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sheepfilms
Game Changer & Make Some Noise
The Stonewall Inn
Lint Roller? I Barely Know Her
#extradirty
"I'm Dorothy Gale from Kansas"
tannertan36
cherry valley forever
★
if i look back, i am lost
PR's Tumblrdome
Misplaced Lens Cap
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Doug Jones
Mike Driver
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
let's talk about Bridgerton tea, my ask is open
@theartofmadeline
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@notagword-blog
Acceptable language is a good litmus test for the success of organized struggle and self-determination. Because the oppressors' words are still the dominant words in conversation about our people, it means we need to fight harder.
Look beyond the fear-mongering headlines and you'll discover an enterprising, stateless people trying to make ends meet.
Ciaran Jenkins has been meeting one Roma community who say they've adapted well to life in this country.
The Hungarian Gypsy Party (*Magyarországi Cigány Párt, MCP), which has 5,000 members, has decided to present candidates in all of the country’s constituencies in the 2014 general elections.
Although Roma have made gains in East-Central Europe, they continue to exist on the margins of society.
This is a good article, all things considered.
One of the biggest issues with Roma empowerment in the US is the pandemic lack of intersectionality and the automatic division between oppressed nationalities in the US and Roma oppression in Europe. Many Roma organizers / thinkers / bloggers don't want to draw parallels between the Black experience in the US and the Roma experience in Europe -- in some cases, due to racism; in others, because they tend to only look to European issues in general. This needs to be smashed and the parallels need to be drawn. This is particularly a problem because of the relative privilege some Roma people have upon assimilating in the US -- especially if we can pass as white. Drawing parallels between the treatment of Roma in Europe (not in the US -- here Roma oppression takes on a very different face) and treatment of the Black nation in the US would mean being able to identify that privilege.
With regard to this guy's interview -- a lot of the stuff is on point, particularly with regard to organizing fightback, but I would have to raise a deep criticism of his portrayal of the treatment of Roma by the USSR. He completely omitted the fact that the only reason he was able to communicate with Roma communities in the first place was because they were given the ability to survive, be educated ("80 years, illiterate and be able to send their child to college!") through the immense effort on part of the Soviet state to integrate Roma people and provide them with full equality.
I would also like to point out from my own experience that the perceived racism (re: jazz and basketball) was most likely a genuine curiosity on part of Soviet people, for whom jazz and basketball are an American thing, not a Black thing, and as he pointed out, he was the only American in the group, so they asked him about it.
Reclaiming the g-word
A couple of people made some comments regarding what they seem to see as hypocrisy: the fact that some Romani people choose to reclaim the g-word and others don't, but all do not want gadje using the word. Gadje find this unfair. Someone claimed to be Roma and said "even I know that's stupid" (some self-hatred there, with that "even I know", like you're not supposed to know things?).
Let me break this down.
Lesbian women are called dykes as a slur. Some lesbian women choose to reclaim the word and say "fuck yeah, I'm a dyke". I think we can all agree that a hetero person calling a lesbian woman a dyke is a slur because the term originated and is still utilized in the oppression of LGBTQ people by cis/hetero people.
Or, let's make it more personal -- if kids at school called you a fatass, you might choose to grow up and own it and take the stage name Bob the Fatass of your own volition. But anyone else calling you a fatass without your permission is still an insult.
Reclaiming a derogatory term is solely the prerogative of the community that slur is directed against. Some people in that community do not want to reclaim that term. That is their prerogative too.
As a non-Romani person, you do not get to defend the use of something that is historically a weapon used by your people against my people. Successfully reclaiming the term is equivalent to wrenching the weapon out of your hands and twisting it into a pretzel. You can't wrench a weapon you hold. It's not yours to wrench. It's only yours to put down.
The only reason white people are all upset that they don't get to use the g-word (or any other shitty word) is because the biggest form of privilege-infringement they experience is being told not to use a fucking racial slur.
The attacks on Roma communities occur as a planned racist response to economic troubles. In times of economic uncertainty, the risk of the working-class population standing up and demanding better treatment is heightened unless an appropriate scapegoat is found that can be blamed instead of the capitalist system. In Europe, that scapegoated underclass—blamed for crime, unemployment and instability— is the Roma, similar to the targeting of Black and Latino communities in the United States. When cases like Maria’s gain international publicity, the only solution states have, without forsaking their far-reaching marginalization and intimidation techniques, is to push the criminalization of the affected people even further. In the case of Maria’s family, it was the public knowledge of her proven Roma heritage that caused the state to press further charges against her birth parents and adoptive family. It is tragic and common knowledge that if Maria’s family was white and middle-class, their adoption of Maria would have been seen as nothing less than heroic and commendable. However, Roma communities do not have that privilege—they have been painted as villains and child-snatchers through centuries of oppression.
This is an article I wrote for Liberation News.
Colorblind Ideology is a Form of Racism
Challenging assumptions about culture, race, and mental health. by Monnica Williams, Ph.D.
What is racial colorblindness?
Racial issues are often uncomfortable to discuss and rife with stress and controversy. Many ideas have been advanced to address this sore spot in the American psyche. Currently, the most pervasive approach is known as colorblindness. Colorblindness is the racial ideology that posits the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals as equally as possible, without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity.
At its face value, colorblindness seems like a good thing — really taking MLK seriously on his call to judge people on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin. It focuses on commonalities between people, such as their shared humanity.
However, colorblindness alone is not sufficient to heal racial wounds on a national or personal level. It is only a half-measure that in the end operates as a form of racism.
Problems with the colorblind approach
Racism? Strong words, yes, but let’s look the issue straight in its partially unseeing eye. In a colorblind society, White people, who are unlikely to experience disadvantages due to race, can effectively ignore racism in American life, justify the current social order, and feel more comfortable with their relatively privileged standing in society (Fryberg, 2010). Most minorities, however, who regularly encounter difficulties due to race, experience colorblind ideologies quite differently. Colorblindness creates a society that denies their negative racial experiences, rejects their cultural heritage, and invalidates their unique perspectives.
Let’s break it down into simple terms: Color-Blind = “People of color — we don’t see you (at least not that bad ‘colored’ part).” As a person of color, I like who I am, and I don’t want any aspect of that to be unseen or invisible. The need for colorblindness implies there is something shameful about the way God made me and the culture I was born into that we shouldn’t talk about. Thus, colorblindness has helped make race into a taboo topic that polite people cannot openly discuss. And if you can’t talk about it, you can’t understand it, much less fix the racial problems that plague our society.
Colorblindness is not the answer
Many Americans view colorblindness as helpful to people of color by asserting that race does not matter (Tarca, 2005). But in America, most underrepresented minorities will explain that race does matter, as it affects opportunities, perceptions, income, and so much more. When race-related problems arise, colorblindness tends to individualize conflicts and shortcomings, rather than examining the larger picture with cultural differences, stereotypes, and values placed into context. Instead of resulting from an enlightened (albeit well-meaning) position, colorblindness comes from a lack of awareness of racial privilege conferred by Whiteness (Tarca, 2005). White people can guiltlessly subscribe to colorblindness because they are usually unaware of how race affects people of color and American society as a whole.
Colorblindness in a psychotherapeutic relationship
How might colorblindness cause harm? Here’s an example close to home for those of you who are psychologically-minded. In the not-so-distant past, in psychotherapy a client’s racial and ethnic remarks were viewed as a defensive shift away from important issues, and the therapist tended to interpret this as resistance (Comas-Diaz & Jacobsen, 1991). However, such an approach hinders the exploration of conflicts related to race, ethnicity, and culture. The therapist doesn’t see the whole picture, and the client is left frustrated.
A colorblind approach effectively does the same thing. Blind means not being able to see things. I don’t want to be blind. I want to see things clearly, even if they make me uncomfortable. As a therapist I need to be able to hear and “see” everything my client is communicating on many different levels. I can’t afford to be blind to anything. Would you want to see a surgeon who operated blindfolded? Of course not. Likewise, a therapist should not be blinded either, especially to something as critical as a person’s culture or racial identity. By encouraging the exploration of racial and cultural concepts, the therapist can provide a more authentic opportunity to understand and resolve the client’s problems (Comas-Diaz & Jacobsen, 1991).
Nonetheless, I have encountered many fellow therapists who ascribe to a colorblind philosophy. They ignore race or pretend its personal, social, and historical effects don’t exist. This approach ignores the incredibly salient experience of being stigmatized by society and represents an empathetic failure on the part of the therapist. Colorblindness does not foster equality or respect; it merely relieves the therapist of his or her obligation to address important racial differences and difficulties.
Multiculturalism is better than blindness
Research has shown that hearing colorblind messages predict negative outcomes among Whites, such as greater racial bias and negative affect; likewise colorblind messages cause stress in ethnic minorities, resulting in decreased cognitive performance (Holoien et al., 2011). Given how much is at stake, we can no longer afford to be blind. It’s time for change and growth. It’s time to see.
The alternative to colorblindness is multiculturalism, an ideology that acknowledges, highlights, and celebrates ethnoracial differences. It recognizes that each tradition has something valuable to offer. It is not afraid to see how others have suffered as a result of racial conflict or differences.
So, how do we become multicultural? The following suggestions would make a good start (McCabe, 2011):
Recognizing and valuing differences,
Teaching and learning about differences, and
Fostering personal friendships and organizational alliances
Moving from colorblindness to multiculturalism is a process of change, and change is never easy, but we can’t afford to stay the same.
References
Comas-Diaz, L., and Jacobsen, F. M. (1991). Clinical Ethnocultural Transference and Countertransference in the Therapeutic Dyad. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 61(3), 392-402.
Fryberg, S. M. (2010). When the World Is Colorblind, American Indians Are Invisible: A Diversity Science Approach. Psychological Inquiry, 21(2), 115-119.
Holoien, D. S., and Shelton, J. N. (October 2011). You deplete me: The cognitive costs of colorblindness on ethnic minorities. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 10.1016/j.jesp.2011.09.010.
Tarca, K. (2005). Colorblind in Control: The Risks of Resisting Difference Amid Demographic Change. Educational Studies, 38(2), 99-120.
McCabe, J. (2011). Doing Multiculturalism: An Interactionist Analysis of the Practices of a Multicultural Sorority. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 40 (5), 521-549.
don’t tell me you can’t see me.
I can definitely see you
Zeljko Jovanovic: When the glare of the media spotlight fades, Maria will go back to a life of exclusion, without basic documentation or rights.
I read your "Gypsy is a slur" post, but then in your "my views" section you talked about reclaiming the word. So I'm confused. Is it okay to use the word "Gypsy" as a word for Roma people, or not?
Obviously, you miss the entire meaning of the word “reclaim”.
As a non-Romani person NO IT IS NOT OKAY TO USE GYPSY TO REFER TO ROMANI PEOPLE.
As a Romani person, I can decide whether I want to reclaim it or not.
THE END.
I would only add that it is not OK for non-Romani people to use the word to refer to anything, not just Romani people. Normalizing the use of the slur in reference to hippie white American girls in long dresses in a van, for instance, is nothing but erasure of Romani culture and dignity. It says "I'm going to use this word regardless of the fact that it represents your genocide, because I'm privileged and it doesn't affect me, and you don't matter because we've successfully beaten you down." Insert any racial slur in the place of the G-word and you will see what we mean.
Romský král - The Romany King
This film looks at the village of Žehra in the Spišská Nová Ves District of the Košice Region in Slovakia. Director Viliam Poltikovič took his crew here in 1991 to shoot the film “The Resettlement” (Stěhování osady), about the resettlement of Roma from the slums they inhabited into newly-constructed three-story prefabricated housing blocks. In 2002 he returned to Žehra to pick up the story.
Recent news of a blonde girl named Maria turning up in a Greek gypsy camp has consumed Kerry Needham with both hope and heartache.
"Even though DNA shows Maria’s mother is a Bulgarian woman who sold her, Kerry Needham says it shows the shadowy community’s willingness to traffic children." WTF, Fox, WTF… Sasha Ruseva did NOT sell Maria, she willingly gave her up.
Also, ”This proves the theory I’ve had all along — that Gypsies illegally take children, for whatever reason,” Needham told FoxNews.com. “And it gives me hope.”
WHAT THE HELL??
So angry right now, so angry.
Not surprised by this at all. Fox news never fails at being racist.
A white man and an elderly Native man became pretty good friends, so the white guy decided to ask him: “What do you think about Indian mascots?” The Native elder responded, “Here’s what you’ve got to understand. When you look at black people, you see ghosts of all the slavery and the rapes and the hangings and the chains. When you look at Jews, you see ghosts of all those bodies piled up in death camps. And those ghosts keep you trying to do the right thing. “But when you look at us you don’t see the ghosts of the little babies with their heads smashed in by rifle butts at the Big Hole, or the old folks dying by the side of the trail on the way to Oklahoma while their families cried and tried to make them comfortable, or the dead mothers at Wounded Knee or the little kids at Sand Creek who were shot for target practice. You don’t see any ghosts at all. “Instead you see casinos and drunks and junk cars and shacks. “Well, we see those ghosts. And they make our hearts sad and they hurt our little children. And when we try to say something, you tell us, ‘Get over it. This is America. Look at the American dream.’ But as long as you’re calling us Redskins and doing tomahawk chops, we can’t look at the American dream, because those things remind us that we are not real human beings to you. And when people aren’t humans, you can turn them into slaves or kill six million of them or shoot them down with Hotchkiss guns and throw them into mass graves at Wounded Knee. “No, we’re not looking at the American dream. And why should we? We still haven’t woken up from the American nightmare.”
On mascots & the Red Road: - Gathering Tribes | Facebook (via aboriginalnewswire)
Ugggggh, it’s so fucking gross and hurtful. Especially after all the stuff that I’ve been reading about lately with Romani children being taken from their families just because they didn’t look dark enough.
How does one go about organizing a boycott of an album?
It’s romanticizing traveling and being alone, and she’s calling her self a “g*psy” for doing so. She keeps talking about the “g*psy life.”
Romani and other people who have to hear this slur are forced to travel and don’t have homes because they’ve been forcefully evicted, they’re run out by neo Nazis and other racist groups, or they were forcefully taken from their homes as children.
A “g*psy” life is growing up with relatives who never recovered from watching their family and friends be murdered in concentration camps.
"G*psy" life is being called dirty, lazy, thieving scumbags by your neighbors. It’s having the word spray painted on your door and being harassed until you can’t stand it anymore and move, or your home gets firebombed.
"G*psy" life is having your children forcefully taken from you because it’s assumed you can’t take care of them, or that you stole the children.
"G*psy" life is being relegated to the status of fantasy creatures by other people, ignoring your long history, your cultural traditions, and your family values.
This is all stuff happening right now all over the world and the US, and this song only continues to erase the hardships that these people face.
Edit: If you want to argue with what I’m saying, then go to this post:http://raginggenderriver.tumblr.com/post/65082666065/the-word-gypsy-or-gipsy-is-listed-under-english-law
That is probably going to be my response for anything you want to say.
I hate Gaga.
"But provided what we said is borne out, that it was not an abduction, then logically they will be released from prison and they will be able to enter a proper (adoption) process ... They truly and ardently want her back."
Well, no.
That's not a logical course of action for a government that is in the media limelight with their unadulterated intrusions into our communities and destruction of families in them.
According to the news I saw today, the next step the authorities plan to take is to attempt to charge both the birth parents and the adoptive parents with sale / purchase of a child. Because now they need to prove that the Roma did something illegal, in order to cover their asses.
In an earlier post, I mentioned that this publicity is grounds for us to gain support in our fightback. It is important to keep in mind that it's also grounds for our adversaries to step up their attacks. Because the stakes are so high, and if they admit that they were wrong, we will be baying for their blood.
What they don't understand is that we have been fighting back for centuries now, and that these attacks are only grounds to grow our ranks.
If these people are charged, we will fight for them. We will also continue to fight for all the families and communities that are under attack.
If these people are not charged, we must continue to fight for all the families and communities that are under attack. We must also demand reparations for the damage caused to Maria's family and birth parents prior to their release.
[TW: Talk of sexual assault, physical assault, violence and antiziganism.]
I’ve sat here, combating the ignorance individually. I’m done with that. I’m done trying to reach you on a one on one level. You continuously ignore anything from me, you ignore the people I...
Just a reminder how most people feel about us. So when you’re throwing on that Halloween costume, maybe remember this, yeah?
