There’s a report in the Guardian of a recent remark by rightwing Italian senator Roberto Calderoli. In this he suggested that Cécile Kyenge, a government minister born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, has ‘the features of an orangutan‘. There has been much horrified reaction in Italy, and rightly so. The report says nothing much about what was in Calderoli’s mind when he made his remark or about whether it was merely directed at Kyenge as an individual or had some wider application. The remark is taken to be unacceptable in itself.
This is because it belongs to a tradition of anti-black racist abuse. Compare and contrast.