Roma

{{race}}
The '''Romani''', also known as '''Romany''', '''Roma''', '''Rom''', '''Manouche''', '''Tsigane''', '''Kale''', or "'''Gypsies'''", are an [[ethnic group]] of Indian origin (specifically Indo-Aryan) primarily found in [[Europe]], although there are also significant Roma communities in the [[United States]] and [[Brazil]]. {{wpl|Romani language|Romani}} (Romani: ''rromani ćhib''), an [[India|Indo]]-[[Aryan]] [[Indo-European languages|language]], is their traditional [[language|mother tongue]].

The Romani are a frequent target of [[racism]]. About a million Roma perished in the [[Holocaust]]; a greater proportion of Europe's Romani were killed than Europe's [[Jews]], and the Romani were totally wiped out in several countries.<ref>{{wpa|Porajmos}}</ref> Romani were also targeted in [[communist]] countries for [[Eugenics|forced sterilization]] to lower their birthrate.<ref name="live"/> Racism against the Roma people is sometimes called "'''[[antiziganism]]'''" (from the German ''Zigeuner'', literally meaning "Gypsy"), but the term has been criticised because it incorporates an anti-Roma slur.

==Terminology==
The proper name for these people is "Romani." Most people know them as "gypsies." "Gypsy" is derived from "[[Egypt]]," based on a misnomer that came from the 16<sup>th</sup> century, when it was incorrectly thought that the Romani originated in Egypt; hence many Romani consider the term "gypsy" to be derogatory. [[linguistics|Linguistic]] and [[genetic]] evidence reveals that the Romani migrated away from northern or northwest India around 1,500 years ago.<ref name="live">[http://www.livescience.com/25294-origin-romani-people.html Origin of the Romani People Pinned Down] ''LiveScience''</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8136812.stm On the road: Centuries of Roma history], BBC, 8 July 2009</ref> The Romani arrived in the Balkans roughly 900 years ago and migrated throughout the continent from there.<ref>[Reconstructing the Population History of European Romani from Genome-wide Data] ''Current Biology.'' Volume 22, Issue 24, 18 December 2012, Pages 2342-2349</ref>

The term can also be confusing since other travelling communities are often referred to as "gypsies" (with or without a capital letter), including [[Irish]] Travellers (also 'pavees', or pejoratively known as 'pikeys' or 'tinkers',<ref>{{wpa|Irish Travellers}}</ref> most of whom are not ethnically Romani) and sometimes "[[New Age]] travellers" (including [[hippies]] and other drop-outs from mainstream white society<ref>{{wpa|New Age travellers}}</ref>). These communities also often suffer prejudice and economic disadvantage despite their different origins.<ref>[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/discriminating-against-gypsies-and-travellers-is-common-across-britain-report-finds-a6919651.html Discriminating against Gypsies and Travellers is 'common across Britain', report finds], Chris Green, ''The Independent'', 9 March 2016</ref>

==Traditions and stereotypes==
[[File:Antoni Kozakiewicz - Kartomantka.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Romani camp in Poland, painted 1884.]]
Romani communities have often been nomadic, living on the road in caravans — conventionally horse-drawn wooden wagons, which can still be seen in parts of Eastern Europe, or else modern mobile homes — and moving their camp from place to place, providing seasonal migrant labour and cash-in-hand work, as well as itinerant trades such as mending household goods, selling various crafts, horse trading, and [[fortune-telling]].  They are also widely associated with petty [[crime]], and this has often been used as an excuse to justify the persecution or expulsion of Romani.  The popular image of Romani as rambunctious and [[superstitious]] travelling folk is ingrained in [[West]]ern popular [[culture]], especially the common portrayal of female Romani fortune-tellers, and small children who turn out to be expert pickpockets. Some more modern stereotypes about Roma are that they live either as beggars or collecting scrap, lack any desire to be helped by social services or to send their children to school, take justice into their own hands, and in general they have no desire to integrate or merge with non-Roma people, meaning that they frown on marrying outside of their group.

[[File:Tziganes aux Saintes-Maries de la Mer.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Romani settlement in France, 1980s.]]

In November 2016 Clackamas County Sheriff's Office in Oregon received complaints for hosting a class titled "Without Mercy: Criminal Gypsies/Travelers & the Elderly," taught by retired detective Gary Nolte, with "FACT"s (and loaded language) like:
{{cquote|FACT: Criminal gypsies/travelers make an estimated $17B/annually and don't pay taxes. <br> FACT: The victims are the elderly 97% of the time. <br> FACT: The Pacific Northwest is remarkably close to a large Traveler base. <br> FACT: There are 5 major clans in North America, not just one. <br> FACT: The criminal Travelers/Gypsies have targeted the Pacific Northwest for decades.}} Nolte has consulted police departments across the country. According to Megan Ahern, leader of Lolo Diklo: Romani Against Racism, the stereotypes perpetuated are so bad that "the only time it is safe to be 'gypsy' is on [[Halloween]]".<ref>[http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2016/11/gypsy_crime_class_raises_quest.html "Gypsy' crime class raises questions about racial profiling"], Lizzy Acker, ''The Oregonian'', November 14, 2016 </ref>

Some Romani communities follow a [[tradition]]al belief system which is loosely derived from [[Hinduism]] and so dates back to the Romani's origins in India.  Other Romani communities tend to be either [[Christian]] or [[Islam]]ic, owing to [[Europe]]an or [[Middle East]]ern cultural influences.

Romani refer to their own language as "Romanes" or "Romani Chib," which means "the Romani language."<ref>[http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/multilingual/romani.shtml BBC Voices: Romani]</ref> Today, there are about 3-5 million speakers of the Romani language in eastern and central Europe.

==Anti-Ziganism==
===The Holocaust===
Anywhere from 200,000 to 1.5 million Roma were exterminated by the Nazis during the Holocaust. While this fact is often forgotten or simply not publicized, as a proportion of their overall population more Roma were killed than Jews. Roma were considered "enemies of the race-based state" under the Nuremburg laws, placing them on the same level as Jews in the eyes of the Nazi regime. Roma were forced into ghettos (often shared with Jews) and later deported ''en masse'' to the concentration camps. Racial extermination of Roma began in 1937 and continued until the end of the war. This was known as the Porajmos or Pharrajimos in Romani.

===2016 Bulgarian anti-Roma protests===
In 2016, a [[Bulgaria]]n was run over by a relative of an alleged Roma crime boss. In response, over 2000 people in many cities in Bulgaria went to the streets to protest against the Roma and the criminal activity which they as a whole supposedly engaged in, with some chanting slogans like "Gypsies into glue!"<ref>https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/bulgaria-must-stop-its-anti-roma-attacks</ref><ref>http://world.time.com/2011/09/28/gypsies-into-glue-anti-roma-protests-sweep-bulgaria/</ref><ref name=nytimes>{{cite web |url=http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/28/world/europe/anti-roma-demonstrations-spread-across-bulgaria.html?_r=0 |title=Anti-Roma Demonstrations Spread Across Bulgaria |author=Matthew Brunwasser |date=September 27, 2011}}</ref> Of course, the fact that protestors focused on the Roma is [[ironic]], given that the {{wpl|Bulgarian mafia}} is very much a thing. According to the president of the {{wpl|Bulgarian Helsinki Committee||,}} "Every town in Bulgaria has local crime bosses, be they Roma or ethnic Bulgarian[.] [...] The government has consistently failed to prosecute them."<ref name=nytimes/> Anti-criminal protests would have made sense. But protests exclusively aimed at Roma, giving non-Roma criminals a free pass? Not so much.

===Italian camps===
[[Italy]] has for many years kept large numbers of Roma living in separate camps, in squalid housing with few amenities. Amnesty International reported in 2013 that 4000 Roma were living in camps on the outskirts of Rome far from services, and Italy was running a discriminatory housing policy in contravention of European laws.<ref>[https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2013/10/italy-roma-segregation-camps-blight-city-rome/ Italy: Roma segregation camps – a blight on the City of Rome], Amnesty International, October 2013</ref> With the far-right Matteo Salvini of the [[Northern League]] becoming Interior Minister in 2018, things have grown even worse, with Roma stigmatised and abused as criminal and filthy; a 13-month-old Roma girl being shot with an air rifle in 2018; the demolition of Roma housing; and threats of mass deportations.<ref>[https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/04/international-roma-day-matteo-salvini Italy's war on the Roma], Jacobin Magazine, April 2019</ref><ref>[https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/salvini-is-escalating-war-on-italys-roma-community-by-deploying-soldiers/ Salvini is escalating war on Italy’s Roma community by deploying soldiers], Open Democracy, 24 May 2019</ref>

==Famous people of Romani descent==
*{{wpl|Django Reinhardt}} — "Gypsy jazz" guitar virtuoso
*{{wpl|Charlie Chaplin}} — Silent film pioneer (possibly)<ref>Matthew Sweet, [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/feb/17/charlie-chaplin-gypsy-heritage "Was Charlie Chaplin a Gypsy""],''[[The Guardian]]'', 17 February 2011</ref>
*{{wpl|Eugene Hütz}} — [[Punk]] musician

==See also==
*[[Evil Jew|The Evil Jew]]
*[[Aryan]] - an ethnolinguistic group that the Romani belong to

==External links==
*[http://www.geni.com/projects/Romani-Gypsy-Notables/13111 Some notable Romani/Gypsies] 
*[http://osce.usmission.gov/on-anti-roma-statements-in-slovakia-and-anti-roma-protests-bulgaria/ On Anti-Roma Statements in Slovakia and Anti-Roma Protests Bulgaria: Statement to the PC], U.S. Mission to the OSCE
*[http://www.neweurope.eu/article/roma-discriminated-segregated-in-czech-republic-and-slovakia/ Roma discriminated, segregated in Czech Republic and Slovakia]
*[http://www.errc.org/article/lawsuits-filed-by-roma-challenge-racial-segregation-in-czech-schools/803 Lawsuits filed by Roma challenge racial segregation in Czech schools]
*[http://www.errc.org/cms/upload/media/03/AC/m000003AC.pdf Persistent Segregation of Romain the Czech Education System]
*[https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2015/04/czech-republic-systematic-discrimination-against-romani-children-in-schools/ Czech Republic: Systematic discrimination against Romani children in schools]
*[http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/italy-slammed-over-attitudes-after-gypsy-girls-drown/2008/07/25/1216492682383.html Italy slammed over attitudes after gypsy girls drown]
*[https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/aug/17/familyandrelationships.roma 'Why do the Italians hate us?'], ''[[The Guardian]]''
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20111110074434/http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/the-picture-that-shames-italy-873743.html The picture that shames Italy]
*[http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/20/sunday-review/are-the-roma-primitive-or-just-poor.html?_r=0 Are the Roma Primitive, or Just Poor?]

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

[[Category:Ethnic groups]]
[[Category:Racism]]
[[Category:Culture]]
[[Category:Social justice]]

Categories: Ethnic groups, Racism, Culture, Social justice