Cecile Kyenge is a strong woman. She has to be. As Italy’s first black cabinet minister, she has had to endure a string of repeated racist, sexist and sexually violent insults, and she has answered them with a calm that has only made her critics bolder.
In the latest incident Wednesday, Italy’s far-right Forza Nuova party left three mannequins covered in fake blood at the front door of an administrative office in Rome. “Immigration is the genocide of peoples. Kyenge resign!” read fliers with the Forza Nuova symbol, scattered around the mannequins, according to a Reuters report. Forza Nuova posted pictures of the mannequins on Facebook, with comments explaining the gruesome stunt as a protest against Kyenge’s campaign to make it easier for immigrants to acquire Italian citizenship, the story said. It wasn’t the first time the party used the tactic.
Kyenge, 49, an eye doctor and Italian citizen married to an Italian, was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo; she moved to Italy when she was a teen to continue her studies. After being elected to office, she was named minister of integration by Prime Minister Enrico Letta this year. Kyenge, who can relate to the experience of those moving to Italy for opportunity, has favored legislation that would allow children born in Italy to immigrant parents to get automatic citizenship. That’s a change in a country where nationality is judged more on blood than birth.
