{"id":1185,"date":"2014-10-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/17-10-2014-antiziganism-study-statistics-versus-historical-research-on-prejudices\/"},"modified":"2022-07-26T14:05:34","modified_gmt":"2022-07-26T13:05:34","slug":"17-10-2014-antiziganism-study-statistics-versus-historical-research-on-prejudices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/17-10-2014-antiziganism-study-statistics-versus-historical-research-on-prejudices\/","title":{"rendered":"17.10.2014 Antiziganism study: statistics versus historical research on prejudices"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Zern (2014) discusses \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe debate initiated by Der Spiegel<\/em>, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tquestioning the reliability of the antiziganism study published by the German \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tanti-discrimination agency. Fleischhauer\/Petrovich (2014) criticised that the anti-discrimination \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tagency added one field of the middle scale values in its statistical analysis, which \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe researchers had not assigned to the \u201cnegative\u201d category. Zern, in her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tarticle for the MiGAZIN, points out that the criticism of Fleischhauer and Witsch is besides the point: it \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe statistical evaluation that is decisive, but rather, the emergence and adherence \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof prejudices against Rroma. This topic was not addressed satisfactorily by the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstudy: \u201cWhat problems does the finding \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat not more than 30 percent, but 20.4 percent of the German majority society don\u2019t \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twant to have Sinti and Roma as their neighbours solve? Should we not rather ask \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhat such a survey says us about our society that rather relies on numbers rathere \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthan ask about the origin of antiziganism? […] It would be important to put \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe attitudes of the majority society towards the Sinti and Roma into the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tproper context \u2013 and vice versa, because a majority of society cannot be \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconceived without its minorities. What circumstances have contributed to the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmentioned attitudes of the majority society? For what reasons people began to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthink in stereotypical ways about Sinti and Roma? And how do Sinti and Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tperceive the majority society?\u201d <\/em>Zern thus addresses an important topic of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tresearch on prejudices: how do prejudices emerge and how are they maintained? \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIn the case of Rroma, the negative stereotypes find their origin in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconfrontation of the first immigrant Rroma with the rigid feudal order of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmedieval Europe. The Rroma with their ambiguous status raised this clear order \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto question, and with it existing power relations. Soon \u201cgypsies\u201d were equated \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twith all those population groups, which were regarded as maladjusted, antisocial \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tor seditious. However, these mechanisms of demarcation are not only a \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thistorical process, but also play an important role in the synchronous social \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsciences. \u00a0<\/p>\n

At the intercultural \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tweeks of Offenburg, stereotypes against Rroma also played a crucial role. In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe opening ceremony, politicians and Rroma discussed about the perception \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tproblems of the minority: \u201cDaniel \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStrauss, from Mannheim and chairman of the state association of German Sinti \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand Roma, said in the panel discussion that the \u201cconstruction of the gypsy\u201d is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe problem, Sinti and Roma should be protected against this construction. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cGypsy depictions have nothing to do with Sinti and Roma.\u201d However, with the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmoney this cannot be resolved. \u201cThis is not a financial problem\u201d, said Strauss\u201d \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/em>(Rudolf 2014).<\/p>\n