with journalists, activists, film-makers and artists conducted for the project “(De)Othering: deconstructing Risk and Otherness in Media Narratives” (2018–2021).