Anti-racism campaign in Koulibaly saga backfires after artist uses monkeys

A football anti-racism initiative from Italy featuring paintings of monkeys has received widespread criticism after its release on Monday.

According to CNN, artist Simone Fugazzotto came up with the idea due to Coppa Italia finals between Lazio and Atlanta.

The artist said his intention of using monkeys was to show that there is no difference between humans and apes after watching a match between Inter Milan and Napoli.

“Everyone was making the sound of monkeys at Koulibaly, a player I respect,I’ve always been painting monkeys for five to six years, so I thought I’d make this work to teach that we’re all apes, so I made the western monkey  white with blue eyes the Asian monkey with almond eyes and the black monkey in the middle, which is where everything comes from, this is what the evolutionary theory tells us,” Fugazzotto told CNN reporters.

However, the reaction of the artwork has been negative compared to the artists expectation.

According to an email sent to CNN, Fugazzotto said that he was shocked by the people’s reaction on his work.

“Over the years, I painted almost every virtue, weakness and madness of the human being through the form of the chimpanzee, which allows me to express the soul of the human being though the looks but ridiculing the habits, the tics and the unhealthy habits,” he  said

“These creations are an outrage, they will be counter-productive and continue the de-humanization of people of African heritage,” said anti-discrimination organization Fare on its Twitter feed.

I don’t know why we keep expecting different. This is plain as day that they either really don’t understand or are blatantly derogatory. We demand an apology from @SerieA_EN pic.twitter.com/nSZdwPd9bi

— Laura Walubengo (@lwalubengo) December 17, 2019

Earlier this month, an Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport was widely criticized for previewing a soccer game with the headline Black Friday.

The banner was accompanied by photographs of former Manchester United teammates Chris Smalling and Romelu Lukaku.