We Must Not Forget The Romani

Flag of the Romani people, Wikimedia Commons

(LISBON, PORTUGAL) -- The Roma people have resided in Europe for centuries now. Many know about them only roughly, they know them as a people without a state that have been wandering from place to place. Europeans have harbored stereotypes on the Romani for centuries. Some claim they are talented musicians who harbor a deep connection to the spiritual and mystic world. \

Many look upon the Romani solely as bands of thieves that go from land to land to engage in thievery. Others claim they harbor an organized intent to destroy and subvert western society. Ultimately none of these claims are true. Just like any other stereotype, they just serve to create a harmful and distorted vision of the people upon the average person.

Before I continue this, I should provide some explanations for the terminology I'm utilizing. Romani is the preferred term to refer to these people by most academics and even the World Roma Congress. Many of you are most likely unfamiliar with this, because you may know them as “Gypsies”. The reason why I refrain from utilizing that term is primarily the derogatory connotation often attached to it.

The World Roma Congress itself chooses to use the terminology “Roma” and tends to refrain from the word “Gypsy”, as a result I will as well. I don't condone those who use the word, because often it works not just as an exonym but as a term used by the populations themselves, I just choose to not utilize it as part of my personal basis.

To many non-Europeans, particularly Americans, this revilement of a whole population seems very akin to Nazi Germany's beliefs upon its own minority populations, this is partly a correct purview. A large part of the beliefs upon the romani people, arise from the same propaganda issued against them during the holocaust by the Nazis. It’s important to acknowledge though, that the Nazis didn’t create this.

This system of propaganda was based on prior archetypes and stereotypes created throughout the various centuries where the Roma had lived upon the various regions of Europe. What makes the situation particularly dangerous is that this anti‑Romani sentiment did not disappear after World War II. In many ways, it was never seriously confronted. Many of the countries in Europe have spent decades teaching their children about the horrors of the Holocaust, but despite that the genocide of the Romani is still under‑acknowledged, under‑studied, and is often ignored from european history altogether.

We’ve seen the benefits of denazification and teaching people about the holocaust, especially when it pertains to anti-semitism and being aware of genocide. But this ignorance of the pains endured by the Romani people has made it so old prejudices could survive and now adapt to the modern era of politics.

Throughout Europe the Romani continue to face active systemic issues that would be considered appalling if it was applied to almost any other ethnic group anywhere else. Education is the field where you can see this more clearly, many Romani children are still placed in segregated schools (or “special” schools), all on the basis of assessments that overcharacterize them as “special needs” in comparison to other ethnicities, rather than genuine learning needs.

In housing, families are often pushed into isolated settlements, segregated social housing and communities, and these often are lacking in basic utilities. In some countries the Romani face routine forced evictions by xenophobic landlords or even by the governments themselves, seeing integration as a “useless endeavour”.

At the same time employment discrimination remains common within Romani communities, as unemployment rates in some regions reach extremely low levels. Law enforcement still often carries the stereotypes of the criminal Romani to heart, which ironically helps maintain their perception within society by forcing them to abide by it.

On top of these structural issues is also the rise of far-right political rhetoric that openly targets the Romani for their own populist gain. Especially in recent years, far‑right movements throughout Europe have resuscitated and normalized language that portrays the Romani as a threat to not just public safety but also national identity, much akin to the anti-immigrant discourse that has prevailed in these same circles before.

This rhetoric has entered the political discourse in various countries, but one that has hit fairly close to home for me is Portugal. André Ventura, the leader of the second biggest party in the country, has built a large portion of his public profile on negative statements about the Romani. Ventura’s political career had been stagnant for quite a bit, until he issued statements against the Romani. When he did this the establishment singled him out and he would choose to leave the center-right party he was in, founding the far-right populist Chega, now the second biggest party in the country.

Ventura has repeatedly referred to the Romani as a group that refuses to integrate, lives off state subsidies, and/or actively chooses to engage in criminal behavior. To those who are paying attention, all of these are claims that repeat those same long‑standing stereotypes that the Nazis helped popularize, rather than anything based upon evidence. Everyone with a basic sense for populism, this is to say Human Rights groups, has widely put into question his rhetoric, yet this doesn’t stop it from being effective with large parts of the population who feel disenfranchised from the establishment or simply economically insecure.

Ventura chooses to conveniently position the Romani as a scapegoat, tapping into anxieties about social change and choosing to further worsen the conditions of an already vulnerable minority. This strategy is not unique to Portugal, it’s part of a larger trend in European populism, where targeting the Romani becomes a strong gesture for “speaking hard truths” and “challenging the woke culture”, even when the claims made are misleading or harmful.

This would easily be called out as racism by most people, but if you attempt to ask anybody if they’re racist against Romani, you’ll see them change the topic to their culture being “less advanced” and “incompatible with European values”. In this same vein, often Anti‑Romani prejudice is not treated as racism but as a “cultural criticism”. Europeans who would typically never express racist views toward other minorities often just make an exception for the Romani. The average EU citizen just always seems to have a double-standard, or a specially made exception in regards to the Romani.

Fixing this issue requires more than just calling people out for being racist. Individual acts of discrimination are easy to call out, but ultimately it doesn’t matter and they don’t help fix the structural issue. Dismantling racist structures requires a comprehensive effort by every form of government, specially within the education system. We have done this education once at least, so we have a model to follow.

Prior to WW2 anti-semitism was much much worse, but thanks to holocaust incentives and education initiatives, the European school systems have now helped correct much of these injustices. So, we must seek to include the history of the Romani, their constant systematic oppression and also their achievements, in the curriculum of our schools, so that future generations understand the Romani as more than just stereotypes inherited by their parents. Governments need to enforce, or at times create, anti‑discrimination laws more rigorously, ensuring equal access to housing, employment, and education.

Media outlets need to be held to higher standards when reporting on Romani communities, and they need to forsake sensationalism and stereotypes, or otherwise receive appropriate fines and punishment. Political leaders must be willing to challenge populist rhetoric head on rather than let it be exploited for electoral gain while choosing to ignore the topic. Arguably the most important though, is to hear the Romani.

The World Roma Congress is arguably the largest institution that represents the Roma as a people, due to their decentralized nature they have often not acted as a singular unit for their interests. This would be fine, but the lack of a Roma voice or spokespeople has caused us to ignore them at a systematic level.

Comparing once again to the Holocaust education from Jewish communities, who created various organizations who sought to remedy that. The Roma should consider the same, and we should seek to include and proliferate those same organizations. The Roma must be included in policymaking, cultural institutions, and public discourse, allowing the community to define and vouch for itself.

The Romani are Europe’s largest ethnic minority, but they remain as its most marginalized yet. Romani history is actively intertwined with the history of the continent and shaped our very culture, but their suffering is often just ignored. Europe needs to be serious about confronting its past and building a more equal future, to be blunt, we cannot continue to overlook the Romani.