Don’t worry - the tar is mostly water, and it will fall off in a day or two.
That’s the PC term, and like many such terms tends to obfuscate the meaning. I probably should have capitalised it, though.
Why is it so surprising that Americans and Europeans are bigoted against different people?
Probably because they’re mostly bigoted against the same people.
There’s some overlap, sure, but it’s not nearly 100%. And really, why should people in different parts of the world, with different histories, have the same prejudices?
Is it just that you refuse to admit that in this specific issue, Americans are slightly better than you?
Well, he did play defensive lineman and he wrestled. So that makes him a little dangerous. And he served on a sub, so he might hurl a nuke at you if you look at him funny.
As an American, I can say that, while I’m confident that there’s some level of bigotry against Roma here, it’s not nearly on the same level as bigotry against blacks, Latin Americans, Middle Easterners, East Asians, or South Asians. Probably not even as much as the bigotry against Jews, Eastern Europeans, or Mediterranean Europeans. I can’t speak to Europe, but here, they’re far from being the most hated ethnic group.
Don’t forget undefeated amateur heavyweight boxer, with a record of 1-0 (a single summer boxing while in college)!
Where did you get that idea? I think Americans are better at several things, in particular integrating immigrants. But I’d expect them to react much the same if they did have a significant population of Romany/Irish Travellers or similar living in caravans.
Another poster says she claims to be a librarian. First I’d heard of that.
If she does indeed work for U of T, it’s probably as a janitor (not that there’s anything wrong with being a janitor, mind you!).
To be fair, she’s also a part-time con artist. Sorry - “fortune teller”.
I understand it’s a PC term but my point is that to most North Americans, the term “traveler” or “Traveler” is not a PC term, it just means a person engaged in travel. Hell, I’d never heard or read the term before reading that post; I had to extrapolate from its context, and having learned about Irish Travelers a few years ago, what it meant. People in Canada and the USA are largely unaware of the existence of Roma and Irish Traveler people. The term “Irish Traveler” means, to at least 99% of people here, a tourist or business traveler from Ireland, and “Roma” is a kind of tomato; people know the word “Gypsy” but are as likely to associate it with Stevie Nicks or fortune tellers as they are to be aware of the fact it’s an ethnic group.
I don’t know why you find this hard to believe. Ethnicity and race, and thus racism, are specific to a society. I mean, how familiar are you with the racial divides to be found in Nigeria or Cambodia?
Uh, the song?
She has claimed to work somewhere in the UT System and also claimed to have some sort of authority over students in a library there. Just like everything else, exactly where in the UT System is unclear but she didn’t deny working at UT Austin when asked.
The title of which, in turn, was inspired by Irish and Romani travelers in Arkansas during the late Nineteenth Century.
I’ve reconsidered my last post and it’s too late to do anything about it. Migratory Romani and Irish were in Arkansas when the song was composed but probably had nothing to do with it.
It was Law and Order Criminal Intent that I first heard of Irish Travelers. I actually thought the show was being “PC” and making up an ethnic group to avoid disparaging Roma. I didn’t know it was an actual group. They were pretty crooked in the episode. 
Yes, she has said that she works in the library many times.
She also used to have much worse grasp of English than she now has. She used to sound like she was just off the boat.
That’s actually spot on. Well observed!