Fare i conti con un passato che non passa. Un percorso di ricerca su colonialismo e razzismi nelle scuole secondarie del Veneto

The paper argues that to counter the systematic denial or downplaying of racism in Italian society, it is crucial to understand the role of colonialism in shaping contemporary inequalities. We studied the issues of colonialism and racism in secondary schools in the Veneto region, exploring how it is possible to question Eurocentrism and recognize racial injustices. The paper starts with a discussion on the opportunity to decolonize education, in order to critically move beyond the myth of «Italians good people». The first part of the paper introduces the research, the important role of counter-narratives (in our case, a novel created by an afro-Italian writer) and presents the subjective production of text/drawings made by students to critically reflect on the legacy of Italian colonialism. In the second part, the paper shows how focus groups among students were useful to explore racialization at work in the lives of young people and how important it is to reckon with the white people's superiority complex. Finally, the paper reflects on everyday processes of humiliation and the search for dignity, arguing that antiracist action-research has the potential to open space for building symbolic bridges across different systems of domination and to facilitate mutual recognition among students.