A Black Italian rugby player said Wednesday that a Secret Santa gift exchange turned offensive when teammates gave him a rotten banana.
Cherif Traore, a 28-year-old prop for Benetton Treviso, wrote that he anonymously received the present in a trash bag during a Christmas dinner with other players.
“Apart from finding it an offensive gesture, what hurt me the most was to see that most of my teammates who were present were laughing. As if it was all normal,” he said, per Reuters.
“I haven’t slept all night,” he continued.
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In an English translation of his Instagram post about the incident (see below), Traore, who originally hails from Guinea but has lived in Italy since age 7, said he does not normally respond to “racist jokes” to keep the peace.
“I have decided not to remain silent this time to ensure that episodes like this don’t happen again to prevent other people finding themselves in my current situation in the future,” he wrote in Italian. “And hoping the sender will learn a lesson.”
The United Rugby Championship has ordered Benetton to launch a full investigation and punish those responsible, the Guardian reported.
Benetton Rugby told Reuters it condemns discrimination and that it gathered members of the rugby union squad to apologize to Traore. Traore accepted the apologies, the Associated Press reported.
On Wednesday, Benetton Rugby posted a video of Traore, with a tweet that said his teammates understood their mistake.
Traore has also played for Italy’s national team.
Bigoted behavior against Black athletes in Italy has reportedly been rampant in its most popular sport, soccer. It’s also a problem in volleyball and basketball.
