On December 8, the US Senate handed a bi-partisan decision “celebrating the heritage of Romani People” and honouring Romani historical past, tradition and contributions to human progress.
The passing of the decision – the results of years of activism and lobbying by Romani folks and our allies – was an important step ahead in our lengthy battle to get Romani historical past and heritage formally recognised and revered in the US. Whereas there may be cause to rejoice on this necessary decision, nonetheless, our work is much from over.
I’m not American-born, however as a Romani one that has been dwelling within the US for years, I’ve skilled and witnessed the dangerous penalties of the American public’s prejudices about Romani folks, historical past and tradition.
I moved from Romania – the place my folks confronted racism, discrimination and institutionalised violence for hundreds of years – to the US to attend Harvard College in 2012. Given the wealthy scholarship on racism within the US, I assumed I’d be getting into an surroundings the place I’d be surrounded by people who find themselves educated about anti-Roma concepts and properly versed to discuss their many manifestations.
I realised quickly sufficient that my assumption was not proper. A number of folks I met right here, regardless of having a nuanced understanding of racism, its ideologies and manifestations, casually talked about the parable of “g*psy criminality” as reality or alluded to a particular Romani “life-style”.
At some point as I used to be leaving a category, for instance, a fellow pupil requested me if my household had a “life-style” just like that of the characters within the actuality TV collection Gypsy Sisters – one of many American spin-offs to the enormously common British collection Huge Fats Gypsy Weddings. His curiosity in my tradition was real, however identical to a lot of his compatriots, his notion of Romani folks had been distorted by the transatlantic migration of anti-Roma sentiments and amplification of damaging stereotypes on tv.
In a 2020 research, my colleagues on the Harvard FXB Middle for Well being and Human Rights and I performed in collaboration with Voice of Roma, two-thirds of the Romani People interviewed agreed that American tv exhibits painting Roma folks negatively. Certainly, exhibits like My Huge Fats American Gypsy Marriage ceremony current violence, vulgarity and early marriages as Romani cultural options. Episodes from such collection carry titles corresponding to Birthday Occasion Turns right into a Huge Combat, G*psy Truck Combat, and even Mama Bear Assaults the Bride.
Not solely so-called “actuality collection” centered on Roma, however many American TV exhibits and films painting Romani folks as one-dimensional g*psy stereotypes. They misrepresent us, as Romani-American filmmaker George Eli as soon as put it, “as mystical creatures, vampires, vagabonds, nomadic beggars, criminals, thieves, or pickpockets”. In reality, they not solely misrepresent Roma tradition as vulgar, inferior and violent but in addition sensationalise it in order that they will exploit it for revenue.
This steady misrepresentation and sensationalisation do influence the day by day realities of Romani People. One Roma we interviewed for the 2020 research informed us that the college surroundings, specifically, “is far worse now that the lecturers can see My Huge Fats Gypsy Marriage ceremony”. “They assume that our youngsters are nugatory scum, that they aren’t price educating or defending at college.” Different Romani People agreed that their kids have suffered due to racist portrayals of Roma as subhuman or Romani women as over-sexual. They stated many Romani kids dropped out of college as a result of bullying associated to their ethnicity and defined that such incidents led them to advise their kids to cover their ethnic id and endure any anti-Roma prejudice they encounter in silence.
After all, anti-Roma discrimination within the US has not been invented by actuality TV executives. At the moment’s exploitative TV programmes are merely amplifying deep-rooted prejudices and permitting them to unfold a lot additional than earlier than. Many many years in the past, within the Change in Social Standing polls of 1964 and 1989, American adults rated “g*psies” as having the bottom “social standing”. In reality, they rated Romani folks, together with Mexican and Puerto Rican folks, decrease than an invented ethnic group, the “Wisians.”
After all, anti-Roma prejudices don’t stand alone. As is the case elsewhere on this planet, cultural and racial prejudices in opposition to Romani folks justify and improve profoundly dangerous discriminatory actions corresponding to racial profiling, institutional neglect and disrespect in opposition to members of our communities.
Thus, it’s excessive time for change. The current Senate decision celebrating the heritage of Romani People is an effective place to begin, however we want extra. We’d like the exploitation of Roma tradition and the dissemination of damaging Roma stereotypes in common tradition to finish. One technique to obtain this might be via making certain Romani folks take a number one function in writing, producing, directing and performing in television collection and films. We’d like American policymakers to take significant motion in order that we are able to totally regain management of our id, historical past and heritage – and we are able to, lastly, really feel like Romani People are valued and revered members of American society.
The views expressed on this article are the writer’s personal and don’t essentially replicate Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.