Why understanding the word "Gypsy" is important.
This week, several neo-Nazis in Ontario, Canada, were allowed to walk free from court on a technicality.
Although arrested for protesting in front of a motel housing recently arrived Romani refugees (mostly women and children) carrying banners adorned with swastikas and shouting racist slogans (things like "Honk if you hate Gypsies," “Out Gypsies out," “You’re a cancer" and “Canada is not a trash can"), court judge Russell Otter accepted the defence position that the Crown had not proven that the terms “Roma" and “Gypsy" mean the same thing. The Crown sought to amend the charge to read “Roma a.k.a. gypsies." This was refused.
This terrible report pretty much sums up the reason I argue against all of the shit I find in the #Gypsy tag. When you have scores of TV shows, musicians, and bubblegum hipsters arguing that no, it’s fine, it’s just a word and we use it in a different way….
it undermines the centuries of racist hatred that has been meted out to us and that we still face. It allows neo-Nazis to excuse their overtly racist behaviour because, oh we weren’t talking about the Roma…only the Gypsies.
Except, THEY ARE THE SAME THING.
The history of the word “Gypsy" is inexorably tied to the Roma. It was a word created on our backs as we made our way into Europe. It was a word branded on our foreheads before we were hung. It was a word tattooed onto our skin before we were gassed. It was a word that took away our children.
It was a word battered into our hearts for all eternity.
It doesn’t matter how we try to assert our own identity, to separate ourselves from the word “Gypsy", we aren’t allowed. People use the word AT us how and when they choose. Some argue that only the “bad" Roma are “Gypsies". Some argue that the only “Gypsies" are Romanian. Some argue that we’re Romani Gypsies. Some groups under the term are proud to be Gypsy (mostly those who did not face the Holocaust) and continually misrepresent our relationship and our relationship to the word.
Then, of course, you have the legions of young people who INSIST that the word “Gypsy" can be removed completely from its ties with a racial and ethnic category and pulled solely into the realm of hipster life and bubblegum fashion. Clothing lines flaunt their “Gypsy Style" and bands such as “Gogol Bordello" support this argument with frequent use of the word “Gypsy" and promotion of a stereotype (and nothing done to address it).
TV shows utilizing the term “Gypsy" do not, for the most part, show Roma. They are made by white people and generally feature Americanized Irish Travellers (the My Big Fat Wedding series for example) or Romanichal. They are a misrepresentative (and often extremely stereotyped) portrayal of our lifestyle. The shows are often used as a defense for those who would slander our ethnicity.
Roma is the correct term for our race and ethnicity. I am Romani. I am part of a larger group of ethnicities that include Romanichal, Sinte, Kale, Kaale, Calo, Kallon, Romany. We are all corralled under the term Gypsy together, though our histories are divergent and our language and culture different. We all have our roots in India centuries ago. We all battle discrimination and racism on a daily basis.
We are not the only ones under the exonym, but we are certainly the largest group to whom the word is applied.
Please, don’t use (or support the use of) the word “Gypsy". It is an ethnic and racial slur that has murdered many hundreds of thousands of my people and now allows white supremacists to walk away unpunished….
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