The reason why this is the case is that most people who live in Europe in the vicinity of traditional Roma communities have experience that reinforces those biases. Say, being pickpocketed, or being spat at after you refuse to give money to a beggar.
The biases themselves may well be overgeneralized and racist in nature, but the experience is quite real, I assure you. And I don't see any solution to the discrimination problem that doesn't involve fixing that experience.
Here in europe even trying to humanise the roma can be an issue. Those people are so discriminated against that even defending them is looked down upon. Entire countries are maligned simply because they have a large number of this minority. No ethnic group in the us is as discriminated as these folks are in europe. America has not known such racism since the end of slavery.
Corruption is well obvious. See ursula, the head of the ecb and so on.
But isn't racism about prejudice? I'm telling you there's no prejudice with Roma because they look like natives. They are judged 100% based on their actions.
Blacks on the other hand are prejudiced against because you see the colour of their skin as soon as you meet them. Which is the topic at hand: you see an airbnb request from someone who's black, because you see their face in their avatar, and you reject them outright. That simply couldn't happen to Roma. (I'm not sure airbnb has avatars at all because I don't use it, but I imagine the procedure hosts use to discriminate against blacks is something like that)
I think you're missing the context of what people are complaining about. If it's actually the Roma people, I agree that's just racist. But usually what they mean is the culture Rome people live in. Do you think it's unreasonable view that kids should receive education? That young girls should not be given away into arranged marriages? That wifes and children should not be sent out to beg and steal in city centres? That the community is sometimes happy to receive support, but doesn't want to give back to the surrounding society?
If there are whole mini-towns with communities behaving that way and teaching that to their kids, I'm against it, and don't think that unreasonable. It doesn't matter who they identify as. Roma people can't change who they are. But they can change how they live.
First of all, I'm not calling Bulgarians and Romanians racists. I'm calling _you_ racist.
Secondly, I've tried my best not to bash you nor your countrymen. And I do not even disagree with many things you have said: indeed, some gypsies consider it fair game to steal from tourists, some have no respect for property, etc. Sure. The same could be said of many other discriminated minorities, and I'm pretty sure we've all heard and read the exact same complains that $Xs are just thieves, cannot be educated, will never give away their long heritage of misbehaviour, etc, etc, where $X is the minority of the day and place.
The discriminated minority varies, but what does not vary is the false generalisation ("all $X are thieves"), the scapegoating ("$Xs are why the economy is bad"), and the reassuring feeling of superiority ("we have been nice to $Xs to no avail yet they were never nice to us"). This is exactly what racism is all about in my views.
Listen, I'm not calling you a bad person for that. I totally understand that when pockets of poverty and antisocial behaviour do exist in one's country then one is upset about it. Just be aware that no minority is inherently bad; minorities have their own dynamic that depends upon many things (on top of which: having to live in a ghetto), but not upon the inner biology/heritage/wtv of any individuals. Do not delude yourself into thinking you would behave any different were you born in the same circumstances, into the same ghetto, etc.
I do not know what have the previous regimes tried to end the discrimination and integrate gypsies, and I'm sad if that has failed. I'm certain though that ghettos are not improving anyone's situation, be it in Bulgaria or in France.
Let's always try to think about the problem practically, to look for solutions/improvements not to look for revenge.
I agree that many Europeans are racist towards Roma and the other gypsy peoples. Much of what they say will be pure nonsense (e.g., they are stupid, not fit for work, etc), but other common statements you might hear also have some truth to them. For example, "they all steal" is of course a gross simplification, as many Roma are well integrated and live a regular life. However, if you are surrounded by a group of people clearly discernible as gypsies (women in long robes, etc) there is a high likelihood you're in trouble.
To clarify, I didn't mean that the discrimination/abuse of the Roma happened a long time ago. I meant that most discrimination/abuse of the Roma has happened in Europe, not in the US. Anti-Roma racism in Europe is obvious, ugly, and contemporary. In Europe, Roma people are a coherent social group of millions of people; in the US, without mass immigration, they are a scattered minority so small that the only thing most Americans "know" about them comes from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". With nothing to refer to, the word has been bleached of reference to Roma people in American use.
Did you read my comment? I said, if a Roma doesn't want to be identified as a Roma, he can because there's almost no visible differences between a Roma and a native, so if a Roma is being discriminated against, it's because he wanted it to be that way.
My point is: a black will always suffer from prejudice, because he's black, and he can't change his skin colour. A Roma, on the other hand, won't be suffer from prejudice if he acts as a civilised person would.
On the contrary, in the UK (and Ireland) people are extremely racist towards both Travellers and Roma. They treat both races with equal contempt.
I'm not saying this to excuse the negative behavior of the Traveller or Roma communities which I've been on the receiving end of several times.
However, we need to look at this from both ends and accept that us (the ethnic majority) automatically treating members of a particular ethnic minority as scum doesn't help to change their behavior.
How about hate speech against Romani? Most would see them as White (at least inasmuch as they're not Black) therefore discrimination against them isn't as bad, as per Facebook, and yet anti-Romani discrimination is much more prevalent (and vicious!) in Europe. Is this Facebook saying it's an American-only company?
> From Slovakia to Romania and Bulgaria, states have enacted disproportionate or militarized measures targeting Romani neighborhoods or towns. Some of these measures are driven by a racist narrative that casts Roma as a collective health and safety threat. The Bulgarian government has imposed particular measures, including road blocks and police checkpoints, on several Romani neighborhoods despite no evidence of COVID-19 positive test results there.[2] A Bulgarian Member of the European Parliament, Angel Dzhambazki, speculated that Romani “ghettos [could] turn out to be the real nests of contagion.”
This is my point though -- European racism is portrayed always somehow "different". It's the exact same story and there are no excuses for it. Anti-Roma prejudice is no more rational or justified than any other prejudice, and it's just as violent and dangerous.
Wonderful photos. It's become a stereotype that Roma are all about emotions, sadness and hapiness at the same time, but the photos show it remarkably well. I agree with him -- it's simple, nobody should live like that. But in reality it's complicated because a lot of people in that part of the world have it hard. It's difficult to accept that somebody may have it even harder, and simply cannot change much on their own. Even if they try, they are struck down by systemic racism. And if they don't try, they confirm the stereotypes. And on the other hand the empathy is mostly academic and limited to watching photos like these. Once you're directly exposed to something like this, it's easy to look the other way because individuals are also products of their environment, and the environment is tough.
The situation of Roma is always a good counter example to the statement "no racism in Europe". Perhaps there was never official segregation, but there is almost always implicit segregation. They can ride the bus, but more intimate relationships between the Roma and non-Roma population are rare. True friendships, marriages etc. So it's not Mississippi of the 50's, but there's also been little progress in the last decades. Which is a pity because IMHO there is no quick fix, only slowly changing what is considered to be normal.
You cannot dislike an antiquated society that contributes almost nothing to society and parasitises in multiple ways, without being a racist ?
It has nothing to do with race. Roma people have continuously refused to integrate, which is perfectly fine if they don't want to, but then don't be a weight on the host society by receiving every form of financial support you can get your hands on, while being a centre for criminality, and demanding access to what a contributing member of society can access.
I have experienced roma communities first hand. They shun their own who decide to get educated. Is that the kind of societies you'd like around your kids in the 21st century ?
There must be a reason that people dislike certain societies.
From my experience racism is more subtle in those european countries. E.g. you only get disadvantaged in more anonymous situations, but never actively excluded or attacked in person.
I live in Switzerland and noticed that especially when looking for jobs. When I was in middle school we had to look for apprenticeships to do after we finished school. In my class 5 of 20 were foreigners, and only I found a place (after a long struggle).
It wasn't based on grades since we all had equal or better grades than native students, and neither was it based on personality since we didn't even get invited to inverviews at all...
There are people that even legally changed their surname so it doesn't sound too foreign. There is especially strong bias against people from the Balkan region.
I have quite a few European friends on social media and they always seem perplexed whenever racial tensions flare up in the USA. Some even have openly asked "why do Americans find it so hard not to be racist? It's not that hard."
I always respond by pointing out that the citizens of almost every country are naturally xenophobic and/or racist, just not necessarily against people of African descent. In the case of Europe, I usually point to the Roma as an area where Europeans tend to be a bit racist. I had no idea there were huge Roma ghettos in Bulgaria, but I knew of some Roma communities when I lived in Rome, Italy. And without fail, countless Italians warned me to steer clear of the Roma because "they are all liars and thieves"...
Racism is rampant in virtually every first world country but US's brand of racism gets the most media coverage. Many European countries are extremely racist toward gypsies/romani. When I lived in Italy, the Italians were openly derisive to anyone that looked eastern european, even if they were complete strangers ("careful around those romani down the street, they are all liars and thieves"). Good luck getting a job at an italian-owned business if you are of eastern european decent. Japan is also extremely racist toward non-Japanese people to the point they will only let you live in foreigner-quarantined housing complexes.
From eastern europe...
If a gypsy kid walks behind you you better keep guarding your belongings. Is that racist ? Yes maybe it is. But it is because most of the time THE gypsy kid is really trying to steal something from you.
Should you start being careless because somebody tells you that it's racist ?
Do you people really want to live in a world where gays,transgenders,gypsies,blacks,hispanics,yellows,purples are favoured and put on pedestal because some hundred years ago a white cowboy enslaved them and made them to pick a cotton ?
Ever heard of positive discrimination ?
The biases themselves may well be overgeneralized and racist in nature, but the experience is quite real, I assure you. And I don't see any solution to the discrimination problem that doesn't involve fixing that experience.
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