Antiziganism
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Antiziganism or Anti-Romanyism is hostility, prejudice or racism directed at the Roma people, commonly called Gypsies.
The root zigan is the basis of the word for the Roma people in many European languages. In most of those languages, the pronunciation is similar to the Hungarian cigány (pronounced IPA /ˈʦiɡaːɲ/). The Roma — who have often been stereotyped as thieves, tramps, con men and fortune tellers — have been subject to various forms of discrimination throughout history.
Due in part to their semi-nomadic lifestyle and differences in language and culture, there has been a great deal of mutual distrust between the Roma and the more settled indigenous inhabitants of the areas to which the Roma migrated. This distrust has persisted even though Roma who migrated into Europe often converted to Christianity, and those who arrived in the Middle East became Muslims.
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[edit] History of Antiziganism
[edit] In legends
A legend from the Black Forest region claims that before the Crucifixion of Jesus, at first no blacksmith would make the nails for the cross. Finally, one blacksmith agreed to do so. However, the spirit of these nails came back to haunt him and his family years later. They were forced to wander constantly and eventually became the Roma.[citation needed] Another legend says that one of the Roma people stole the nail that had been made to drive through the heart of Jesus, thereby gaining the gratitude of Heaven and the right to steal as they wished.[citation needed]
[edit] In the Middle Ages
In the early 13th century Byzantine records, the Atsínganoi are mentioned as "wizards... who are inspired satanically and pretend to predict the unknown."[1] By the 16th century, many Gypsies in Eastern and Central Europe worked as musicians, metal craftsmen, and soldiers.[2] As the Ottoman Turks expanded into the territory of modern Bulgaria, they relegated Gypsies, seen as having "no visible permanent professional affiliation", to the lowest rung of the social ladder.[3] In Royal Hungary (present-day Slovakia), strong anti-Gypsy policies emerged as they were increasingly seen as Turkish spies or the fifth column. In this atmosphere, they were expelled from many locations and increasingly adopted nomadic way of life.[4] The first anti-Gypsy legislation was issued in Moravia in 1538, and three years later, Ferdinand I ordered Gypsies in his realm expelled after a series of fires in Prague. Seven years later, the Diet at Augsburg declared that "whosoever kills a Gypsy, will be guilty of no murder."[5] In 1556, the government stepped in to "forbid drowning of Rom women and children."[6]
[edit] 18th century
In 1710, Joseph I issued the edict against the Gypsies, ordering "that all adult males were to be hanged without trial, whereas women and young males were to be flogged and banished forever." In addition, they were to have their right ear cut off in the kingdom of Bohemia, in the country of Mähren (Moravia) on the contrary the left ear." In other parts of Austria they would be branded on the back with a branding iron, representing the gallows. These mutilations enabled authorities to identify Gypsies as on their second arrest. The edict encouraged local officials to hunt down Rom in their areas by levying a fine of 100 Reichsthaler for those failing to do so. Anyone who helped Gypsies was to be punished by half-year's forced labor. The result was "mass killings" of Rom. In 1721, Charles VI amended the decree to include the execution of adult female Rom, while children were "to be put in hospitals for education."[7] In 1774, Maria Theresa of Austria issued an edict forbidding a marriage between Gypsies. When a Rom woman married a non-Gypsy, she had to produce proof of industrious household service and familiarity with Catholic tenets", a male Rom "had to prove ability to support a wife a children", and "Gypsy children over the age of five were to be taken away and brought up in non-Gypsy families."[8]
A panel was established in 2007 by the Romanian government to study the use of Roma as slaves for Princes, local landowners and Orthodox Monasteries in the 1700s and 1800s. Slavery of the Rom was outlawed in Romania around 1856.[9]
[edit] Porajmos
Persecution of Roma reached a peak during World War II in the Porajmos, the Nazi genocide of Roma during the Holocaust. Because the Roma communities of Eastern Europe were less organized than the Jewish communities, it is more difficult to assess the actual number of victims though the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Research Institute in Washington puts the number of Romani lives lost by 1945 at between a half and one and a half million. The ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill has argued that the Roma population suffered proportionally more genocide than the Jewish population of Europe and that their plight has largely been sidelined by scholars and the media [2]. The extermination of Roma in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia was so thorough that the Bohemian Romani language became a dead language.
[edit] Modern Antiziganism
Немедленно удаляются с территории торгового центра службой безопасности лица на скейтбордах, роликовых коньках, велосипедах, а также цыгане, лица без определенного места жительства, попрошайки, распространители листовок, хулиганы, различные неформальные компании
Skateboarders, rollerskaters, cyclists, as well as Gypsies, hobos, beggars, spreaders, hooligans and informal groups will be removed from the territory immediately
Antizigan discrimination has continued in the 2000s, particularly in the Balkans, in areas such as Bulgaria, Romania and and Slovakia[11]. Roma are often confined to low-class ghettos, are subject to discrimination in jobs and schools, and are often subject to police brutality. In Bulgaria, professor Ognian Saparev has written articles sating that 'Gypsies' should be confined to ghettoes because they do not assimilate, are culturally inclined towards theft, have no desire to work, and use their minority status to 'blackmail' the majority [12].In the Czech Republic Roma are often subject to violence from racist skinheads, neo-Nazis and other extremist groups — with little to no prevention or investigation by police and are prevented from boarding flights into the UK to seek asylum[13]. There have also been reports that potential foster parents in the Czech Republic will refuse to adopt orphaned Roma children because they believe that they are lazy thieves[14].
As of 2006, Roma who had previously lived in Kosovo, lived in displaced refugee communities in Montenegro and Serbia. Those who remain often fear attacks from ethnic Albanians who see them as "Serb Collaborators". In February, 2007, three Roma women in Slovakia received compensation after suing a hospital for sterilizing them while they were underage and without their consent. While the sterilizations occurred in 1999 and 2002, and the women had been repeatedly appealing to prosecutors since then, they were up until this time ignored [15].
[edit] Antiziganism in popular culture
The European Center for Antiziganism Research officially filed a complaint against Sacha Cohen — who plays Borat in the mockumentary film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan — for inciting violence and violating Germany's anti-discrimination laws.[16] One part of the satirical film, which supposedly portrays Borat's impoverished native village, actually shows a Roma village in Romania. In character, Borat has referred to himself as a former "gypsy catcher," and he has made a reference to "running over Gypsies with a Hummer".
[edit] References
- ^ George Soulis (1961): The Gypsies in the Byzantine Empire and the Balkans in the LAte Middle Ages (Dumbarton Oak Papers) Vol.15 pp.146-147, cited in David Crowe (2004): A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (Palgrave Macmillan) ISBN 0312086911 p.1
- ^ David Crowe (2004): A History of the Gypsies of Eastern Europe and Russia (Palgrave Macmillan) ISBN 0312086911 p.XI
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.2
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.1, p.34
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.34
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.35
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.36-37
- ^ Crowe (2004) p.75
- ^ http://www.nasdaq.com/aspxcontent/NewsStory.aspx?cpath=20070220%5cACQDJON200702201414DOWJONESDJONLINE000608.htm&
- ^ (Russian) [1]
- ^ http://web.amnesty.org/wire/February2002/Europe_Roma
- ^ http://www.bghelsinki.org/press/2003/en/05-22.htm
- ^ http://web.amnesty.org/wire/February2002/Europe_Roma
- ^ http://www.radio.cz/en/article/88089
- ^ http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/27603.html
- ^ http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/01/061101190142.n43n2q02.html
