"If I ever have a black child, they'll experience all the crap I experienced. If they have mixed skin, even worse: they'll make them feel too black for whites and too white for blacks. So it's worth it , give birth to a child and condemn him to unhappiness?".
The question is asked by Paola Egonu in an interview with Vanity Fair in which the volleyball player - who in the next Sanremo Festival will play the role of co-host - talks about herself, from episodes of racism, to the sacrifices linked to her sporting career, up to fear of giving birth to a child who could relive all the cruelty that she has always experienced on her skin.
"At the age of four I realized I was different - she says - I was in kindergarten and, with a friend of mine, we were tearing up the grass in the garden:
the roots made us laugh.
The teacher punished us.
Three times I asked her to go to the bathroom.
Three times she said no.
In the end I rushed there, without permission.
Too late: I was all dressed up.
The teacher laughed in my face: "Oh God, you suck! How much you stink!".
And, for the rest of the day, she didn't change me.
I had to wait, dirty, for my mother to arrive in the afternoon.
Even today, 20 years later, I struggle to use a toilet other than the one in my house ". Compared to when you were mistreated in kindergarten, is there less racism in Italy today?" No.
It happens that my mom asks for a coffee at the bar and they serve it cold, that the bank lets in her white friend of hers but not her ". Who doesn't appreciate?"
For example those who insult me by asking why I'm Italian.
They don't know anything about me, about us athletes.
They don't know how much we struggle, how tired we are, how we don't feel up to it, how sometimes we just want to take a break from everything, but we can't.
I don't even have time to enjoy a victory when the next challenge arrives: after the Scudetto there is the Champions League, the European Championship, the Super Cup, the Olympics.
So then it happens that someone says the wrong sentence to me and I ask myself: why on earth should I represent you?".
after the Scudetto there is the Champions League, the European Championship, the Super Cup and the Olympics.
So then it happens that someone says the wrong sentence to me and I ask myself: why on earth should I represent you?".
after the Scudetto there is the Champions League, the European Championship, the Super Cup and the Olympics.
So then it happens that someone says the wrong sentence to me and I ask myself: why on earth should I represent you?".
Egonu points out: "I grew up in a context where the standard of beauty presupposed being white. And little boys can be very unpleasant. I was always the tallest, I was black, with these curls that I hated. At one point I I'm shaved. It's a shame that then I was teased because I didn't have hair. Life sucked. I felt like disgusting".
Years ago she found comfort in the arms of a woman, the volleyball player Katarzyna Skorupa.
"How did my parents take it? Terribly. They were worried about what their uncles or neighbors would think. Then they realized that mine wasn't a choice. Who would opt for a lifestyle that pits you against everyone? Some things happen stop".
As for the company's ability to make you feel accepted, "not so much",
replies Egonu.
"I didn't care, I kissed my girlfriend even in public. The reactions, however, weren't always pleasant. The problem is that people don't mind their own business. I say, what do you come to judge me, or a homosexual couple who raises children with love, when it is full of traditional dysfunctional families? And then… I already know that, if my son is black-skinned, he will experience all the crap that I experienced. If he were to be mixed-skinned, even worse: he they will make people feel too black for whites and too white for blacks. Is it worth it, then, to give birth to a child and condemn it to misery?"
what do you come to judge me, or a homosexual couple raising children with love, when it is full of traditional dysfunctional families?
And then… I already know that, if my son has black skin, he will experience all the disgust that I experienced.
If he's of mixed skin, even worse: they'll make him feel too black for whites and too white for blacks.
Is it worthwhile, then, to give birth to a child and condemn him to unhappiness?"
what do you come to judge me, or a homosexual couple raising children with love, when it is full of traditional dysfunctional families?
And then… I already know that, if my son has black skin, he will experience all the disgust that I experienced.
If he's of mixed skin, even worse: they'll make him feel too black for whites and too white for blacks.
Is it worthwhile, then, to give birth to a child and condemn him to unhappiness?"