There was once a time when people believed the world to be
flat, a time when people had no knowledge of those they shared the planet with,
a time when it took months, not hours, to reach faraway lands. Yet, here we are
in 2012, living in a globalised society where we are surrounded by cultures
from across the world, where money is the only barrier from reaching the other
side of the planet, and where overseas communication takes only seconds.
Indeed, it would be safe to say that the United Kingdom is a multicultural
state – there has undoubtedly been significant immigration, particularly since
World War II. Yet, perhaps what is remarkable is how well these immigrant
populations have, across generations, retained both cultural and ethnic
identity, and the scope in which the United Kingdom has allowed these
communities to do so.
Indeed, it would be wrong to suggest that the preservation
of minority identities has been achieved without challenge. There has been a historic
and well documented presence of ethnic and racial tensions in post war Britain,
for example - the 1958 Notting Hill Riots, the 1981 Brixton, Toxteth and Moss
Side Riots and the 2001 Bradford Riots. Yet, despite the presence of far right
extremists, such as the British National Party and English Defence League, the
United Kingdom does offer protection to racial and ethnic minorities through
legislation, such as, the Race Relations Act 1976 and the Equality Act 2010.
While it cannot be denied that racial and ethnic discrimination are still
present both institutionally and within society itself, the United Kingdom is a
state not characterised by fascism but by, though I use this term loosely, ‘equality’.
Since the expansion of the EU, and the growth of so-called ‘Islamic
terrorism’, there has been a degree of scare mongering tactics, promoted by the
likes of the Daily Mail, used to bring multicultural policies into dispute. Baa baa WHITE sheep, the nativity is banned,
halal meat in your children’s school dinner, immigrants stealing our jobs and
sponging off our welfare state, social housing filled with foreigners, terrorists have more human rights than us, they can’t speak a
word of English!!! Of course, while these myths seem to be brought up in conversation
increasingly more, it appears the majority of society do not wish any harm upon
our minority communities – take for example- ‘My Tram Experience’ , the Shilpa Shetty race row, or the public
trial of Liam Stacey.
Yet, underneath this veil of racial and ethnic tolerance,
there is something very unsettling – something which tears apart and refutes
every promise of equality legislation, something that disgraces the UK’s claims of
multiculturalism, and something that leaves only devastation, destruction, and
deprivation in its path: Antiziganism.
So what is Antiziganism?
It is defined, on Wikipedia, as “…hostility, prejudice or racismdirected at the Romani people…”, yet as the majority of British people fail to differentiate,
let us include ‘hostility, prejudice or racism’ towards Irish Travellers as
well. But surely, in multicultural Britain, there is no room for these
attitudes? It appears not, indeed one may say what they wish about the Romani and
Travelling people with a simple get out clause: “I’m not Racist, but….”
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hawky01 Program's like big fat gypsy wedding need to be banned , pikeys are the worst scum ever and deserve to be shot -
CuthbertsonLucy Being a gypo is not a religion, it's just an excuse to steal things and be an embarrassment to human life -
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swimmer_ryry We can no longer use the word 'Gypsy' and must instead use "Caravan Utilising Nomadic Travellers" - the initials are easier to use. #LOL -
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gemmaminty_ gypsy's really make me angry. please just fuck off and live in a proper house and pay taxes like you should be doing, dodging thieves. -
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Jessica_Salter Fuck off gypsies with your shitty speakerphones, we don't have any fucking scrap metal for you. #tramps #getawayfrommyhouse -
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JayneeIsobel Can't believe some fucking gypsy scum kicked my dog and had a go at my mam, all gypsys are fucking cretins. -
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laurakatewest 'gypsy' is not a race, it's a lifestyle, if someone calls you a gypsy, it's not racist you complete idiot -
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Official_Craig Sun = Chavs everywhere. And these gypsy kids need to fuck off and get a wash. #SmellyTramps -
Laauraaaaaaaa Just get a fucking house and pay tax like the rest of us!! Ugh, gypsy's anger me so much!! -
AlJahom How come these pikey cunts get access to the state's levers of victimhood without paying any fucking tax or abiding by the fucking law? -
ArroganceDAP “@Skip_Licker: http://t.co/qOwcqueo” if they don't want to be called pikeys, then they shouldn't be dirty thieving criminal gypsy bastards!! -
- this quote was generated by twtQuote
If we replace the words ‘gypsy’, ‘gypo, ‘pikey’ etc. with racial slurs such as ‘nigger’, ‘paki’, ‘wog’, ‘coon’ and ‘chink’, can it really be argued that these attitudes are not racist? The ethnic minority status of Romani and Irish Travellers is neither recognised nor accepted by the British public. Instead, there are still widespread misconceptions that Gypsies and Travellers are merely a white underclass – ‘chavs’ in caravans – there by choice and thus somewhat deserving of discrimination. However, both Romani Gypsies and Irish Travellers have been granted legal protection under the Race Relations Act and thus have legally recognised ethnic minority status. Still, prejudice and discrimination against the Romani and Irish Traveller communities has remained unchallenged, tolerated and unpunished.
The Irish traveller community, will indeed always contend
with the fact that they are a distinct yet Irish
minority, thus the British public view them merely as Irish immigrants,
undeserving of ‘special treatment’. However, unlike Irish Traveller’s, perhaps
what is most detrimental to the recognition of the Romani people’s ethnic
minority status, is the exact opposite- their lack of a motherland. It seems
easier for society to accept one’s minority status, if they can be pinpointed on
the map. Andrzej is from Poland, he is Polish.
Abena is from Ghana, she is Ghanaian. Kamran is from Pakistan, he is
Pakistani. Anna is from England, she is
A GYPSY? It seems if Anna is white, if Anna is British, then Anna should
subscribe to white British ideals and culture. Anna’s motherland is England. Anna is not an ethnic minority.
If we look past skin colour, caravans and scrap metal, there
is a fascinating history to be discovered. It is thought that the origins of
the Romani people lie in India. Linguistic research has revealed links between
the Romani language and Indo- Aryan languages such as Hindi and Marwari. What
is more, similarities have been found between Romani and Indian blood types. Indeed, when the Romani people arrived in Britain
some 500 years ago, their appearance was thought to be Egyptian – hence the creation of the term Gypsy. What is clear is
that Romani people are a separate ethnicity, and that their culture has been
shaped by origins that lay outside of mainstream British and European societies.
Thus, one cannot become Romani, one can only be born Romani.
Perhaps what is perplexing is this preoccupation with choice
versus ethnicity, for even if one could chose to be Romani, would this make
them deserving of such extreme discrimination as the Nazi extermination (Porajmos).
Indeed, the majority of society remains shocked by the Holocaust, the mass extermination
of the Jewish people, yet Judaism is a religion – one may choose to convert and
thus ‘become’ Jewish. Does this make a convert to Judaism deserving of
discrimination? Do they deserve to die? After all, it was their choice. The
simple truth is that hundreds of thousands of Romani people were murdered by
Nazi Germany and still to this day they have not been giving the recognition
that they deserve. Atrocities and discrimination against the Romani people are
erased from the history books, and snubbed by the mainstream media.
June 1st marks Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History
Month. Unlike Black History Month, there will be no celebrations in our schools,
no special broadcasts on BBC Radio, no series of documentaries on TV. Perhaps
if we’re lucky, More4 may play reruns of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, and a far left
blog may write about our heart-rending tale, read only by those with an already
established interest in our community. If you wish to learn more about the
Romani people, you can read about our dirty thieving ways in the Daily Mail, or
watch a documentary about one great big extended Irish family that represent
the thousands of Romani people in the UK, or why not ask your mum’s friend’s
sister’s husband’s colleagues’ daughter’s cousin about that time 3 Romani’s,
out of a possible 300,000, stole her son’s bike. It seems, there is no place to celebrate
Romani culture in the United Kingdom, only a thousand reasons why we should
hide who we are. Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History month comes once a year but Gypsy,
Roma and Traveller discrimination is an all year party. Some choice.
Outstanding, once more. Your voice is so powerful, Pip. Please keep it coming.
ReplyDeleteNice work mdp...hitting the nail precisely on the head...
ReplyDeleteI agree with all you say apart from choosing to be Jewish in your exploration of the NSDAP approach to discrimination and subsequent extermination. Judaism is of course a religion, however there was a 'scientific' discourse to the racism in Nazi Germany, with physical features identified and measurement taken against a template. It was of course all quackery, but race was more a phenotype issue than a religious issue for the Nazis.
ReplyDeleteFantastic blog mate. Sadly I fear that there will always be a an undertone of racism in parts of British society and it wont be directed solely towards romani peoples but to all minorities. That is a sad fact of life.
ReplyDeleteDespite the hate that BFGW has drenched up and the fact that it has highlighted the negative parts of mainly Irish travellers, it has at least brought up discussions around travellers by the wider community. Whereas before your culture was not unknown but misunderstood. I think it has paved a way for the likes of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller History Month to be celebrated in future years. Although BFGW was a horrible way to start, it could be seen as a place to start to combat the racism. Your blog and the reception it has received is a perfect example of this.
Combating racism sadly takes decades if not longer but I believe there is a slow start.
Sorry If I've rambled bit.
As always you relay all of the points you wish to make really well. It is good that you can write about something you are passionate about. Will you take some time to consider some points, Pip:
ReplyDeleteWe have been a multicultural society for a lot longer than you possibly realise is imperative to your point of view ... have mixed tribally and integrated with scandanavian and many other peoples of Europe early in the history of our country.
We are ultimately a society who thrive in a multicultural environment now, though there are sections of our society who would like to believe they are solely "British" of course this is not actually a possibility and highly unlikely to be true. However, as you have stated our laws have been swayed to favour the opposite view to theirs as our overall culture and mindset and they remain in the minority themselves. The propaganda they spread is their desparation to make their objectives true but they never will be. It is the average British person of the working class who will not allow this to happen as they have not in the past.
The people by majority want and equal society now where no man will be segragated one group from another. A lot of people find this unacceptable and possibly are even quite offended that in these times a group of our society does not wish to have the same input and objectives as them, but moreover want to remain a select and closed group. I would never accept or condone the disgusting and outrageous behaviour of those who would condemn any minority or any person for any reason and totally believe in every person's rights. It is I think though, a difficulty arising of attitudes to what some people perceive as a rejection of a way of life that is offered.
Let me know (kindly) what you think about these points. (Remember, I'm a nana :) )
Your post is so perceptive, a wise head on young shoulders. I am reading a lot about Gypsy identity as part of an MA dissertation (representation of gypsies in English children's literature- at best stereotypes, at worst malicious and racist) The point is that if we see past the romanticisation of origins and identities the English Roma and travellers ARE English. Being here for over 500 years in some cases makes them more English than most.
ReplyDeleteI hope some people enjoy some of the events (minimal though they are) in celebration of GRTHM.
Opre Roma!
Pip there are celebrations in schools of GRT History Month.
ReplyDeleteTraveller Education Services are involved - we've got one promoted down here in the city library and in schools. Always see some excellent work produced for it by our young people down here.
Oh and those twitter people should be arrested...
ReplyDeleteArticulate, brilliant, powerful and thought provoking as always. Yet again I've learnt from you.
ReplyDeleteAgain, such an excellent post, and so well voiced.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.requiemforauschwitz.eu/index.html
ReplyDeleteDo you know about this orchestra?
Riccardo M Sahiti, the founder and director, told an awful story in a radio feature. How he asked Daniel Barenboin to support the idea of the orchestra and that famous man asked him what he meant by "roma", whether he spoke about the capital of Italy, and when he heard "gypsy if you want" he left the conversation. Now I hope for Barenboim that this has been a misunderstanding or that he has changed his mind!
Powerful blog on an important question
ReplyDeleteThank you for this piece. I wish more people would hear this and begin to think about it...
ReplyDeleteWell said - there is a saying that I strive to live by "How you treat me is YOUR Karma, how I react is MINE" and you show everyone how we may lead by example and rise above the unpleasantness by continuing to live by standards and treat people fairly. Progress against racism is slow but I do believe that remaining composed and striving to be articulate, forthright and standing proud will achieve better more lasting progress than through any hostile reactions which seem only to add to the already high wall of hostility that separates people.
ReplyDeleteWell said. Keep up the belief:
"N'avlom ke tumende o maro te mangel. Avlom ke tumende kam man pativ te den."
One of the fundamental problems in the Dale Farm and wider Gypsy debate is a complete misunderstanding of what a race is. I don't think anybody would deny that the Romani people are a distinct racial and ethnic group which could be anthropologically and genetically verified in the same way a Caucasian is demonstrably racially distinct from a Negro. Irish Gypsy's on the other hand, I'm afraid, would never qualify as a distinct racial or ethnic group. They might have some particular customs and life-style habits that are specific to a certain number of families or group of individuals, but racially speaking, they are Celtic-Gaels like the vast majority of the inhabitants of the Irish Republic. Nor does Irish Gypsy dialect, language or religion mark them out as genetically or ethnically distinct from the rest of the non-nomadic Irish people. Romany people do have a unique and distinct culture and set of ancestral customs and are a different matter altogether, but I'm afraid as regards Irish Gypsys, they are the remnants of 17th and 18th century mobile Irish immigrant communities who traveled the country performing seasonal agricultural labour prior to the Industrial Revolution. After Industrialization their primary function as farm workers was removed and they have become as we see them today, insular clans of semi-nomadics who are often petty thieves and casual criminals, deeply hostile to anyone outside their own clannish community. It is extremely annoying to see very Middle Class and very English socialists label Irish Travelers as a distinct race-group, in some ways it is insulting to the Romany people who possess their own language and historic culture, and are true Gypsy's in the orginal sense of the word.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it matters how far back your nomadic roots go, if a group of people are discriminated against, stereotyped, despised and oppressed (as both Romani and Irish Travellers are) then it stinks. Educating people about differences in two distinct populations who are both treated as interchangeable by a ignorant and often hostile majority is valuable in breaking down barriers and prejudices but battling it out over who are the "true" Gypsies and who are the "petty thieves and casual criminals" surely won't help anyone, will it?
DeleteThe difference is the "true Gypsies" originated from India, and traveled to Europe, and were easily identifiable and were enslaved. The Irish Travelers that have been in Europe for five hundred years are White people, and except for their lifestyle are indistinguishable from other White people. So unless they say that they are Gypsies or Travelers no one would know. This isn't the case say for a Black person who is not mixed, or for an Asian or Hispanic person who is not mixed. The Irish Travelers or Gypsies are look like other Whites. They have pale skin, blond, brunette or red hair, blue or brown eyes,White features etc. So they are not a racial minority under attack, they are under attack because of their lifestyle, which is wrong, but it is very different from being a non-White person facing discrimination. Initially they were not White people. Now after living in Europe for five hundred years they are White people.
DeleteIrish travellers have, or had anyway - it's being eroded gradually - their own distinct language, a creole based on Hiberno-English that has elements of English & Gaelic but which was back in the 90th century intelligible to neither English speakers nor speakers of Gaelic.
DeleteRegarding genetics, Wikipedia says "In 2011 an analysis of DNA from 40 Travellers was undertaken at the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin and the University of Edinburgh. The study provided evidence that Irish Travellers are a distinct Irish ethnic minority, who separated from the settled Irish community at least 1000 years ago; the claim was made that they are distinct from the settled community as Icelanders are from Norwegians. Even though all families claim ancient origins, not all families of Irish Travellers date back to the same point in time; some families adopted Traveller customs centuries ago, while others did so more recently. It is unclear how many Irish Travellers would be included in this distinct ethnic group at least from a genetic perspective." - so this indicates that although there may be periodic intermarriage with previously non-Traveller families, there's a core, so to speak, who split from the Irish population a long while back. For a long while there was a superstition among the settled Irish that if you married a Traveller you'd lose your land forever, & become rootless & unable to ever settle again, which must have been something of a deterrent to integration. This kinda says to me the Irish travellers are a distinct ethnic group - they have their own culture, and a set of genetic markers that mark them out as different from the rest of the Irish. What more does one need?
Thank you for this. Really, thank you.
ReplyDeleteI believe that most of the hateful comments about Gypsies, aka Romani aka Travelers,stem from the belief that it is "ok" to say these horrible things about them. It is not because people lack knowledge of their culture, it is because all over the world this type of behavior is condoned. This is the same way Blacks were treated and still are to a large degree, the way Jews, Muslims, Hispanics,Native Americans, poor people, women,certain religious groups, the mentally ill, the disabled, and those in the GLBT community, have been treated and still are. Unless people begin to make these connections, this ignorance will continue to perpetuate. People have a right to live however they choose, and not be singled out for it. And it is ridiculous to believe that crime stems from the Travelers. If that was the case our prisons would be filled with Gypsies and they are not. In America the prisons are filled with Black, and Hispanic men, for the most part. In the city in which i live i am sure there are Gypsies,or Travlers, even though i have never met any. There are 400 homicides a year in this city, and they are not committed by Gypsies, because the victims are usually young Black men, and it is Black on Black crime. I don't see any Gypsies on the corners selling drugs. The robberies, assaults, rapes, child rapes,burglaries,are committed by the people who reside in that particular community. The streets of Philadelphia, Pa are not made unsafe by Gypsies aka Travelers. So it is complete stupidity to blame crimes on a particular group. It is blatant ignorance and dumb. And as a Black person i take offense to any group being singled out.
ReplyDeleteHi from the U.S. of A. Very timely and perspicacious (is that a word?) Prejudice and hatred are hard for some to overcome. It requires a generous ability to empathize and project yourself into a situation. The issues involving the Roma are in many ways similar the social ills brought about by prejudice against blacks and indians in this country. They were segregated, enslaved, disenfranchised, reviled, caricatured and ultimately relegated to the margins of society where they developed their own separate code and culture stripped of most historical connections.
ReplyDeleteI am an American Gypsy From Portland, Oregon...Great Piece. We should connect sometime.. share experiences of being a Gypsy in a world that isn't so accepting of us. Left you an add on Facebook btw!
ReplyDelete-Adam
I have had very minimal connection to and interaction with the Traveller community but have always found the prominence of anti-Traveller sentiment extremely upsetting, particularly in a society that claims to be accepting of ethnic minorities. What upsets me the most is the way people who are otherwise reasonable and open-minded, and who would be horrified if they were ever accused of racism, accept and propagate negative stereotypes without question. I have always felt helpless in the face of such widespread animosity, and that my attempts to challenge it (chiefly rants, some more articulate than others, and an article in my student paper last year, but nothing so constructive as this blog) have fallen on deaf ears. When the council wanted to establish a legal Traveller site outside the village I come from, for example, the arguments against it were so vicious and so misguided I just despaired. One bright spark even photocopied an article from the Sun entitled 'Gypsies ruined our kids' school' and left it lying around the village hall. How to even BEGIN reasoning with these people?
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind I am so, so encouraged and enthused to have found this blog - you articulate everything I have ever wanted to say on this issue and more. And your arguments have so much more weight to them than those made by people like me, both because they are rooted in a deep understanding of the culture (and cannot be dismissed as bleeding heart liberal attempts to set the world to rights), but also because they reveal you to be educated, articulate and ambitious, which in itself disproves many of the Daily Mail/Channel 4's favourite stereotypes. It's people like you who can really make a difference, so keep it up, and I will publicise this blog to everyone I know!
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ReplyDeleteHalal Meat Philadelphia
im a gypsy and proud so fuck all u racist bastards
ReplyDeleteCould we put all these scums gypsy on a freaking island and left them there,.they will have to start farming and working to survive atleast! i hate them tooo,.
ReplyDeleteCan you even read?
Delete