According to Wikipedia, they’ve largely assimilated into the US. I wouldn’t even know how to discriminate against the Romani, since they just sort of look like Hispanics or Eastern Europeans. From the Wiki page:
The size of the Romani American population and the absence of a historical and cultural presence, such as the Romani have in Europe, make Americans largely unaware of the existence of the Romani as a people.
It’s hard to discriminate against people you don’t even know are here. I don’t think I want to give ZPG any benefit of any doubts given her bizarre views on everything else.
I agree with you that she isn’t trustworthy. But other Roma seem to indicate that it’s a problem.
I also don’t think you need to know they exist to be racist towards them, as long as they don’t look “white.” But we do have nonsense about “gypsies” here in the US. And there are areas with higher Roma populations than others.
The problem isn’t her claim that her people are mistreated. It’s that she uses that as an excuse to be a bigot herself. It’s not uncommon, unfortunately.
They are not assimilated here and show no signs of becoming so. To all appearances because they don’t want to be, but if that’s different in America then perhaps it’s not so simple? It’s not strictly speaking racism, because people in the UK hate Irish travellers just as much as Romanies, and they’re, y’know, Irish. But there’s a definite clash of cultures. It’s not so much a case of hearing stereotypes, but of unpleasant personal encounters.
As for ZPG_Zealot, if she goes around accusing every man who tries to shake her hand of being a racist, I can’t imagine she’s too popular.
On the contrary, she’s quite popular and has been the subject of multiple Pit threads over the years. She has a habit of coming in to say something completely outrageous, knowing full well the kind of reaction she’s going to get. I think she enjoys the negative attention. If I had to guess, she thrives on being a victim. Or a troll. Both, probably. Would not surprise me in the least if there is some serious pathology at play and that she’s actually some 400lb unwashed dude sitting on his bed in his parents basement, having a wank. I almost prefer that scenario to the story of her being a librarian at a university. Largely because if it’s the case of the latter, the odds are good that we’ll one day hear about her on the news as a Texas school mass shooter.
Well, anyway, in my experience here on the East Coast with some years living in Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Chicago, I’ve never seen or even heard of any anti-Roma racism or anti-Irish Traveler racism. I’ve never seen groups of people who seem to be travelers, like I’ve seen in Europe.
Maybe they’re a much bigger thing in Texas or the West Coast. Anyway, I would assume everything ZPG says is false, but I’m willing to believe other Roma on the subject of course.
You misunderstand me. I don’t mean the fact that you argued with iiandyiiii. I mean where you threw in the odd insult of saying he was being “holier than thou.”
Well, yeah. He was talking to a (very blatant) racist. No matter what mistake he said in a previous thread, he’s still better than a racist.
If you’re going to slip in an insult like that, and bring up shit from a past thread, it would make more sense to me to do it to the racist.
Oh, and I do genuinely think people listen to her. Not about the handshake thing, but there are people who make the argument it’s okay to use the n-word for a particularly bad black person. And I know plenty of people (possibly yourself included) who would feel sorry for her getting piled on like that, rather than see it as an appropriate consequence for her speech. So they might be sympathetic to her argument because of that.
Midwest, anyway; there’s a reason Arkansas has a minor league baseball team called the Travellers. I listen to a streaming audio from a station based in Kankakee, IL, when I’m working; seems like every spring, they have warnings about travellers offering home improvement projects which they never finish.
Lol no. I agree with @QuickSilver, she obviously gives no fucks and enjoys the negative attention. I certainly hope no one is sympathetic to her argument.
This “they” stuff is nasty, whether it’s applied to the Roma or any other ethnic/racial/religious group. There are good Roma and bad Roma and everything in between, just like any other ethnic group.
