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- It's definitely an enlightening post that I thought was really interesting! It's something that we don't think about because it might not have ever come up before. I am a minority as well, and I've had some...interesting experiences with people who simply didn't understand. I don't know if I'd label them all as bigot (though some of them are!), because there really are those who just never think of it. One of the things that I've really enjoyed about Glitch was that, arguments or not, it's really opened up my eyes about other cultures and situations and people in general. Djabriil's post really opens another perspective on what so many people have forgotten. Those who might be at fault, I don't think they should feel bad. But perhaps they can learn something new and appreciate the diversity that is Glitch.
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Djabriil is certainly my favorite too, but I might be biased :)
Knowing him has very much opened my eyes to the Roma people and what they have gone through both past and present. I am honored to say that once we are married, I too will be Romani by tradition. -
I am glad for his post as well, I did not even know of the culture until he raised the point (I am from New Zealand). I am somewhat more familiar with other minority cultures that have a history of being marginalised and attacked, and for whom derogatory terms exist (like Jewish culture, is that a comparable culture?).
Irie (or Djabriil) - could one of you tell me how 'romani' is pronounced? I've heard/observed pronunciations on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd syllables, and while i'm pretty sure the last syllable is 'ee' I don't know how the whole thing is pronounced. ROMani, romANi or romanI? And may I ask what is the difference between Romani and Roma? -
Solid dude, glad to see him stick up for his culture.
I'd be (mostly) ignorant of the whole thing as well were it not for one Eugen Hütz and Gogol Bordello. And Snatch.
Just because I come from Roma camp up the hill,
you put me into classes for mentally ill. -
@Lara - the difference between Roma and Romani is that Roma is the culture and Romani describes the individual, culture, etc (an adjective). And the pronunciation sort of varies from dialect to dialect- ROmani and roMANi are what I've heard most often (and I use the second one myself).
Thanks to all of you for the support and for understanding I wasn't trying to troll anybody (which is sort of what I thought people would think, hence the giant walls of over-explanatory text lol). It's sort an issue that I feel like, if I can tell people why it's not a great idea to throw around a word people object to like "gypsy", particularly since it has more and more drifted into weird stereotype category, perhaps there can be a bit of understanding as opposed to somebody "calling the WHAAAmbulance" about it. Particularly when mine's a culture a lot of people don't really have a great deal of exposure to outside Tarot cards and Disney flicks.
ETA- thanks for not turning this whole discussion into jokes on your walls, either- right now I've got an employee yukking it up all over mine. -
Djabriil, my husband is from Romania and has taught me more than I had already known before I met him. This...bastardization of people's cultures for movies/costumes/whatever has always annoyed me. Last year, our county fair had a "Gypsy Village" hidden in a corner of the fairgrounds. I wouldn't have even seen it if I didn't take the tram, which I never do.
I spent a lot of time that day walking the fairgrounds looking for the person to speak to. I wrote articles/letters & posted to their Facebook wall. Lesson learned; the installation was pulled and they didn't put it back up this year. - I've had a hell of a time trying to explain that very thing, that magical soothsaying stereotype, but, to be honest, I'm running out steam trying to get across what is objectionable about a non-Romani (gaudjo) perceiving the "good" stereotype to be some kind of wonderful compliment. I think since people get the idea that we're mysterious people with all the secrets of the magical world, that it's a good stereotype to pass on- which is funny, given that I once told somebody my ethnicity only to be treated to a story about how a gypsy witch cursed her grandfather's farm. Yeah, it's an awesome stereotype. I'm happy, though, that there are people who understand why stereotyping is a reduction, and I'm glad to call my friend somebody who would be willing to go out of their way to redress what they've come to find is wrong and destructive.
- LOL I think I know exactly how you feel. Due to TV/Movie stereotypes people have certain...expectations about me or they say the most peculiar things and I'm like, [blank stare]. Meanwhile, my husband is from Transylvania, so he has to deal with all the Dracula stuff and people wondering why doesn't sound like a movie monster. For reals?
- @Jarhaven- exactly. I got asked more than once while in the Navy if I would read somebody's palm... ermmm, nope. And there was a situation on our boat where two people were stealing things from others and telling our COB (Chief of the Boat, basically the personnel officer), a person that already had unclear issues with me and my division, that I had obviously done it because I was one o' them dirty gypsies. Sadly, he bought that as an explanation, until the cook went to the barracks rooms of the guys responsible, whooped a little ass, and returned all the stolen stuff to the boat. Then the COB got fired, and I got an apology. I felt vindicated in the end, but it sure woulda been nice not to have needed vindicating to begin with.
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I haven't watched the video yet, but my wife told me about this: www.andersoncooper.com/2011...
Obviously gypsy women are all trained swindlers from birth :P -
@shipwreck - lol well yeah! Which is especially funny considering the Romani-baby-stealing and extortion situation in Greece and Bulgaria a few years ago... a lot of the women were driven to it by desperate financial troubles, and got swindled in the process- the true mark of a born criminal mastermind.
ETA- This is a great example of how the whole "mystical wanderer" stereotype can be harmful, and not just to us. While it's certainly not true that we are forced into a life of crime "culturally", we are often able to make the best money in occult-y professions, because people expect it of us. And really, if you go to a "psychic", it's kind of on you... this woman seems to have used the "society made me" argument for what sounds like quite a swindle, though, and used a cultural excuse to try to get off the hook, which doesn't exactly give us a good name in the public's eyes. While it's true that there are places in the world, particularly in eastern Europe, where a lot of Roma crime goes on due to social and economic inequalities and governmental marginalization, that's not as prevalent in the US. And blaming the culture for one's own wrongdoing is really selling out your own people- if this woman has Romanipen (franchise in a community), I wouldn't be surprised to hear she'd lost it as a result of this and her lawyer's subsequent statements. -
+1 for Djabriil (one of the coolest people I've met on this game), +1 for all of you taking the time to learn about my cultural heritage and showing it the appropriate respect, and +1 for somebody mentioning Eugene Hutz and Gogol Bordello somewhere up there. Love all around up in this thread.
(Seriously, guys. Glitch has the best community on the planet.) - In the thread you linked to, Djabrill says: "discussion moved to another thread." Where is that thread?
- @Cafeida http://www.glitch.com/forum/general/9902/
- Thank you.
- @Cefeida - My bad. There were two going on that I just ended up merging into the bigger one.
- Oh no, that's okay, I was just trying to find it :)