The Invisible Minority — Part 1: The Romani People
Why the Roma Have Been Forgotten
By Celeste W., and Kathryn H. Edited by Angela G., and Doug G. (With a Special thanks to Zell S.) (Keywords: Human Rights, Slavery, Romany, Roma, Gypsy, Romani, Minorities, Justice, Racism, Genocide, History.) This is part of a series. (Next: Part 2: A Short History)
Prologue
This is part of a series on the Romani people (Roma). The people writing this cannot speak for all Roma. The authors are of Romani heritage and, unlike many Roma who were denied the opportunity, were able to get an education that allows them to do secondary research and read academic publications.
Roma are sometimes called “gypsies.” Many Roma consider “gypsy” a slur; some Roma have embraced and reclaimed the term. Some Roma use it with pride and some Roma avoid the term altogether. “Gypsy” has a lot of historical and cultural weight and will not be used here unless talking explicitly about the term itself.
Part 1: The Romani People
The Romani people are a forgotten minority group. Low population, poverty, and Hollywood’s treatment of Roma have made them, at best, a civil rights afterthought.
Who Are the Roma?
The Roma are an ethnic group that originated in India. Roma traveled from India through Western Asia, The Middle East, and later Europe. They are descendants of multiple groups that span halfway around the globe. Most modern-day Roma live in the Middle East or Europe, but there are Roma that live on every inhabited continent.
Roma are linked to each other by their unique genetics and also by their culture.
The Roma Face Hardship
The Romani people faced hardship, enslavement, and discrimination when they arrived in Europe. Hardship and discrimination continue into the new century and, unfortunately, have shaped the modern Romani identity. According to the European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), Roma across Europe continue to be subjected to extreme poverty, discrimination, and inappropriate or harmful medical care. The ERCC reported that Romani children are overly represented in state care across Europe, with “between 27% and 32%” of children placed in state care in the Czech Republic being of Romani heritage. This is despite the fact that Roma represent less than 3% of the total population of that country. The ERRC reported that this goes against legislation stating that poverty is not sufficient reason to place a child in foster care.
Romani women have been the victims of systemic involuntary sterilizations as recently as the 1990s, yet recognition of discrimination has been low.
In the United Kingdom, there have been many attempts made to eliminate Romani culture through the elimination of traditional ‘stopping places’ and force families to settle and assimilate into mainstream White culture.
This is both a historical and modern issue.
“It is an undeniable fact that a large part of the gypsy ethnicity lives outside of any laws, rules, and general human norms of behaviour.” — Former Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister, Valeri Simeonov (from a statement made in 2017)
In 2021, Prime Minister Karakachanov of Bulgaria described his issues with Roma in racist terms by saying that he wanted to prevent the ‘the creeping gypsyisation of society’. Yet this kind of racist slander is tolerated by the European Union and ignored by the majority of international news.
(http://www.errc.org)(http://www.errc.org/news/bulgarias-litany-of-hate-five-things-leading-politicians-said-about-roma)(https://www.reuters.com/article/us-czech-roma/czech-president-defends-assertion-that-most-roma-dont-work-idUSKCN1MH0Q5)
Roma Are Diverse
This group isn’t a monolith; there is no single Romani experience. There are different groups of Roma (often referred to as Vistas in English), including but not limited to the Sinti, Manush, Romanichals, Kalé, Gitano, and many others. All of these groups have faced extreme challenges and persecution, even in countries like the United States.
(https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2015/04/roma-in-europe-11-things-you-always-wanted-to-know-but-were-afraid-to-ask/#:~:text=Who%20are%20Roma%3F,as%20well%20as%20many%20others.) (https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2020/12/20/romani-americans-struggle-with-inherent-criminality-stereotypes)
There is a perception that it is okay to be racist against Roma because, unlike other ethnic groups, there is very little advocacy, general awareness, and knowledge about them.
Roma Culture
The Romani people have a culture of secrets; this has developed because of a need to protect themselves from exploitation. They don’t share their traditions, beliefs, or even the makeup of their families with people outside their families or tribe. The Romani people have a culture of secrets; this has developed because of a need to protect themselves from exploitation. They don’t share their traditions, beliefs, and even the makeup of their families with people outside their family or tribes. They give little information about their day-to-day family lives to outsiders. There is also a mythos that has been created around Romani people that they are somehow mythical creatures and not human. Both the culture of secrets and the mythos are a result of centuries of persecution. Romani society was pushed to the edge of civilization because racist laws prevented them from living in many towns and cities. Some Roma have historically been migratory and this is partly because they were legally banned from places. There is a false belief that they were migratory because they historically chose to be. This often was not the case. If they were allowed to remain in a country, they were banned from many professions throughout the centuries, and therefore turned to trade, fine crafts, and fortune-telling to make enough money to feed their families. Some of them were trapped in countries and had to live on the outskirts of society for centuries or face death. The secrets, the mythos, and being separated from society mean Roma are othered. They become the unknown and mysterious. People don’t think of them as a minority group.
(https://mondediplo.com/2015/05/13Roma) (https://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/video/we-call-ourselves-roma) (https://www.coe.int/en/web/commissioner/-/time-to-cure-amnesia-about-the-history-of-roma-in-europe)
There is Shared DNA
Many Roma have similar facial features, hair types, hair color, and eye color to each other. Like other ethnic groups, they share DNA. This is because they share common ancestors and a common ancestral mix.
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4687076/) (https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgene.2018.00462/full)
There is a wide range of skin tones among individuals, even within families. This is because the founding population came from different regions. Some Roma have more European features due to centuries of intermarriage and rape, which makes them less physically identifiable as Roma.
Modern Roma, like other ethnic groups, have married and had children with people who are not Roma.
This means there are Roma who look different from the stereotype.
(https://www.nature.com/articles/ejhg2015201#)
The Romani people are diverse. There is not one unified Romani voice. There are many Romani voices, and they deserve to be recognized and heard.
