Someone just proved their own point, EEEVILLL white man.
[hijack]This reminded me of Rush Limbaugh interviewing a girl on his radio show, about something stupid like “minorities are taking over the world.” So this girl rants on about minorities for a while, then says something like “and I’m a minority too, so my opinion is extra important.” Rush asks which minority she is a member of; there’s a long pause, then she says “…well, I’m 21.” I nearly die laughing. Even Rush can’t reply to this. Yeesh.[/hijack]
Hold on a second. Exactly how did you reach this conclusion? monstro’s telling us a story about some one he knows personally, and you’re jumping in with some bullshit about how her heritage has been ‘denied’? Did you pull this out of your ass, or was it shown to you in a vision, or what?
**
Oh, the poor persecuted thing. Bad monstro, trying to keep her down.
So if I, white as the day is long, suddenly “discover” that I’ve got a black ancestor, and I start groping for money under affirmative action programs, that doesn’t make me a bad person, right? Don’t you DENY MY HERITAGE when I go looking for money, god damn it. I haven’t been discriminated against a day in my life, but some one I’m related to was 100 years ago. That’s my heritage, don’t condemn me just because you don’t understand it. I want my money.
**
Who indeed?
Nothing to add, just a 
(It’s been years since I’ve heard “ciupaga” in conversation.)
monstro has a valid gripe here. Black folks ARE a minority in this coutnry, and not only that but, even in 2002, they still face institutionalized racism, insults, and are judged more by the color of their skin than the content of their character. For some blonde bimbo to say, “Oh, I’ve found a Gypsy in the woodpile, tiem to cash in, ka-ching!” is not only a distortion of Affirmaticve Action initiatives, it’s a big ol’ slap in the face to Americans who face true second-class citizenship every day of their lives.
RE: the “Cherokee great-grandmother” thing. I’m 3/8 Choctaw (3 full-blood Choctaw great grandparents and 5 white great grandparents), and my dad was raised on the rez in Oklahoma. Yet, because my dad’s family disowned him when he married my mom (that’s right, Indians can be racists, too), I have had no connection with his family, and I have never tried to “cash in” on having First Nation genes. I think of myself as white, or to be more accurate, ecru.
gobear, you are clearly a special person. My recommendation is to go with the flow on this. Two reasons:
– Most people see themselves as uniquely disadvantaged.
– Most people will take advantage of an opportunity.
It is human nature to see one’s self as faced with special disadvantages. E.g., I’m Jew in a gentile industry. My wife is an older professor competing against younger professors in her department. My niece suffers from MS. My nephew has bi-polar disorder. (manic-depressive) Etc.
Obviously this “gypsy” woman is underserving of special assistance, but this sort of aid that it often misses its targets. Most people will take money offered to them.
There’t no payoff to you for getting upset at human nature.
No, you illiterate. I clearly typed “this woman has been denied, for one reason or another, knowledge of her heritage.” For those of us blessed with the ability to both read and comprehend what we read, that shows that the woman had no knowledge of her Roma roots prior to doing some research. That shows that someone else had not told her what those roots were and thus she was denied. I made no speculation as to what the reason for such denial to her was. Others in this thread have indicated at least one possible reason.
No, Bad Monstro, and Bad You, for taking the woman to task for discovering her roots.
Are you illiterate or just stupid? Look at my post prior to the one you decide to reinterpret into whatever version of insanity you call thought, but this time use the real version of thought and you’ll see what I said.
Apparently both monstro and you, bitch.
Frankly, I think Monty has a valid gripe.
My father is 100% Puerto Rican. Born and raised on the island until he turned 19 and moved to Pennsylvania, where he met Mom and had young drillrod and my sibs.
I take after Mom, I’m a white boy with light brown hair (nearly blonde at times) and very blue eyes. I get asked “Where’d you get you get a name like Rodriguez?” about once a week or so. Although I spent my whole life around latinos, I’ve never really considered myself latino. Of hispanic heritage, yes. Hispanic myself? Not really.
I’m a white boy and I know it. Mind you, I certainly don’t deny anyone who may be in my exact situation the right to consider themselves latino, this does not reflect my personal situation or self-image. I don’t deny my heritage and am very proud of my father and his family, I simply do not particularly identify with that aspect of my heritage.
I’m in my second marriage now, both times to women even whiter than me and I have a son from each marriage.
I don’t consider my sons to be hispanic and I don’t think that they do either.
Several times in my life, I have seen my father treated differently because of his race, and frankly it’s always ticked me off, but I have never believed myself to have been the subject of any discrimination.
Well, maybe the last time I was in Puerto Rico and got told an awful lot of times that I wasn’t a real Puerto Rican. Puerto Gringo, maybe, but not Puerto Rican.
Anyway back to the point. I would consider it to be at the least disingenuous, bordering on dishonest for either of my boys to try to profit financially from their Grandfather’s race and situation when they themselves have never experienced that situation themselves.
Monty IMHO the girl should be ashamed.
“I don’t think so!” says Homey the Clown.
I discovered that I have a Irish ancestor about six years ago when my sister was doing genealogical research. I hadn’t been denied anything. It’s just that it’s impossible to know who all of our ancestors were. It’s interesting to stumble across different types of people in your lineage, but you shouldn’t try to profit off of these tenous relations.
Not true. If the white man is poor or speaks Spanish, then he is eligible for certain NIH funding.
No, not necessarily. As I said earlier, the NIH is concerned about bridging health disparities in the US. So we’re talking about Americans and groups of Americans who have been historically excluded in some way or the other, either because they fall in certain socioeconomic groups or because they belong to a stigimitzed culture/race.
The Gypsies are a stigmitized group in certain parts of the US, but whether or not they meet the criteria set by the NIH, I have no clue.
Oops. You know all those white fellas look alike. (And I didn’t know he had died during the shooting of the film. Bummer.)
Why? Are you asking this because you don’t think I can perform on my merits?
Stankow,
You now know 4. Although I’m only a quarter Roma. And my grandmother doesn’t like to admit it - her father was an immigrant and generally presented himself as Romanian instead of Romany to avoid discrimination. She married an Italian and learned to make great lasagna.
Monty, you are hanging your adorable ass out on this one
The OP is not taking the woman to task for discovering her roots. If she had said, “I did some geneological research, and I discovered I have Romany roots,” I’m sure Monstro would have been very happy for her.
But that is not what she said.
She said she plans to use affirmative action entitlements, which are meant to redress real historical injustice, to rook the system. Is that fair or just? Let’s say I discover my great great grandmother was black. Should I dress my white self in a dashiki, change my name to Kwame Jamaal Gobear X, and apply for minority scholarships and government loans?
This woman is not Roma, she isn’t (from the OP) interested in learning much about the Roma or their culture; she just wants to get minority status for her blue-eyed, blonde self so she can cash in.
drillrod, I know a guy who has a similar upbringing. He’s half-Cuban/ half-European, and looks just like a white guy (as many Cubans do). But he speaks Spanish (English is his first language, however) and for all of his life, he has been emersed in Cuban-American culture.
He received funding from this program, citing the fact that he is Latino. Since he is Latino, I don’t have a problem here. But maybe I would feel differently if he hadn’t been raised in a Cuban-American household. Who knows.
Why am I a bitch, Monty? Just because I don’t like that this girl is obviously trying to work the system, to the detriment of others, I’m a bitch?
There is limited funding. If she receives a stipend, that means another person–perhaps more deserving–will not be able to get it. This pisses me off. So if she gets funding, I’m going to bow out of the program. I can teach or do other things to earn my keep. I don’t see this as bitchiness. I see this as having principles and being able to discern right from wrong.
I don’t think it shows that at all. It shows that for one reason or another she had no knowledge of those roots. I don’t know all sorts of things about my ancestors, but this is not necessarily because anyone is holding out on me. I could probably find out a shedload of fascinating things by a little dogged persistence in the record office.
This girl may have been “denied” her heritage, in that her ancestors and family may have deliberately kept their ethnicity hushed up to avoid prejudice. But her lack of knowledge on its own is not proof of that; things you don’t know are not necessarily being “denied” to you. Likewise, someone not telling you something doesn’t necessarily equal denial.
My parents never told me that my great grandfather was court-marshalled twice, and refused a navy pension before he shot himself. I found that out when I was doing some family history research in the Publis Records Office. No-one denied me that knowledge - they just hadn’t mentioned it, and the information was freely available to me once I looked.
embra
ahem. Just like everyone already said. Takes me years to compose these replies, I tell you…
Move along please…
I know where you’re coming from – my family said we were Serbian for a long time, though generally in response to the question, “Stankow – what kind of name is that?” Because it is Serbian. Then, when Milosevic started giving Serbs a bad name, a lot of us suddenly became Albanian.
Nowadays in America, there are so many other people for morons to hate that a fair-skinned Gypsy doesn’t attract a lot of attention, so I’m cool with admitting it.
One of my cousins maintains that a large percentage of Italian and Greek restaurants in the U.S. are actually run by Gypsies who are trying to pass. He also maintains that he can tell the ones that are Gypsy-run because they serve better food than “real” Italians and Greeks, but I think he’s talking out of his ass on that.
Oh, and cuate – there are plenty of us who don’t mind the word, as long as it’s not used as a slur per se. I for one got tired of saying “Roma … no, not Romanian, Roma. Romany? Never heard of it, eh… Czigany? Zigeuner? Gitano? Oh, sod it. Gypsy.”
This is the key point here, it seems obvious that this girl doesn’t really need this assistance, and may very well take money away from someone who does. Unfortunately, if these grants are given based purely on ethnicity, rather than on need, this is exactly what may happen. Of course, because need is not part of the equation, we don’t really know if the person denied funds was all that needy either. It’s a bit of a double edged sword.
That would be you dear. Making the above argument takes a willfull and indeed heroic misunderstanding of Monstro’s argument. She was not apparently denied knowledge of her heritage. Her heritage has had no bearing on her life to this point. She seeks to claim disadvantage for something that never crossed her mind before this day.
Trust me I applaud her for doing research into her heritage. Doing said research into her distant past only to claim that this secret Gypsy heritage has left her at a disadvantage or caused some kind of discrimination is ludicrous.
As an aside Monty you DO know it’s possible to disagree with someone’s point without calling them a bitch? Work harder on the reading comprehension dear and chill with the invective.
Well, I posted this in another thread, but in the spirit of fighting ignorance I’ll post it here:
From the Patrin web journal
I’m one of those that hate the word Gypsy, I’m afraid. Can’t stand the damn thing. After nearly a thousand years you’d think that people would get our name right.
Kal, a proud Romanichal.
Oh, Dangerosa and Stankow, at this rate we’ll be able to hold a RomaDope sometime soon. 
First, you say if she’s been discriminated against, perhaps she has a valid point. If not, too bad.
Now, here comes the problem. You lauch into this loony tirade about how we’re bad people for taking the woman to task for discovering her roots. And yet you claim literacy. It’s already been spelled out to you. I’ll try to use small words so that maybe the message will get through to your head, even though it’s firmly up your ass:
It’s ok to discover your roots. It’s not ok to claim you’re a minority simply because you have an ancestor or two that was a member of that minority. Certainly not just to get some money.
The situation monstro describes is the same situation that I used as my analogy. You’re just too dim to get it. You’re position is simply angst-ridden wailing and gnashing of teeth which you attempt to pass off as rational discourse. So far, you’ve failed.