[QUOTE= matt_mcl]
Thanks, by the way, for that “eggshell psyche” bit. Trivializing the legitimate complaints of underrepresented groups as being oversensitive is a common tactic and quite in line with your concomitant trivializing of the experiences of acquaintance rape survivors.
[/QUOTE]
See, it is your position that your complaint is legitimate and mine that it is not. So yes, going this far in service to a complaint that is not as legitimate as you make it out to be is “oversensitive.”
And you’re still on about my “trivializing of the experiences of acquaintance rape survivors,” only now it’s right after accepting my explanation that my metaphor was ill-thought-out.
It is YOUR position that I have, and mine that I have not.
We’re getting nowhere with this argument and subsequent derailing. You’re entitled to hold whatever opinion you like of my statements in this thread, but your formation and holding of that opinion, regardless of how many agree with you, is going to be the only thing that comes out of this.
[QUOTE=Kyla]
About 10-15% of my students are ethnic Roma (gypsies), and they are discriminated against here in Eastern Europe in a way that was, at first, really shocking to me. It’s totally open and socially acceptable to talk about the dirty, lazy tsigani. For instance, one of my classes was absolutely out of control one day, so I went to talk to their class teacher. After I described the class, he laughed and said, “Do you have *tsigani * in America, Kyla?” Everything that goes wrong, it’s because of the gypsies. Twenty kids are rowdy, but the two Roma kids are the ones at fault, of course.
I was really naive when I started this job. I really thought that I could make a difference in these kids’ lives. I feel pretty depressed about it now…I almost wish I worked in a segregated school (any town large enough to have two schools segregates the Roma away from the ethnic Bulgarians and Turks, but my town is too small), because…they really do cause a lot of discipline problems. I understand the reasons for it - they come from a background of extreme poverty, very few of their parents are high school graduates (if any), and it’s expected that they’ll drop out of school at age 12 to get married and start having kids. There is no pressure to perform well academically and their parents don’t seem to care if they show up for school at all. The school system only provides free books up to 4th grade, with the result that no Roma kid in 5th grade and up has textbooks, so they can’t participate, so they while away the hours throwing spitballs at each other and distracting the rest of the class.
It just kills me.
[/QUOTE]
I’m sorry to hear about this Kyla, but is there any Romany who has a burning desire to break the “stereotype”?
Come to think of it: are there any Dopers out there who are Romany or came from (or are still) that background? (Sort of “Ask the Romany…”)