In one picture, he was a new relative in the Huxtable family of ‘The Cosby Show’. In another, his face was laid on top of Michael Jordan’s body as he slid to the edge. In another, he was cast in a scene from a classic Italian film in which the actor Totò, starring Blackface, plays an ambassador from a fictional African country.
When Luigi Di Maio, the Italian Foreign Minister, returned to Rome from a holiday on the island of Sardinia, it took some time for Italians to notice his deep tan. By August 25, images and memes appeared with Mr. Di Maio in a form of Blackface over the Italian web. One of these cases was described by Mr Di Maio as a black migrant on a busy boat.
Instead of criticizing the images, Mr. Di Maio embraced them, and shared them on his own Instagram account, including those of Mr. Jordan, Totò, and the Huxtables.
‘Boys. I promise to install 50 SPF sunscreen next summer, ”Mr Di Maio wrote in a caption below the images. “And thanks for making my day easier.”
In the United States, addressed by questions about systemic racism, some public figures caught in Blackface have been forced to resign or have been fired. The practice has also become taboo in most of Europe, where it is, at the very least, considered very offensive.
But perhaps less so in Italy, where artists still appear on television in Blackface to play notable figures such as Louis Armstrong or Beyoncé.
Last year, Italian airline Alitalia ran an ad featuring an actor wearing Blackface to portray former President Barack Obama. In 2008, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called President Obama “young, handsome and tanned.” When he was chastised for it, Mr Berlusconi said it was a compliment and that people should stop.
Representatives of Mr Di Maio, a power broker in Italy’s ruling Five Star Movement, made a similar argument.
“The Minister has categorically opposed any form of racial discrimination or violence in any of its forms,” said Augusto Rubei, Mr Di Maio’s spokesman. ‘It was a self-mocking post about the tan the minister received after a few days in Sardinia. Blackface is not something that is understood in Italy, ”he said, adding that Italian culture did not have the same sensitivities as other countries.
However, the photos posted by Mr. Di Maio, who has a reputation for gaffes, did not go unnoticed in the country. Some claimed that they reflected Mr Di Maio’s provincial worldview, one that does not consider global racism talks outside Italy. Others said the images ignored the discrimination faced by Black people in Italy, where African migrants often struggle with violence and intolerance.
Igiaba Scego, a Somali-Italian writer focusing on Black Studies and Colonialism, said Italy had never opposed its colonial and fascist past.
“In other countries, they know that practices like Blackface lead to violence,” she said. “In Italy, they just don’t take insults to Black people seriously.”
Instead of finding the messages hurtful and shocking, “the minister found it funny,” she added.
Mr. Rubei, the spokesman, also defended the minister’s comedy alongside Totò, the Italian actor, by saying that he did it because both men are originally from Naples, and that no one in Italy associated that performance, from the film “Totòtruffa, from 1961,” With racism, or “thinks that Totò has Blackface.”
In other words, he said, people made something out of nothing.
“He did not paint his face black,” Mr Rubei said of Mr Di Maio. “He was really tanned.”
