u/Accomplished_Pin_834 — reddlx

Roma when gadje reduce all Romani issues to comic book characters and start making claims about Romani identity, race, and culture only to be completely wrong:

Of course media representation is important, especially for children who grow up constantly seeing their people depicted as thieves, criminals, witches, or people with some special connection to the devil in TV shows, movies, cartoons, books, and other media. Of course it's important to create opportunities for aspiring Romani actors and to push for better representation. But media representation is not the main driver of anti-Romani violence and discrimination. Around 80% of Romani people in Europe live below the poverty line. Romani women are disproportionately impacted by the sex trade. In many parts of both Eastern and Western Europe, Romani people are still segregated in neighborhoods and schools. Our access to healthcare is worse, and our life expectancy is significantly lower than the European average. Every month it seems like we're hearing about anti-Romani demonstrations organized by neo-Nazis, a Romani person being killed by police, or violence and attacks targeting Romani communities. What frustrates me is that a lot of people who claim to be Romani allies only want to talk about comic book characters. There are so many issues affecting Romani people that are far more urgent than that. And when Americans bring up Romani people as a "gotcha" about European racism and say things like, "Europeans become super Nazi when you bring up Romani people lol," no Romani person is laughing. Anti-Romani racism is not a joke, and it shouldn't be treated like one. Take it seriously. It's not that hard.

u/Accomplished_Pin_834 — 13 days ago

▲ 47 r/romani

Happy Romani heritage Month 💙❤️💚☸️

I didn't know he was one of us! Happy Romani Heritage Month! It's awesome that one of the more popular alternative and indie musicians is a Romani man. My moot checked his Twitter account, and he actually did all the right steps to reconnect with his Romani heritage he found and reconnected with his Romani relatives and learned the culture and language. Lol, Romani people stay winning.

u/Accomplished_Pin_834 — 1 month ago

▲ 214 r/hatethissmug

I hate this subreddit as a Romani woman.

For context, this is about the Marvel character Scarlet Witch, aka Wanda Maximoff, who is Romani. People in this subreddit constantly debate her race and identity as a Romani woman, and it’s so annoying because it’s mostly gadje (non-Romani people, in our language) arguing about Romani identity while being completely wrong and spreading misinformation. Then, when Romani people go into the comments to correct that misinformation, people get snarky and act all high and mighty. They get mad and act like we don’t know what we’re talking about or that we’re stupid, when HELLO we are literally Romani and have lived the experience of being Romani people. So many people in that subreddit believe we’re white, even though we are a group of people whose origins trace back to India and who have and still face a long history of brutal oppression for not being white. And don’t get me wrong I'm a huge Marvel fan, and I do love Scarlet Witch because she’s one of the few mainstream examples of positive and decent Romani representation our community has. But dear God, so many of her non-Romani fans are racist, love talking over Romani people, and debate our identity like we aren’t actual human beings. 😭

u/Accomplished_Pin_834 — 1 month ago

▲ 6 r/romani

Question about this to other Roma and Sinti??

To all the Roma and Sinti here, how do you guys feel about the movement online where a lot of people want to include Romani people within AAPI Month because of our South Asian origins, and because our culture and language still have Indian roots? People want to recognize the Romani community as South Asian. In my own opinion, I find this a bit iffy. There’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that Romani people do have Indian ancestry, and that modern-day Indian people can find similarities between their culture and Romani culture. However, I do find it somewhat problematic because it can erase the history of anti-Romani racism, as well as the discrimination Romani people have faced and still face today, by trying to simply say, “Romani people are just a South Asian group” or “just an Indian group.” Also, in my opinion, Romani is a race of its own. Our clans are our ethnicities Lovari, Kalderash, Kale, Sinti, Romanichal, etc. No matter the skin tone of a Romani person, whether they are light-skinned, dark brown, or mixed with something else, we will always be racialized as Romani and still face the same treatment. A regular Asian immigrant in many European countries will often face better treatment than us, and Romani people generally do not have the same privileges that Asian immigrants may have. In many cases, we also face more racism than they do, even though Europe often claims to be more progressive and “less racist.” Overall, these are just my thoughts and opinions on this, and I really want to know what you all think.

reddit.com

u/Accomplished_Pin_834 — 2 months ago