{"id":1361,"date":"2013-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-05T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/05-04-2013-rolf-bauerdicks-book-gypsies-encounters-with-unloved-people\/"},"modified":"2022-08-05T09:26:50","modified_gmt":"2022-08-05T08:26:50","slug":"05-04-2013-rolf-bauerdicks-book-gypsies-encounters-with-unloved-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/05-04-2013-rolf-bauerdicks-book-gypsies-encounters-with-unloved-people\/","title":{"rendered":"05.04.2013 Rolf Bauerdick’s book “Gypsies – Encounters with Unloved People”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrea Seibel (2013) of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe newspaper \u201cDie Welt\u201d discusses the latest publication of the journalist \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRolf Bauerdick. She describes him as routined Southeast Europe traveller, who \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tis willing to lift the veil of political correctness and breach facts openly. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThis may be true to a certain degree, for example when she reports on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBauerdick\u2019s criticism of Roma experts who speak about the situation of Rroma with \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tno experience of reality or when he criticizes the role of victim, in which Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twill often let themselves be pushed into. On the other hand Bauerdick alleged \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinsolence towards the political correctness can also be called ignorance especially \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twhen Seibel presents pejorative representations as revelations and when \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texternally assigned names such as \u201cgypsies\u201d are presented as endonyms:<\/p>\n

Wherever \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthey came, they wrecked the entire infrastructure. He experienced the family of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe Romanian Gabor where men never worked and always found excuses as to why. They \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdrank even more, beat their wives, because they were also drinking, after they \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\thad been beaten and got an infinite number of children who are not allowed to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgo to school. A narrow, dirty, rough, desperate world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Such statements may \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treflect part of the reality, but they can be from the perspective of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpolitically correct, they are just stupid as they confirm the standard stereotypes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin the minds of many people.<\/p>\n

Seibels finds the strength \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the book in a presentation that neither glorifies nor damns. Bauerdick presents \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe plurality of Roma ways of life, speaks about individuals, and not of \u201cthe Roma\u201d, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ta presentation which must necessarily falls short. He also speaks of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tmuch-quoted exclusion from mainstream society and from the own responsibility \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin face of the exploitation of the Rroma by Rroma. He sees this exploitation of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma by Rroma as an important factor. This factor is equally to be discussed \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas the tales of \u200b\u200bRroma kings and criminally organized Rroma clans. Bauerdick \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnotes:<\/p>\n

The oppressive \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcircumstance to which the criminal sociologist Szilveszter Po\u0107zik points s \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\toften concealed. One in two adults and three out of four juvenile delinquents \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tin Hungarian prisons are Roma. And that with a population of eight percent. That \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe inter-ethnic criminality is by far surpassed by the intra-ethnic violence is \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconcealed. Most victims of the Roma are themselves Roma, beaten women, abused \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgirls and exploited children. And the voices of those Gypsies who depart from \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthis cartel of silence are themselves concealed. (Bauerdick 2013: 149)<\/em><\/p>\n

Bauerdicks focus on \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfield research and the social reality of his Interview partner is certainly \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlaudable. The fact that the work of intellectuals is so vehemently discredited, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttestifies to an ignorance of epistemological and political force that can also \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbe applied in the form of knowledge itself. Anyone whose exclusive concern are \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe visible ones tends to overlook the existence of social structures and power \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelations that exist beyond the visible Rroma slums. He also neglects the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tinvisible Rroma, to which access is exceedingly more difficult to find than \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthat of Roma in the slums on the outskirts of cities.<\/p>\n

In his article for \u2018die \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWelt\u201d Bauerdick (2013) presents his view of the massive exploitation of Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tby Rroma. He finds the desperate situation of many Rroma to be only mkarginally \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcaused by exclusion, and more to be the result of internal exploitation. He \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tnotes:<\/p>\n

With \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttheir stereotypical racism allegations, Roma politicians have for decades \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdominated all discussions, without any marked improvement of the situation of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGypsies. They hide the fact that the Roma are less exploited by the dominant part \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof the population than by the members of their own ethnic group. The Roma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthemselves suffer most from child abuse, women trafficking and prostitution, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunder usury, extortion and organised theft.<\/em><\/p>\n

How uncritically he \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\treports on Rroma kings and organized traffickers astonishes, especially as the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texistence and relevance have been repeatedly deemed questionable. In \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparticular, the plausibility of the existence of an organized supervision and \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpunishment structure, which would be necessary for such structures. Bauerdick\u2019s \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthesis of the prevalence of self-exclusion among Rroma is also to be critically \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tlooked at. If all related, then exploitation is the result of exclusion, which \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tturned into self-discrimination. To consider these themes separately and to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsider them independent is a testimony of the lack of knowledge about the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\trelationship of individuals and groups to society. Internal and external views \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcan never be considered separately from each other, and are mutually dependent. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDiscrediting the exclusion of Rroma as an exaggeration simplifies the issue \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunnecessarily. This exclusion leads to apathy towards improving their own situation, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tbut it is not a voluntarily act.<\/p>\n

Sources:<\/strong><\/p>\n