Voice of Russia (2013) spoke to the historian Nadezhda Demeter about the growing “Rroma phobia” in the Czech Republic, which gained media attention with the pogroms in Budejovicy last week. Demeter sees a discrepancy between social institutions such as the Roma Faculty at Charles University in Prague, the Czech Rroma party or human rights organisations for minorities and the effective integration and equality of Rroma in everyday life. In spite of the existence of such public institutions,  many Rroma do not get work, are excluded from medical treatment and are  denied of potential living space. The so-called Rroma phobia has origins in the denial of a part of Czech history where the memory of the murder of Rroma is not acknowledged. She also speaks about invisible Rroma who are not perceived as such: “there are not that few Roma in the Czech Republic who are educated and, so to speak, from the middle class. But they do not learn their native language, have completely assimilated. Apparently, they still know that once their documents were labelled with an ‘R’. And they do not want to attract attention, they hide their belonging to their tribe.”

Source:

• Stimme Russlands (2013) Pogrome Tschechien: “Roma sind keine Tauben, die Skinheads dagegen Habichte”. In: Stimme Russlands online vom 10.7.2013. 

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