Daily Archives: April 4, 2014

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04.04.2014 Stereotypes of criminal Rroma gangs

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20 Minuten (2014) reports on tricksters in the canton Aargau. The number of offenses, which were carried out by con artists, is said to have increased rapidly in recent times. This information is followed by a detailed description of the specific offenses and the appearances of the offenders, who are said to have dark hair. The remark at the end of the article, which states that the perpetrators are mostly Rroma is problematic: “According to the police, it mostly involves Roma, who are travelling in cars with foreign licenses. Victim of con artists are predominantly elderly people.”  The reference to the ethnicity of the perpetrators is unnecessary; it merely encourages racial prejudice against members of the minority. Rroma are not more criminal than members of any other ethnic groups. To ascribe them a culturally related delinquency lacks any reason and respect. Stereotypical notions of criminal Rroma gangs can be found in Western Europe since the 15th century. They have survived to the present day.

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04.04.2014 Rroma strongly discriminated against in Austria

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News.at (2014) and APA (2014) report on the latest survey of the Austrian Volkshilfe, on the occasion of the international Rroma day on April the 8th. The organization comes to the conclusion that the discrimination against Rroma in Austria is perceived as a massive by the questioned people: “A clear majority of Austrians (74 percent) sees Roma and Sinti currently affected by persecution, expulsion and racist violence. 68 percent of the polled people said that Roma and Sinti are group particularly discriminated against in Europe. Concerning Austria, 54 percent agreed with this statement. Measures against discrimination, in support of Roma and Sinti (for example, social counselling and labour market projects) are favoured by 59 percent of the population.” The president of the Volkshilfe, Erich Fenniger, demands more clarification about the Rroma in Austria and the promotion of positive images about Rroma by all members of society.

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04.04.2014 Racist excess at the “Daily Star”

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Tom Rawle (2014) from the Daily Star presents a racist excess on Rroma in the UK: He talks about the upcoming TV show called “Gypsies On Benefits And Proud”, which reports on migrant Rroma in England. The program is said to show clearly how easy it is for Rroma migrants to travel to England and abuse the local social system: “Ion Lazar, 36, who came to the UK with five other immigrants, says it is so simple to walk into Britain and get everything given to you. He says on the show: “I know it’s very, very easy to take benefits in England… She [England] gives me a free home, she gives me free money, she gives me everything.” He is now focusing on earning £40,000 to take home to Romania to build a house in the small village where he grew up.” Rawle and the program Gypsies On Benefits And Proud encourage racial prejudice with their un-reflected reporting. They unjustly denigrate an entire ethnic group by establishing a clear link between ethnicity and social abuse. They thus make themselves indictable for racist defamation. Politically charged knowledge is presented as if it was a scientific fact. That the presented cases are extreme individual cases is not discussed at all.

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04.04.2014 Polemical defamation of the Rroma

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The right-wing populist platform unzensuriert.at (2014) in its latest article defames the Rroma as unwilling to integrate and as a burden for Western European welfare states. In addition, a corruption bias is ascribed to them: “On a ‘EU Roma Summit’ on April 4th in Brussels, a “relief and development program” for the South-East European gypsies is planned to be implemented. Since the EU-extension onto Eastern Europe, those migrate in hordes from Bulgaria and Romania to Central and Western Europe. Municipalities such as Duisburg or Dortmund are close to a socio-political collapse due to immigration of the Rroma and the associated neglect of entire districts. [ … ] Such financial assistance has already in the past “fuelled” the corruption channels and could be diverted into the registers of Roma clan-chiefs and corrupt administrators and politicians connected with them.” Unzensuriert.at operates totally uncritically with a highly distorted, politicized, and value-loaded image of the Rroma. Through that, it propagates racist stereotypes such as the notion of criminal Rroma clan-chiefs and culturally related anti-social behaviour. The fact that such alleged “facts” are the result of centuries-old prejudices, is totally neglected by the platform. The same is true for the right-wing populist website Politically Incorrect (2014), which also propagates against the alleged exploitation of Western Europe through the Rroma.

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04.04.2014 Integration of the Rroma in the Czech Republic

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The Prague Daily Monitor (2014) reports on the candidacy of two Czech Rroma parties for the European Parliament. The Equal Opportunities Party (SRP) and the Romani Democratic Party (RDS) will advocate for the rights of the Rroma at the forthcoming European Parliament elections of 23th and 24th of May: “With the participation of two Romani parties in the EP elections, the Czech Republic is likely to set a record in the EU as no Romani party from Slovakia and Hungary or any other countries with a numerous Romani minority has done so. […] The manifestoes of the SRP and RDS are similar. The parties advocate the law on social housing, work for people from ghettoes, the limitation of seizures and they want Romani children to be sent to normal schools, not to the “special schools” for retarded children […].” Rroma activist Radek Horvath criticizes that the insistence on ethnically based parties as counterproductive. The Rroma should seek admission in the major parties.

Kachlíkova (2014) reports on the demand of the Rroma opposition party “Top 09” to introduce Rromanes in Czech schools as a teaching language. Anna Putnová, of the opposition party, sees the lack of Czech language skills among Rroma children as an important reason why the children do worse in the schools: “We send the children to school so that they develop. However, through the language we are creating a hurdle. I would therefore like to start a debate about whether to allow students to use Romani as an auxiliary language in the first, second, and third grade to develop a positive relationship to the school.” Some parts of the lessons should be held in Rromanes, the politician demands. Critics counter that the introduction of Romani in public schools would promote the segregation of the Rroma, because it would require ethnically divided classes. Rroma representatives as Stanislav Daniel rather want a better promotion of Czech language skills among Rroma children.

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04.04.2014 Correct, half-right and wrong information about the history and culture of the Rroma

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On the occasion of the 8th of April, the international Rroma day, Zimmermann (2014) discusses the history and culture of the Rroma. She spreads truths, but also some half- truths and misinformation about Rroma. She begins with the migration history from India, which she unfortunately only sees authenticated by the DNA-analysis. The linguistic analysis of the Rromanes, which gives an undeniable proof of the Indian roots of the Rroma, as Rromanes is related to Sanskrit, remains unmentioned. However, she rightly acknowledges that the repeatedly falsely attributed travelling lifestyle is related to the expulsion of the Rroma: “The Romani people were discriminated against for their dark skin and once enslaved by Europeans. They have been portrayed as cunning, mysterious outsiders who tell fortunes and steal before moving on to the next town. […] Also, as a matter of survival, the Romani were continuously on the move. They developed a reputation for a nomadic lifestyle and a highly insular culture. Because of their outsider status and migratory nature, few attended school and literacy was not widespread. Much of what is known about the culture comes through stories told by singers and oral histories.” Unfortunately, Zimmermann emphasizes far too little the big quantity of misinformation and pejorative stereotypes that were maintained through these oral histories. Particularly problematic is her reference to the spiritual energy “dji”, which she cites as a reason for the alleged lack of willingness to integrate: “Romani also believe that spiritual energy, also known as dji, can be depleted by spending too much time with those outside of their community, which is another explanation for why they are reluctant to assimilate.” To allege the Rroma a deliberately chosen anti-social behaviour is very dangerous. It trivializes a centuries-old history of exclusion and persecution that is the actual reason for the continued segregation of the Rroma. At the end of the article, Zimmermann rightly acknowledges that the Rroma are almost exclusively sedentary today, but often keep their identity a secret, due to continuing discrimination.

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