By In Trieste
A controversy over Italian school books accused of racism has broken out in recent days leading the publishing group to withdraw the second-grade textbook from circulation.
A Milan teacher, Francesca Sempio, highlighted the offending page from the second-grade book Le avventure di Leo, reports Corriere della Sera.
“It is not the book we use in my class, but it is being adopted in many schools” – said Sempio – “Words fail me to say how racist, vulgar, far from the reality of classes, are the authors and publishers of this thing that I can not call a book.”
The girl doesn’t respond and does a somersault as she gets closer.
“You really are black,” says the boy, touching the girl’s skin with his finger, before she “smiles and runs away.”
The image and its message led to an instant storm on social media, with accusations of racism and calls for the book to be withdrawn immediately.
The Raffaello publishing house has apologized stating that it has edited the page in the new version of the book which is currently being reprinted.
