My name is Franca. I’m Italian and I’m white. And I have two children from my former partner who is from Senegal origin, so he is  black. I have witnessed discriminatory attitudes by bringing my son Ahmed to Karate.

I remember that during one of the workouts while I was on the steps of the gym, a mother joins me because she saw that I was inciting Ahmed during the fight. The woman approached me and asked me: “Hi, but where did you get your son?” And I did not understand the question. ” Sorry? In what sense where did I get him? “. The lady “Yes, in the sense, where does he come from, but is he yours?” Me: “Of course I am the mother! Where do you want him to come from if he’s my son? “. The Lady: “Ah I thought he was adopted.”

That lady was upset that I had a colored son, so from a black man, but I understood that her son had also received a racist education. Jibril told me that the lady’s son in the locker room told him that he did not want to fight with him because he is a “negro”.

I was very disappointed because there are children who are not born racist but who become because of the education received. So I decided to involve the Karate teacher, telling him about the episode to intervene to make this child understand that Ahmed is a boy like everyone else, and they can be friends.

The hardest part was explaining to Ahmed what racism was, that he had not experienced until that day. In this I was helped by the teacher, but also by my family who made him feel loved and accepted as he is.

The teacher understood that he had to intervene to unite the elements of the team, so he decided to do a lesson to explain how sport unites all the peoples of the world and showed the various champions of each race. In the end, the lady’s son was isolated and they did not come to Karate anymore. After this experience I became stronger as a mother aware of how much ignorance there is in the world. I believe that we should not be touched by malice and try to instill more security in our own child.

I understood one fundamental thing that the sport practiced in the developmental age, is an instrument for the integration among the children that come from multi-ethnic families like mine. The boys realize that to win they must team up.