First of all this is NOT some tribute to Cher….
I watch a lot of European mysteries and most have some sort of gypsy, traveler, Roma character in them…..and most times they are portrayed as ‘scum’ you know untrustworthy….I always wondered why this feeling.
2021 Census included a “Roma” category for the first time, following in the footsteps of the 2011 Census which included a “Gypsy and Irish Traveller” category. The 2021 Census statistics have not yet been released but the 2011 Census put the combined Gypsy and Irish Traveller population in England and Wales as 57,680. This was recognised by many as an underestimate for various reasons. For instance, it varies greatly with data collected locally such as from the Gypsy Traveller Accommodation Needs Assessments, which total the Traveller population at just over 120,000, according to our research.
Other academic estimates of the combined Gypsy, Irish Traveller and other Traveller population range from 120,000 to 300,000. Ethnic monitoring data of the Gypsy Traveller population is rarely collected by key service providers in health, employment, planning and criminal justice.
Roma defined–Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the eighth and tenth centuries C.E. They were called “Gypsies” because Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct groups called “tribes” or “nations.”
So that lead me to the history of the Roma…..
It is frequently said in discussions about the enormity of the Third Reich’s crimes that there is insufficient attention to the mass murder of Roma. This is indisputably true. Yet it is misleading to merely add several hundred thousand Romani victims to the six million Jews annihilated by the Nazi terror apparatus. The deaths of these men, women, and children, murdered as “Gypsies,” cannot be reckoned in terms of an “also,” an “in addition to,” or “it cannot be overlooked that. . . .” One must not consider their destruction as an addendum to the Judeocide at all. While the Hitler regime’s targeting of Roma in several European countries during World War II coincided and intersected with the Holocaust, the former derived from a form of racism distinct from genocidal anti-Semitism. To understand anti-Roma racial hatred, one must examine the longer history of Roma in European culture. This article, the first of a series, prepares the groundwork for such an inquiry.
At the outset, it is important to challenge some long-held and deeply entrenched stereotypes and misnomers about Roma or, more precisely, Roma and Sinti (often “Roma” is used as a category encompassing both). The place to begin with challenging these falsehoods is with the very word “Gypsy.” Now mainly deemed a slur, the English “Gypsy,” like the Spanish “Gitano,” reveals an old, false assumption: that this is a people who originated from Egypt. Historical research has long refuted this belief. Roma and Sinti can be traced back to India, to the Punjab region. The Romani language (the source for the appellation “Roma”) is related to Sanskrit. More than a thousand years ago, they began to migrate out of India, heading westward in successive waves. They crossed the Middle East and arrived in continental Europe in the later Middle Ages.
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This dynamic of fascination and hatred, still relatively new in European history, entered a new phase in the last third of the nineteenth century with the emergence of race theory. The attempt by race thinkers like Arthur de Gobineau and Houston Stewart Chamberlain to divide humans into distinct races within frameworks of superiority and inferiority, the effort to explain culture and behavior by recourse to biology, and the fear of “race-mixing” would have terrible consequences for Romani communities.
https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/roma-european-culture
If you would like to know more….The second part of this series….https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/bavarian-precedent-roma-european-culture
A more in-depth look at the culture in the UK…..
https://travellermovement.org.uk/gypsy-roma-and-traveller-history-and-culture
Answered a few of my questions but at the same time created more.
Anyone that would like to share anything on this subject please feel free to comment.
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”
I had a Romy pen pal for about a year…he lived in Black Pool England in a “Caravan” with his “Mum.”
The people are fascinating….but I know very little of their life…..chuq
Very few of the ‘Traveller Community’ in the UK are genuine Romany. Most of the ‘Roma’ are Romanian immigrants and are heavily involved in crime. From stealing mobile phones while pretending to be begging, to organised gangs of thieves and scammers.
As for the ‘Travellers’, almost all of those are from Ireland, driven out by the Irish police who would no longer tolerate their criminality. They have sites for their caravans provided by local councils by law, and many of the sites have permanent buildings on them, not mobile caravans.
They specialise in fleecing people into paying for work such as driveway repair, roof repair, and gardening. Asking for money up front, and then never doing any work. They use vehicles that are not taxed or insured, fake driving licences, false names, and anything to avoid prosecution.
They pay no tax or national insurance, but are quick to claim any benefits they can get from our sytem, including free healthcare.
The women are serial shoplifters, the children rarely attend school and are feral in the areas that they live.
They are a ‘fake minority’ of professional criminals that we have no need of in modern Britain. As you can tell, I have had lots of dealings with them, and I don’t like them one bit.
If you asked me if I was racist, I would answer, “As far as so-called Travellers are concerned, yes”.
Best wishes, Pete.
Pete thanx for your insights……like I say I know very little about the ‘people’…..any and all info is welcome…..chuq
I try to follow the news from the UK because I have friends over there and I can confirm most of what Pete said up there. From what I’ve been reading in the British news, most of them are no more an “ethnic minority” than I am. An acquaintance of mine who lives in a small town in the UK told me once that when a group of them descends on a small community it’s like being hit with a plague of locusts. She said a group of them moved into the area some years ago. trespassing on private property to park their caravans and vehicle. The local council and police refused to do anything out of fear of being labeled “racist”. By the time they left the area, it cost the council something like a hundred thousand pounds to clean up the mess they left behind, including dumping raw sewage from their caravans on the field, abandoned vehicles, and a mountain of trash.
Thanx GF….I just saw so much and I wanted to know how true it all was…..great insights. chuq
Exactly right, Grouchy. They have been designated as an ‘Ethnic Minority’ by law here, and they do what they like, without fear of arrest. Most people are just sick and tired of them, and the Police will do nothing to help get rid of them, claiming it is a ‘civil matter’.