This is anti-Romani

[this-is-anti-romani]

What is Anti Romani sentiment?

(Aka: Anti-Romani sentiment, Anti-Roma sentiment, Anti-Gypsyism, Romaphobia, Romamisia, anti-ziganism)

(Anti-Romani sentiment) , is the particular racist structure, ideology and hostile prejudice targeted at Roma. It seeks to dehumanise, alienate and drive away Roma precisely because they are Roma. Antiziganism infringes the principle of equal value and equal rights. It is based on seeing people as being of unequal value and contributes towards an unequal distribution of power and resources.

Antiziganist prejudices often concern stereotypical assumptions about Roma being thieves, particularly unreliable or rude. These attitudes affect Roma in their daily lives through the hostility they encounter in public spaces.

What particularly makes antiziganism stand out is that it is largely seen as being legitimate. People who are accused of discrimination against Roma may exclaim in surprise: “But they were Gypsies!” as if this were reason enough for their behaviour. Antiziganism is widespread in society and affects Roma, among other things, through extensive discrimination in every area of society, marginalisation and vulnerability to hate crime.

( via minoritet.se )

Disclaimer: I am not the sole arbiter of what is/isn't antiziganism and I do NOT speak for all Roma. I am a Romanichal person and do not experience colorism and live in a country where Roma are less known than others. This blog is simply to raise awareness of Anti-Romani sentiment especially on US dominated website.

Disclaimer 2: I have a job, family and a chronic illness to manage outside of this blog.

I use any pronouns and I am 27 years old. I am mixed Romanichal and queer.

All topics that include triggering or adult content will be tagged as such. Please use caution when discussing or viewing these topics.

This blog will also reblog/post general Romani content including news, history, positivity and more.

If you would like to submit an example of Anti-Romani sentiment or ask if something qualifies as such, feel free to do so in the ask box.

Examples of Anti Romani sentiment:

Assuming that a Romani person is automatically in some way “magical” or does/is interested in some form of fortune telling

Saying the word “Gypsy” if you are non-Roma

Denying a Romani person’s beliefs or convictions on the basis of them being “woo” or “delusional”, or discounting their significance to Romani culture because they're practiced by other groups.

Homogenizing the diverse and complex tapestry of Romani experiences and groups down to what is the most stereotypical or popular portrayal

Creating stereotypical Romani characters who are violent, greedy, patriarchal, exotic + overly sexualized or scammers in stereotypical clothing especially fetishized clothing that often overlaps with orientalist portrayals due to the association of Roma with the Middle East and Egypt

Dressing up as a “gypsy fortune teller” with a coin headband/scarf, medieval dress and a crystal ball, or similar anti-Romani caricatures

Policing whether Roma can or can not reclaim words used against them, especially “Gypsy”. Many Roma consider the word Gypsy to be a self identifier, sometimes moreso than Roma.

Claiming tarot to be a closed practice or invented by Roma. This is a claim that the creator of the tarot deck we use today made in order to add some kind of exotic mysticism.

Calling Romani people wholly white even if they are mixed or white passing. Categorically this is untrue and from Romania all the way to the UK this claim is leveraged against Romani people to justify taking away government protections and to defend discrimination of and oppression against them.

Fake-claiming due to appearance. Romani people are an incredibly diverse and widespread ethnic group with subgroups all across the world, no two of us look the same even within families.

Claiming that Romani people are “just Indian” and should call themselves Indian. While our origins over 1000 years ago stem back to north India and Pakistan, saying we are “just Indian” is to deny us our unique identity and culture as a stateless people.

Expecting Roma to have a full family tree and DNA test results to “prove” they’re Roma.

Mistaking Irish Travelers or Pavee, an Indigenous Irish group, with Romani people.

Fake-claiming a Romani person for their appearance, culture or ability to speak their language.

Using specific cultural elements within Romani subgroups against Roma to try and further our oppression. For example: Using the fact that some families practice arranged marriages to discriminate against all Roma.

These are not the only examples, but are are a few obvious ones.

Other this-is blogs:

@thisisexorsexism

@this-is-transandrophobia

@this-is-transsanism

@this-is-ableism

@this-is-transgynephobia

@thisisantisemitism

@this-is-cissexism

@thisisslavophobia

@thisisracism

[this-is-anti-romani]

I'm currently writing a Marvel fanfic, and I was thinking of writing Wanda Maximoff as Romani since her comic character started out as such, and the MCU whitewashed her. However, her initial character introduction in the comics is rife with stereotypes, and even a modified version would still have the stereotype of her being Romani and a witch. Do you think writing her as Romani would be in poor taste?

Not at all! In fact I think not writing her as Roma would be more disrespectful. Her backstory leans on stereotypes as most superhero comics do, but it’s still important to her character.

[fuckthisshit-ugh]

please read this even if you're not indian. especially if you're not indian.

you've seen the jokes. india is "dirty", indians are "everywhere", why don't they fix their own country. ok. let me tell you why, and what's happening right now while nobody's watching.

first, the history you skipped: britain ruled india for two centuries and drained it. economist utsa patnaik's research estimates around $45 trillion in today's money was taken. the india that got independence in 1947 was one of the poorest countries on earth. every "why is india like this" question starts there. you don't get to profit off a robbery and then mock the crime scene.

now, what's happening RIGHT NOW:

in may the question paper for NEET leaked. that's the national medical entrance exam. over 2.2 million students took it. cancelled. years of studying, families' savings poured into coaching, gone overnight because someone sold the paper. students died by suicide after. these were kids who wanted to be doctors.

and out of that came a protest movement. a gen z group called the cockroach janta party, started by a 30 year old named abhijeet dipke, got 22 million instagram followers within DAYS. they've been doing a sit-in at jantar mantar in delhi demanding education minister dharmendra pradhan resign.

and then there's sonam wangchuk. if you've watched 3 idiots, he's the real engineer the character was based on. built solar schools in ladakh. invented ice stupas so himalayan villages have water. spent his whole life on education. he's 59 and he's been on hunger strike for 17+ days now. reporters went to see him this week and he was too weak to talk. and the troll armies are calling him "anti national" and "foreign funded". a man starving himself for other people's children. that's the thing here, anyone who asks a question is suddenly a traitor.

it's not one incident, it's everywhere you look:

• infrastructure worth thousands of crores failing within months of the ribbon cutting. tunnels collapsing in regions where heavy rain is a guarantee, not a surprise.

• youth unemployment near 10% for ages 15 to 29, 13.6% in cities. in a country of 1.42 billion where more than half the population is young.

• only about the top 3% of indians earn above 10 lakh a year. meanwhile billionaire wealth keeps ballooning and the headlines celebrate it.

• manipur burned for over two years. an ethnic conflict, tens of thousands displaced, and the prime minister barely said the word manipur while it happened.

• journalists raided. critics' houses bulldozed. activists sitting in jail for years without trial under laws like UAPA. our press freedom ranking has cratered.

• even the petrol is a fight now, ethanol blending pushed through while drivers complain about their engines and get no straight answers.

and through all of it, the PM, who came to power on religious polarisation (americans, sound familiar?), travels abroad for photo ops and has not held one single open press conference in over a decade. not one.

what i'm asking:

if you're not indian: share this. our media mostly won't cover any of it because the big outlets are owned by the same billionaires the government serves. the only reason wangchuk's fast is getting any coverage is people refusing to look away.

if you ARE indian: speak up even if you're comfortable. especially if you're comfortable. join the protests. add to this, correct me, translate it. staying quiet is a choice when nothing in this post touches your life.

india is not "dirty". india was robbed, and it's being robbed again, from the inside this time. but it's also the country where a 59 year old will starve for strangers' kids and 22 million young people will rally behind a party literally named after cockroaches, because cockroaches survive everything.

we can still save her. but only loudly.

reblog. share. don't scroll past.

[this-is-anti-romani]

Adding a new rule to stop asking me confirm if you’re “Romani enough” because I know literally nothing about your parents or grandparents or great great grand uncle okay? There’s different standards across families and groups and if your family can’t actually tell you that yes you are Roma (wether saying you are or reclaiming words like Gitan or Gypsy like some families do) then I, a random person online, certainly can’t help you.

This blog is here to point out anti-Romani discrimination and discuss Roma struggles and representation.

[this-is-anti-romani]

Hi! this isnt an ask or anything I'm just a roma who's found this blog and it been really helpful to me, i grew up kind of disconnected from romani culture and i'm trying to learn more. thank you so much for creating this blog.

You’re welcome! Good to hear you’re reconnecting

[this-is-anti-romani]

hihi!!! my school is having us do a research project next year and i'm thinking abt doing mine on flamenco (which i know Romani people were part of the creation of) and i was wondering how to make sure my project is respectful? because i want to talk about the groups of people that created flamenco.

Good to hear you want to do a project on Flamenco!

Generally I advise that you just learn up on Roma and don’t use any slurs, and go into the history of Spanish Roma especially Carmen Amaya who helped advance women’s presence the genre

[this-is-anti-romani]

is it anti-romani if my classmates from way back when referred to another classmate who tanned more easily as Romani (but the offensive? term) while none of us were Romani?

This is anti-Romani sentiment

Yeah absolutely, especially using the G slur if that’s what you mean

[this-is-anti-romani]

Looking up UK poverty statistics and seeing that all Roma have been re-categorized as "white" after the census data was collected.

This is Anti-Romani

Roma aren't considered white by white people, until it's convenient and they can use us to bump up their own statistics.

[this-is-anti-romani]

Do you think it’s weird to draw Kakavasha/Aventurine from Honkai Star Rail with darker skin than he has in canon? He’s from space, but he’s very heavily coded as Turkish Romani. The writers don’t necessarily make him a stereotype or caricature, there are definitely issues with his portrayal - using real life slurs to refer to his home planet, one of hoyo’s favorite characters (Sparkle) being openly racist to him and hoyo being generally extremely colorist (in the whole honkai series there are a handful of South Asian characters and NONE of them are darker than a brown paper bag. And don’t even get me started on Natlan and Sumeru in Genshin, or how they treat Carole from Honkai Impact 3rd). I’ve seen a lot of people drawing him with darker skin than he has in-game to try and more accurately represent his heritage, but do you think it’s erasure of light-skinned Roma to do so?

I don’t know much about these series and generally I think trying to “fix” a Romani character only by darkening their skin/hair is pretty bad, knowing this character is coded to be Turkish Roma and how incredibly colorist the series is, then it’s totally fine. Turkish Roma deserve to see their features represented.

[this-is-anti-romani]

Hot take, many gorjes outside US dont care about UK Romneychal because its harder to shove us into their stereotype of an exotic mysterious people

This is anti romani (Romanichal) racism

[this-is-anti-romani]

Do you know any free ways to read We Are The Romani People? I’m a white American-Romanian (I don’t know Romanian, so it would have to be in English) that wants to learn more about Romani people. I can’t buy the book because my Mom is racist towards Roma and I’m a wuss that doesn’t like conflict and doesn’t have a job or debit card.

This is made to be good faith btw!!! I can have troubles with tone sometimes. I also totally understand if it’s against your morals to show me where to find the book or if the author specifically does not want it to be available for free!!!

Honestly I have no idea! There could be a PDF you can get somewhere but i’ve been searching for one and haven’t had any luck.

If anyone has a way to read the book digitally let me know!

[checkyourasianbias]

do you write about romani issues as well, or know of any blogs to recommend that do?

@this-is-anti-romani is a blog i know of focused on that!!

[this-is-anti-romani]

Yep, thats what this blog is for. I’m going through the asks as I deal with real life stuff but i’ll get to it eventually.

[this-is-anti-romani]

my literal classes on history using the g term even though romani is literally there. As a term. Just say the romani people were victimized without contributing. You cannot say that

This is anti-Romani sentiment

[this-is-anti-romani]

I keep seeing tankies on this website claim that there is no genocide in Ukraine and naming it as such is akin to saying that “white genocide” is real because “Ukraine is a white country” (which also isn’t what white genocide means, but tankies don’t have a good track record of using terminology correctly) but they always conveniently forget that there are large populations of Ukrainian Roma who are among those most affected by the war due to systemic erasure that prevents them from easily escaping (it takes a single google search to find multiple articles about this if white people on tumblr actually cared to remember that Roma exist).

And tumblr is simply perpetuating this erasure further by not only ignoring the deaths of the Roma killed by Putin’s invasion or the loss of their houses, possesions, community etc. but actively denying that they exist at all.

This is Anti-Romani sentiment

[this-is-anti-romani]

I’m not going to reveal who sent us this, but just know that your second paragraph is very, very odd.

The Romani people do not want a “state” in our “homeland”. We do not have a single “homeland” and most of us consider our birth/resident country or mother earth to be our home, wherever we are.

According to the current historical consensus, we fled north India over 1000 years ago and have a distinct culture of our own. Indians do not see us as the same nor do we consider them Roma and for many of us the distinction is visual as well as cultural. We have been constantly oppressed by nationalist policies and ethnic supremacy.

I and my family especially do not believe in borders or states, for me this is central to my culture as a Romani person. We are a people, not a landmass.

Thank you for the kind wishes, but in regard to that last part: Do not say this to me. Do not say this to any Romani person.

[this-is-anti-romani]

This is… Unfortunately a common occurrence. Zionists use some imagined idea that we think exactly like them because we endured parallel persecution to Jewish people.

Nevermind that when you actually talk to us and educate yourself about us you’ll find that any kind of nationalist mode of thought is very sparse within the broader diaspora, in fact we are quite unique in that we are broadly against the idea of borders and nationalism, many going as far as to refusing to take part in military service, be part of census data or even to have documentation if they can help it.

This isn’t true for all Roma obviously, but it’s kind of hard to reconcile any kind of nationalistic or ethnic supremacy when our entire history has been in spite of it.

To use our struggle (and not even call us by our proper names) to argue for an apharteid state that also persecutes Palestinian Roma (and Domari by extension) is incredibly disrespectful and shows no solidarity or allyship, only reducing us to a gotcha and a poor one at that.

[this-is-anti-romani]

I’m not going to reveal who sent us this, but just know that your second paragraph is very, very odd.

The Romani people do not want a “state” in our “homeland”. We do not have a single “homeland” and most of us consider our birth/resident country or mother earth to be our home, wherever we are.

According to the current historical consensus, we fled north India over 1000 years ago and have a distinct culture of our own. Indians do not see us as the same nor do we consider them Roma and for many of us the distinction is visual as well as cultural. We have been constantly oppressed by nationalist policies and ethnic supremacy.

I and my family especially do not believe in borders or states, for me this is central to my culture as a Romani person. We are a people, not a landmass.

Thank you for the kind wishes, but in regard to that last part: Do not say this to me. Do not say this to any Romani person.

[this-is-anti-romani]

Can I submit something if I'm not Romani? I'm Mugat Ghorbati and we're often mistaken for Romani and treated as such. I'm not saying I am Romani, but I think in the same way homophobia can impact straight people mistaken for gay, anti-Romani sentiment can hit people who aren't Romani but who are mistaken for such.

This is anti-Romani sentiment and anti Mugat Ghorbati sentiment

Not to worry, you can absolutely submit examples of anti-Romani sentiment!

Even when mistaken for Roma it is genuine racism, even if not properly directed. We are allies in fighting racism 🤝