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Why is discrimination against American Roma ignored?

Last year brought a dramatic and belated national reckoning with racism in the United States. But with conversations focused on the major targets of American racism – African American, indigenous and Latino populations – many have overlooked discrimination against a much smaller minority in the US: American Roma.

Many Romani people arrived in the US between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, amid a wave of immigration from southern and eastern Europe. The prominent Romani scholar, Ian Hancock, argues that many Romani Americans are descendants of Romania’s enslaved Romani people, who were freed in 1856. But there is evidence that Romani people had been in the US for centuries beforehand, with early records documenting Roma people being shipped to British plantations in Virginia in the 17th century, following a 1661 act of parliament permitting their deportation.

Today, there are close to a million Romani people in the US, with the largest clusters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Seattle and Portland. The community continues to experience acute prejudice today, as it has done for decades.

A racial slur

For the past 106 years, Northern State University (NSU) in Aberdeen, South Dakota, has organised an annual week-long event that ends with a ‘G*psy Days Parade’, reportedly the largest annual parade in South Dakota. The term “G*psy” can be used as a racial slur referring to Romani people.

As a result of the parade’s name and its history of racist mockery of Roma – satirised customs, blackfaces, performing skits of child abduction – Romani American activists, scholars and their allies have been sharply critical of the event, demanding an apology and a name change through email and online petitions. Since starting their email campaign on 4 August 2020, their concerns have not dignified with an answer. Yet the NSU website seems to have acknowledged the critique in part, having to some extent replaced the word ‘G*psy’ with ‘Homecoming’.

 

Link: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/why-discrimination-against-american-roma-ignored/?fbclid=IwAR2nzdYYRQi6PZUOEtCIgJMNFGq-JXYRY7Mxpig-8Dw5z_Ie32C2yYrlP1c

The feast of Vasilica among the Roma of Macedonia

Vasilica is celebrated due to the legend, which has been passed on among Roma people for generations; and in the legend it is said that in days of yore, Roma people running away from the terror of the conquerors came to the "Great Water", and the only deliverance was to reach the land by swimming the water. But, because most of them were women, children and elderly people, when they entered the water, it was very likely that they would down. Then, in order to save them, God sent them geese, which succeeded to save them from drowning, and take them to land. As a result of that old event and the mercy of God, they celebrate Vasilica every year as their traditional holiday. On that day, they express their enormous gratefulness to God and great respect to the goose. Usually, every year, on 12 January, geese afre slaughtered, and until 14 January, everyone who is not a member of the family cannot enter their home (usually the people that we tell the legend ask to us why the Roma people slaughter geese when they saved them long time ago. According to the Roma people mythology, there is a belief that from sacrifice that is made at certain traditional rituals, the heart and the liver should be taken out.. They believe that the luck, which Roma people had in the past, should stay with them. That ritual is done on the day when the goose is slaughtered, and the family prepares only the heart and the liver of the goose). At dawn, on 14 January the home of the family, which celebrates Vasilica visits a person, whom Roma people call polazniko (that man is previously chosen by the family to visit first, and he is considered to bring luck and well being to them). That man brings money and wheat, and while entering the house, he throws it in the air and says, "May God bless you. May he bring you happiness and well-being. This year less, and next more." Then they set the table, abundant in food and drink, for the polazniko, and as a specialty he is served pacha (kind of meat jelly), which is made of garlic, the head, the neck, the wings and the legs of the goose. The pacha is prepared in a specific way. After it cools down it changes from liquid to solid. This change of the pacha symbolizes the deliverance of the Roma people from the "Great Water", and their reaching the land. Polazniko tries the pacha first, and then the host. They eat pacha in order to express their gratefulness to the parts of the goose, which saved the Roma people from drowning in the "Great Water" long time ago. After the polazniko leaves, all the relatives and friends can visit the home of the family that celebrates this traditional holiday to exchange their greetings. During the celebration of this holiday, Roma people organize themselves into groups and visit the home of every member of the group where they exchange their greetings and try the pacha of the host. This habit is due to the tradition and the belief that the spirit of the goose should connect all Roma people, and that they should preserve their unity. Roma people celebrate this holiday for four days.

Nis: The Denic Roma family has two Nis police officers and two successful daughters

In the city of Nis, a Roma couple is employed in the Ministry of Interior in Nis. Sasa and Dragica Dinic have been married for 28 years and both are police officers. Sasha is an officer and lieutenant in the police, and Dragica is a police officer. They work and strive to overcome all prejudices and to provide a decent life for themselves and their families - to educate their children to be better people. Sasha says he graduated from high school in 1990. He then enlisted in the army and served in the police after serving his military service. Without anyone's help and recommendation, he completed the course and got a job in the police. He mostly worked in the Roma settlements in Nis in the field of Roma integration. They married Dragica in 1992. In 1993, the eldest daughter Alexandra was born, who graduated from the High School of Food, while in 1997, their second daughter Jovana was born, who is now a third year student at the Faculty of Law. At the age of 40, Sasha enrolled at the Faculty of Law, Security and Management and managed to finish it. GP graduated in 2016. Dragica has also completed high school and since 2009 has been employed by the Ministry of Interior. Her job is with clients with registration, driver's licenses, ID cards, passports and other personal documents. Lieutenant Deni вели says that his mission in life is not money or position, but the desire to transfer everything he has learned to someone. He says that every dream is achievable, if there is a desire for it.


Link: https://www.espreso.rs/vesti/drustvo/659299/denici-su-romi-i-oboje-rade-u-niskoj-policiji-u-braku-su-28-godina-imaju-2-uspesne-cerke-i-recept-za-uspeh?fbclid=IwAR3NvVMCHWoS2UPBP94bRCf8D4tQJcF_F470JYT053L4-y8psYQ4w84YLz8

Romania: In Miercurea Ciuc, 20 houses burned in a violent fire, 62 Roma families were left homeless after the fire

The violent fire in Miercurea Ciuc left more than 200 people homeless. On Thursday evening, 20 wooden houses burned on an area of ​​1000 square meters. People have been placed at a local gym and the County Committee for Emergency Situations will meet on Friday.
The fire broke out on Thursday evening in a community in Șumuleu, Miercurea Ciuc. According to ISU, 20 wooden houses on an area of ​​1,000 square meters were affected by the flames.
The fire was extinguished around 1:30 a.m. Some of those affected sought shelter from relatives or neighbors overnight, and another 230 people were placed in a gym in Miercurea Ciuc, where they were provided with food, water and hot tea. , Mattresses, blankets, clothes, with the support of the local authorities, the army and by mobilizing the population.
“They were provided with food, water, hot tea, mattresses, blankets and clothing, with the support of local authorities, the army and exemplary community mobilization. The county Committee for Emergency Situations meeting was called on Friday morning at 10 am,” said the representatives of the Emergency Situations Authority (ISU) Harghita.
Hundreds of people, including several children, fled their homes for fear of flames. People tried to save their belongings threatened by fire.

Link: https://newsbeezer.com/romaniaeng/in-miercurea-ciuc-20-houses-burned-in-a-violent-fire-people-were-staying-in-a-gym/

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