Hi jessabella......
Can't help with lots of your questions, but have been doing alot of research on the teaching English aspect, as that is what I'm aiming towards ..... there seems to be alot of temporary work around, (particularly in Verona, for some reason??), but check out a couple of TEFL websites to see what's currently available - I've found Cactus and i - i relly helpful.....they've got some good telephone advisors too.

Good Luck....hope it all works out!!

Vivien

Oh JEZZY dear, the color of your skin is a dark golden bronze delight--in Europe racism is not so-- no one cares about your skin, just give them your lovely smile.

Its the states that have this ever-dwelling shadow lurking--its only of their empty habitual thinking of past mishaps in history and all that brainwashing their unhealthy fathers passed to them--

One of my best friends was a black woman named MONA LISA. I lived with her for a year In Atlanta. She took me in when I had no place to go. I miss her. I wish I could find her..I love her like a sister--yes" that's what I said a sister everyone.

Then one day she allowed me to enter into her world, she told me how the world treated a woman like her. Like her? This world, it was so dark, so cruel --I needed to see this--because I cared for her. I saw how this thing called 'racism' really did breath, have a life of its own and how distructive it was. I would never have allowed sweet Mona to feel this way if I had the power.

All this for the one question you posted. Its because it ticked in me that feeling again that Mona had--'you dont know what its like to have to worry that your skin is the wrong color.'

I was happy she had skin--I didnt want to be a friend to a tinwoman.

I worked in Naples at the U.S. NAvy base there where there is a very large American population, a lot of them black as well as in Sigonella, Sicily. There is also an Army base up north , so in these areas the locals are used to seeing blacks, although as someone stated there are those who come in from other countries and placed in situations of human trafficking, i.e. prostitution.
A very good friend of mine in Naples(Lago Di Patria), she was a large black woman, liked to go for walks in the evening by herself, she would come home and tell me that she was propositioned by some young Italian men. In her humor, she asked why those crazy young men would be interested in a fat ,sweaty black woman!? They had to be pozzo!
There is predjudice everywhere. My oldest daughter has adopted a wonderful little boy from Ethiopia. Do we get stares when we take our grandson out, absolutley , but they will get over it and I hope you will too.

Life is too short to worry about it. Enjoy Italy for all it's worth!

Dan

Hello Jessebella! Please excuse my absence. I am nesting now. My little girl is due on July 5 and I am both nervous and happy. I am actually nervous about giving birth in a foreign country. I hope that doesn't sound bad. I realize they have some of the best doctors in the world in Italy, the system is just different than what I am accustomed. I am also having these fears of having my baby switched which is irrational but it actually almost happened in America with my first born. When my son was born he was very blond and very light skinned. In all actuality, he looked and still looks the spitting image of my father. However, I am considerably dark skinned. The mix up came when I left my bundle of joy with the nurse so that I could shower. Well, there was a shift change so when I approached the desk, there was a nurse who decided to match me with a golden brown baby. When I protested, she said oh well there are no more B----. Before she could get the words out, I had to embarrass her by saying, "Yes, You do that white looking baby right in the corner is mine!"
Just imagine! So now I am re-experiencing the fear again. Anyway, when are you going to move to Italy? Have you decided on a locality? I am really starting to like Quercianella. We have been here since March and it is really pretty and I am finding that it is diverse. Just a promo for my town.

A black friend of mine is the only black set builder in all of
Hollywood. Says it's really hard to get into. Is he bitter, yes. Do I blame him, no.

See this movie. It's really good.

The Great Debaters

The Great Debaters is a 2007 film directed by two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah Winfrey's
Harpo Productions. The film is based on an article written about the Wiley College debate team by Tony Scherman for the '97
Spring issue of American Legacy[citation needed]. Denzel Washington stars alongside Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Denzel
Whitaker, Nate Parker , Gina Ravera, and Jurnee Smollett. The screenplay was written by Suzan-Lori Parks and Robert Eisele.
The film was released in theaters on December 25, 2007.

The film, loosely based on a true story, revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at
historically black Wiley College to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American south during the 1930s, when
Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the movie, the Wiley team eventually succeeds to
the point where they are able to take part in a debate with Harvard University.

The movie also explores the social milieu of Texas during the Great Depression including not only the day-to-day insults and
slights African Americans had to endure, but also a lynching. Also depicted is James L. Farmer, Jr. who, at 14-years of age,
was on Wiley's debate team after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found C.O.R.E., the Congress of Racial Equality).
According to the Houston Chronicle, another character depicted on the team, Samantha Booke, is based on the real individual Henrietta
Wells, "the only female member of the 1930 debate team from Wiley College who participated in the first collegiate interracial debate
in the United States." Melvin B. Tolson also happens to be a major African American poet whose papers are housed at the library of Congress.

Villa, Jessabella began this thread in order to gauge responses about racism in Italy for a potential move to Italy. She is from Australia. As far as racism in America is concerned, being a light skinned black woman who is in her thirties. I was born way after slavery and the Jim crow era. I was also born in New York. It is a part of history. I learned about it but there was no reason for me to internalize hatred based on something I personally did not experience. However, as a woman who was in a technological field in which one there weren't many people period because most people hate physics and I was one of very few people of color, I have personally experienced racism. However, I can't raise a fist and proclaim hatred of whites because I have had incidents with both whites and blacks. I grew up in an all black community and because I did not look like the other children, I was spat on and fought everyday. I went to an all white college and had epithets screamed at me from cars. I served in the military and was ostracized by my black peers because I was socially, "not black" enough and by my white peers because they assumed that I was the embodiment of long held stereotypes. This is why I am in Italy. Now grant it, things are not always peachy keen here. I get intrusively stared at every time I leave the house. However, it is very common for not only light skinned black women but also blond white women to be stared at in Italy and yes, that is uncomfortable. Especially if they assume that one is a Russian or Brazillian prostitute and one is subjected to being followed and cat called. However, that is more of an ethnic bias. It can be frightening. However, I too made an assumption that she was American as well. As far as the bitterness of your friend, it only kills you. One can remain angry at the system, angry at individuals and angry at God for creating ones color, However, when it is internalized it, it will eventually express itself. I found myself becoming very bitter in America and I began to experience daily headaches. My neck would freeze and I could not turn my head. I was easily distracted and I began to lose interest in interacting with others. Some people externally express internalized bitterness and they turn on those around them. Thus, an expression of violence within communities and outwardly to innocent people who happen to look differently. Some of the movies today are made with the intent of garnering an emotional response. Although it is history, what good is presenting a movie about racism, slavery, Jim crow, etc when the many potential viewers have not healed from internalized hatred. What ends up happening can be likened unto a PTSD flashback, and people tend to relive the moment by way of being re-traumatized.All it takes is one hint of something that reminds one of a personal incident and sometimes people lash out at others without realizing. Historical lessons about life need to be presented by impartial educators so that they may encourage dialogue and ensure learning. This is the reason for America failing to move beyond it's race problem. All of these emotional rants and presentations are being presented to a public who has not learned to value differences and think objectively.

[QUOTE=jessabella;10485]oh wow..squirrels ...

Squirrel, that was one of the first Italian words I learned, scoiattolo, I don't know why but it sort of rolls off the tongue.

Wow, that's different. The first word I learned was schifoso which is another word for nasty: That sort of rolls off the tongue as well.

wow..that was a really long post..hahaha..
okay well I am Australia..but I actually lived in America as a child..so some of these things that you say..I know exactly what you are talking about..not being this and trying to be this way..that is what my life was like...and well I hated it because being yourself was never good enough...if that makes any sense..
I'm sure we will have a grand time if we ever met up...swap stories..and then walk down the street together..oh what the people in your town will think then!

"okay well I am Australia..but I actually lived in America as a child.."

Jessabella had told me a long time ago that she was from the U.S.
Atlanta, Georgia to be exact.