Romany people protest against discrimination.
Q: What links a former USSR army officer and the decidely middle class inhabitants of a rural Gloucestershire community?
A: They both have what can politely be described as “unfavourable” views of ‘Gypsies’.
In a 21st Century world where slimy toads such as Nick Griffin and Jean-Marie Le Pen can be rightly lambasted for their hateful and xenophobic political views, why is it that ‘gypsies’ are still reviled across Europe?
Sure there are horror stories about light-fingered pickpockets and travellers who run roughshod over the law. But in communities where they are unequivocally shunned, sometimes they don’t really have many other choices.
When I was in Odessa, in the Ukraine, an ex-USSR army officer said to me that he had once been ‘hypnotised’ by a gypsy lady into buying her wares.
In Moldova, a family I was staying with told me to watch my valuables when they saw a family of Romany board our trolleybus.
In Romania where the Romany are utterly reviled, Madonna was booed when she expressed sadness over the hatred levelled at the gypsy population in Eastern Europe. Can’t say I’m the old bats biggest fan, but she was spot on here.
In Italy, here’s a pretty worrying example of how they’re discriminated against. And here’s one from Belfast too.
And even in my own sleepy home of Newent, Gloucestershire, the (admittedly pretty illegal) actions of some travellers brought howls of opprobrium from normally rational folk.
The examples could go on really. And if anything, within the UK it actually appears to have gotten worse.
So why, in a society where we have rightly renounced all other kinds of hatred based on a persons race, does this lazy hateful stereotyping continue?
When someone makes a comment wholy based on another persons appearance or culture, they are right to be shouted down. Why doesn’t this rule apply to the Romany and other traveller communities of the UK and the rest of the world?
All people deserve equality. And that certainly isn’t what the Romany are getting.
Racist propaganda from a Romanian nationalist party: pretty sure you can understand the point it's trying to make.
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