"They make an appointment with me to view the houses, then when they see that they are colored they backtrack, saying that they don't rent to foreigners. But I am Sardinian, very Italian!"
Speaking is Monique Corda , a 50-year-old resident of Turin. Of Nigerian origin, she was adopted by a family from Nuoro when she was only 6 and a half months old and lived on the island until 2000. Then she decided to move to Piedmont.
Today she works as a social health worker, has a permanent contract and is looking for an apartment to rent. A simple thing, in theory, but which is instead proving to be very complicated: « Too often they tell me no, without even showing me the house. And this only and exclusively because of the color of my skin », she explains to L'UnioneSarda.it. «This is the third time I've looked for a house, obviously having all the necessary guarantees. But, as has already happened in the past, this time too I'm clashing with certain distrustful attitudes if not with real racism ».
A situation that makes her feel – she explains – a mixture of «anger and despair, as well as a sense of great humiliation».
Hence the decision to tell her sad odyssey: "Because it's time to say enough . I have been living with these prejudices for years. I have Italian citizenship, I grew up in Italy, I speak Sardinian and I return to Sardinia very often . And yet I continue to meet people who judge me as a foreigner or who are convinced that I have fewer rights than others. But it's time for this story to end. In my own small way, therefore, I want to tell my story hoping to contribute to changing the mentality of those who still have prejudices , so that the new generations no longer have to deal with racism and instead always have the respect they deserve ."
