With Halloween coming up, keep this in mind.
It's not okay to dress up as a Romani for Halloween.
The Romani are members of a people originating in North India and traditionally having an itinerant way of life, living widely dispersed across Europe and North and South America and speaking a language that is related to Hindi.
"the Romani remained an oppressed group"
The language of the Romani, an Indo-European language related to Hindi that is spoken by a widely dispersed group and has many dialects.
I personally speak Hindi, and can still recognize words in Romani.
Romani originates from Sanskrit (India), not Romania.
The word gypsy, while sometimes positively embraced by Romani persons, is also sometimes rejected by other Romani persons as offensive due to it being tainted by its use as a racial slur and a pejorative connotation implying illegality and irregularity, and some modern dictionaries either recommend avoiding use of the word.
Bohemians are Western Czechs. Romani are an ethnic group with Indian roots and heritage, although Romani have been in Europe for centuries. Gypsy is an ethnic slur against Romani people. People called Romani people “Gypsies” because they thought they were Egyptian, which they are not, they are from North India.
I am bringing this up, because the word "gypsy " is used very frequently on Facebook. Clearly these individuals would not use this word if they are truly Romani.
