While I find Berlusconi's remarks deeply embarassing (not just this one about Obama!), they do not make me ashamed to be Italian, as I never voted for him nor ever will. Carla Bruni should have weighted her words better; with her careless remarks, all she does is sink to his level.

Fede, Italy,

It's absurd that Americans commenting on here think that they now hold the moral high ground on racial equality just because Obama has got the Presidency. Most white americans I know are inherently racist but they like to sweep the topic under the rug. There's not enough open discourse on race in US

Leroy, Houston, USA

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended segregation in public facilities, restaurants, motels, etc. In 1992 refusing to serve blacks would not only have been unlikely but illegal. Then Senator and soon to be Republican candidate Goldwater voted against the bill- and he south turned solid republican...

Jonathan Weiss, New York, USA

Americans take note: Britain passed the first act of abolition of slave trading in UK Parliament in 1792. The US grudgingly abolished the slave trade after the South lost the American civil war in 1865. I think that shows a pretty clear timeline for the leaders in progression of human rights.

Alfonzo Bonzp, Las Palmas, Spain

Ron/David - take note!
In 1964, we drove from Toronto to Florida.
In So.Carolina we stopped at a gas station.
As I walked towards the outside restrooms I was told to "go into the restaurant".
I then observed a sign "coloreds only".
We then rode a bus - the blacks sat in the back....

lyn, santa barbara, calif., usa

Carla Bruni is embarassing, as France First Lady shouldn't talk so rude about Italy and Italian. She really insulted my country, we wait her to apoligize.
US and UK please don't be funny talking about slavery and its abolition, your wealth has been founded on that!

massimiliano, london, Italy

I would like some proof of this claim that she had to eat in private in a South Carolina restaurant in 1992. I am from S. Carolina and find this pretty unlikely...

BTW: North Carolina and South Carolina are two different states...

Erin, Charlotte, NC, USA

I don't believe there was a restaurant in North Carolina in 1992 that would not serve blacks. That was gone long before then. It's absurd.

All that went away in the 60's.

Michael, Napa, USA

Carla is cute llke Sara. I love them both.

Robert, Amarillo,Tx, USA

To: Chad, London (via Dallas) "...America still have to catch up with the Great Britain.": Oh yes I had noticed the diversity of the Royal Family.

Silvia, Davis, USA

Carla thought that she was shunned in 1992 because she was traveling with a woman of color? In 1992? I find that pretty unlikely if it had happened in 1972, and unbelievable now. That is pretty cool. In 36 years we have gone from overt racism being unlikely to being completely un-done. In America.

Ziv, Arlington,

Slavery is not racism. Those two are and have separate histories... Racism against the black race was invented by the Anglo-saxons! Before the barbarians got civilizations from the Greeks and Romans nobody talked about race... Infact before then historical texts do not put any substance on race.

paulo, kuala lumpur,

Well said, Mrs Bruni-Sarkozy!

I like the way she speaks as an immigrant herself who has integrated and set home in France. I hope that people who emigrated in a new country to find a new home find ways of integrating and voicing their opinions.

Dominique Hoffman, Belfast , United Kingdom

Affirmative action isn't non-discriminatory. Where does Bruni think "minority preferences" originate, if not by way of DISCRIMINATING against innocent people,
politically stereotyped as "oppressors. " Stereotype-driven politics is always racist, no matter how many super models insist otherwise.

JR, Nashville, TN, USa

Britain and the United States were the FIRST countries in world history to outlaw slavery. Some African countries still practice it.Slaves were captured by blacks ,sold to Arab slave traders before white slave buyers bought them."Slave" is derived from Slav, peoples enslaved before blacks ever were

Betty, north stonington, CT, USA

Well, it was predictable that this publicity-obsessed woman would cause Sarkozy problems at some stage, not that his own behaviour is a paragon of dignity.

Gervas Douglas, Andorra la Vella, Andorra

Good for you, Carla! Someone needed to take the blowhard to task.

Billie, Bethesda, usa

I write only this:

http://www.notspeakinginmyname.com/

not all the italians are like Silvio Berlusconi

Angela, Catania, Italy

Carla Bruni's correct in this instance. Italy and France have a long way to go in terms of racial integration. Italy especially, with their dramatically ageing population and reliance on exports need to wake up, the EU won't keep subsidising it forever if it refuses to grow up and play by the rules.

Fergus, London, UK

I absolutely refuse to believe that in 1992, a US restaurant in South Carolina, or anywhere else in the US, refused service to a person on the basis of race. Not only is it an open invitation to a business-ending lawsuit, but people simply are no longer predisposed to behave in such a manner here.

Bill, Asheville, North Carolina, USA

What have the black and North African immigrants done to integrate into the French ways of life? why must the locals have to change

Also affirmative action is just a charter for losers. I’m not good at this but I’m black so I win

How will this combat racism ?

knight, aberdeen, uk

That's odd. I lived in Charleston, S.C. in 1992. I'm sure that Ms. Bruni remembers that "Spoleto Festival USA was founded in 1977 by Gian Carlo Menotti." The 2009 Spoleto Festival would no doubt be honored by Ms. Bruni and Ms. Campbell's attendance!

K . A. Gardner, Jacksonville, United States

Most European countries have an ethnic definition of nationality, and this is especially true in the Mediterranean countries. This automatically precludes people of a different skin colour (including, incidentally, in Spain, blonde-haired, fair-skinned northerners) from ever being fully accepted.

David Pritchard, Madrid, Spain

why do first wives insist on having their views heard at the top table? just because your married to the president or prime minister it doesnt mean what you have a right to speal on the same level. hillary clintons primary campaign was run on the basis that her being first lady counted as experience

will, grimsby, uk

If I'm not mistaken, France has a new Senator ("Parliament" in France is the National Assembly + the Senate) from Arab origins since last senatorial elections: Samia Galli, from the Socialist Party.

Mike, London, UK

It is also racism to cast a wide net over comments about race to assume that they are negative or otherwise improper.

Keith, New York, USA

Oh Chad in Britain, you are so chic and correct. We are trying so hard to catch up with the British. If only we had Camilla and Elton, we might have a chance.

Roberto , Charlotte, USA

It's highly doubtful that in 1992 that Naomi Cambell, or any black for that matter, would have been denied service in a restaurant. Laws prohibiting racial discrimination have existed for many years here and it's not likely that this would not have been reported in the press.

Jeff, Rochester, USA

I expect Britain to have a black PM in the very near future . The British have always been in the forefront of racial equality , when they were not colonizing and enslaving entire continents .

nat turner, Cannes, France

In answer to Ken in Miami, the best path that Britain could take is the one that leads to exiting the EU.

It's the worse thing that ever happened to the UK (good for politicians obviously), and as a 43 year I have never had a vote on membership.

Andrew Munn, Hereford, UK

Eternal guache caviar....
If Madame Bruni Sarkozy is happy to be French, we Italian are happy she is no longer Italian!

Il Mango, Roma, Italy

It's not far fetched that according to the world the future, we will have laws saying that one of my two sons must marry a person of color?

mike licavoli, texas, usa

Ken Boe, forcing the Euro on unwilling citizians was easy. Forcing citizians to change two millenia of history is impossible, witness Jugoslavia and the Soviet Union.

Barry Samways, London, UK

Why is everyone so obsessed with labelling a country as one thing or the other? You cannot define a whole nation by the actions of a few. You can't say France is not a racist country but Italy is because of the actions of one or even several individuals.

James, Sydney ,

Why this enthusiasm about Europe's ethnocultural deconstruction, for it's ancestral native population minorization and dissolution? Europeans wont resign to dissapear only because Bruni says so. Bruni should read Pascal Bruckner's "La tyrannie de la pénitence : Essai sur le masochisme occidental".

Guillaume, Perpignan, France

In 1992 the police chief of Charleston was Rueben Greenburg, a black Jewish man. It is a rather sophisticted city and I doubt Ms. Campbell's story. I have been working in the penisula city since 1980 and I have never witnessed anyone refusing to serve black people.

Lara, Charleston SC, USA

As with Tony Blair,s wife, the Hungarian President of France can,t keep his Italian wife silent. Voters whoever they are vote for a leader not their wife,s. They should stay in the background and be quiet, then there would be no damage made. Senator Obama will become the first black President good

james j. mertins , st.albans, united kingdom

In my country is still possible to say that we think, the political correctnesse is like a chain in the anglo-saxon world, politics apologize every time, what bad end for a glorious people..
I'm sorry for Carlà but, is the blood and not a paper to do a nationality.

Giovanni, Pisa, Italia

US slavery was a European institution, during the first 150 years of slavery in the US, the US belonged to Europe. It took 90 years to erase the last vestiges of European imperialism from our shores. Plantations were invented by the British to fill their coffers with the blood and sweat of slaves

Steve, NY, USA

The day the Seine turned red? How we forget!

Gavrilo Prinzip, Bromley, UK

Re the 1992 claim, I can only say I was often made to feel my 'colour' in places in the southern US when I worked for a US company in the 1990s. Overt racism did not and has not ended in the US - just check out comments posted on blogs (including "Times Online"). As for Europe, good on you Carla!

Karin, London, UK

We do not have the racist problems here as much as Europe says we do. Most of this fear is fabricated by the media.
We have come a long way since the civil rights day and most do not have a problem with an African American in the White House.

Faith Glade, Auburn,

Ken Boe,

I love your comment, however, I do believe that the UK has been more avant garde in race relations, compared to Europe because of Historical and immigration factors which have forced this to be the case.

Sheila Atuona, London, UK

Even when illegal you still have to leave the restaurant and pursue your grievance in court.

Andrew G O'Donnell, Sacramento,CA., USA

I wouldn't allow Naomi Campbell into my premises either.

Pearson, Cape Town, South Africa

I find it highly curious that so many think it's only the white people who are supposed to mix and breed with others so to form one group. Is this going to be done in a PC manner? Will the government set up breeding farms? Affirmative action is simply PC discrimination against whites.

Gini, New York City, USA

In what way does Ms Bruni imagine the 'integration' of muslim youth in France ? How long will it take and how much is it going to cost ? Why shouldn't I or anyone else regard such hypocritical moralising as being irrelevant in the real world. Things are going to get a lot worse - think Yugoslavia !

peter, Manchester, UK

Wait One Spain Minute

Are you saying it if Berlusconi makes a bad joke, All Italians are bigots? What about the Spanish Olympic team and it advertisers making the Chinese slant eye picture for an ad campaign directed at the general Spanish public?

jack, assisi, italy

I guess it is ok to make up any story you like when you are married to an important and powerful person. It is laughable that a person would be denied service in 1992 in South Carolina. 1952 or 1962, possibly, but 1992, that's a lie.

David, Cincinnati, USA

It may have been against the law not to serve black people in SC in 1992, but I witnessed the same treatment of two black men in military uniform not being served at a Holiday Inn, in NC, in 1991.Racism still lives in the the southern states of the USA

John Weir, Essex, USA

If commentators Ron and David think that racism ended in the US in 1962 or 64 they are not from the US.

Jerry, Alexandria VA,

I should think that there are many establishments who would prefer not to have Ms Campbell as a guest. If the media is to be beleived she is notoriously rude and difficult. Who said that it had anything to do with her colour?

Miriam , Villebois Lavalette, France

Well said Elizabeth ! How true, France does not have a racial problem because it does not dare speak it's name.
It's noticeable in my part of France it's rare to see a black face. Not one in the long line of checkout tills of hypermarkets etc. The people in the Banlieus know this.
Hypocrisy rules !

maggie millington, brittany, france

So Ms. Bruni is glad to have become French...so are the rest of the Italians.
Seriously, the fact that a foreigner, to be accepted as a first lady, has to show despisal for her own native Country says a lot about France open-mind...

Salvo, ROME, ITALY

David, Charleston - Campbell is not African American. She's British.

I doubt Bruni's claims of blatant racism in a Southern restaurant. Was Campbell being her volitile self? hmm

Bruni is a pot stirrer looking to keep her name in the news- just what US/France relations doesn't need.

DJ, Michigan, USA

All Berlusconi did was confirm the fact that Italy is basically a country full of racial bigots that in reality despises & is even prejudiced against many of its own countrymen & its own European neighbours let alone the other countries & races in the world.

carbine, Almeria, Spain

Having lived in France for 11 years, I can honestly report that the entire French populace systematically discriminates non-French born people in very way possible. Carla Bruni is ideally placed to shame the whole country into acting in a decent way towards its fellow man, more in keeping with the world power it wants to be

AB, France, France

Zut alors, the ornamental madame sarkozy has said something sensible!1!

eric, paris,

It is an obviously fabricated lie that an African American model would be refused service at a public restaurant in South Carolina in 1992. Racial discrimination in public accomodations (including restaurants) has been illegal in the United States since 1964. Journalism requires fact checking.

David, Charleston , USA

With all due respect to Ms. Bruni, unless she time-traveled to 1962 for that visit to S. Carolina, I think she's mistaken as to the reason they ate in.

Restaurants in the South are required by law not to discriminate against their patrons. I've never experienced anything like she describes.

Ron, SW Florida, USA

Ken Boe makes a good point.

The average white male in Britain wants nothing to do with anything foreign.

The worst of our politicians and newspapers play on this in the guise of patriotism. It is a form of racism which they do nothing to address.

richard mullens, London, Europe

Its great that America has taken another step to overcoming its racism problems. Much of Europe still suffers from these problems too. They and America still have a long way to go to catch up with the Great Britain, but at least progress is being made.

Chad, London (via Dallas),

Having lived in France for a number of years, it's my opinion that France is no less racist that the US ever was. France pretends that racism is something that doesn't happen there, thus alienating an entire population of people At least here in the US we admit our shameful past and seek solutions

Elizabeth , Pocatello, USA

If Europe could mix its currencies into the Euro, they can mix their races and cultures into the Human Race. Scientifically, the mixing of currencies was more of a risk; which path is Great Britain taking first?

Ken Boe, Miami Arizona, United States