{"id":1755,"date":"2013-10-25T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/%20rroma.org\/25-10-2013-the-case-of-maria-strengthens-stereotypes-on-rroma\/"},"modified":"2022-08-04T11:43:02","modified_gmt":"2022-08-04T10:43:02","slug":"25-10-2013-the-case-of-maria-strengthens-stereotypes-on-rroma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rroma.org\/fr\/25-10-2013-the-case-of-maria-strengthens-stereotypes-on-rroma\/","title":{"rendered":"25.10.2013 The case of Maria strengthens stereotypes on Rroma"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\texaggerated reporting bordering hysteria by the media on the case of the Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tblonde girl Maria reinforces stereotypes about Rroma families with numerous \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchildren and irresponsible parents. Michele Widmer (2013) from the Tagesanzeiger \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\twrites that Maria is \u00a0with great \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tprobability from a Bulgarian family with eight or ten children. The mother had \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto leave the child during a stay in Greece due to missing papers and sold her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto another Rroma family. While the prosecution speaks of child trafficking, the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tdefence claims the innocence of the Greek Rroma family: they cared care for the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tgirl and only unlawfully adopted her (Blick 2013 I \/ II).<\/p>\n

Mappes-Niediek \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2013) explains in his contribution that blonde, blue-eyed Rroma are not \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tunusual in Bulgaria. With the case of Maria, more prejudices about Rroma \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tstealing children are once again stoked, prejudiceswhich are even reflected in \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tEuropean fairy tales. Skinheads in Serbia have tried to take away a blond son \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom his dark-haired Rroma father. Mappes-Niediek states: \u201cAlthough the Roma in the Balkans are often designated as “black” \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand also sometimes even called that, blond hair and blue eyes in the minority \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tare not uncommon. A population genetic analysis of the researcher Kalydijewa \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLuba at a Roma population in Bulgaria has shown that around half of their \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tancestors have a genetic no different from the rest of the genome of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBulgarian population.\u201d<\/em> Mappes-Niediek (2013\/II) expands his coverage of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\ttopic in a detailed article in the TAZ. In it, he calls the actions of the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tauthorities as \u201cKing Kong schema\u201d: In a view loaded with prejudices, a blond, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tblue-eyed child cannot possibly belong to a dark-skinned black-haired Rroma family: \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u201cA pattern of actual theft of children by \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRroma does not exist. Such a scheme is not documented, not historical. What \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthere is, is a pattern of stories. That soon the “black man” comes \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand takes you away with him, is an integral part of the education meant to \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tscare children and not only in the Balkans.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

In Ireland, \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tas a reaction to Maria\u2019s story, a seven years old blond girl was taken from her \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tparents. It required a positive DNA test to disprove the official suspicion of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tchild abduction. The procedure ran into massive criticism on the Irish \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tauthorities action and response (Basler Zeitung 2013).<\/p>\n

Leuthold \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t(2013) of 20 minutes gives a surprisingly sophisticated contextual report on the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tsocial exclusion of Rroma in the wake of the media attention to the case of Maria. \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIt emphasizes the prevalence of prejudice and the massively larger impediments \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tof integration by the majority of the European societies. As can be read in the \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tcomments section, this emphasis on the systematic exclusion raises once more \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tthe question of the relationship between social structures and the personal \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tpower of action of individuals and groups. It is wrong, in fact, to attribute \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tto Rroma a pure victim role, but it is also questionable if their fate alone \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tascribes her own actions. It is the combination of socio-political structures \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tand the reaction to it, which lead to the real behaviour patterns of \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tindividuals.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n