Invisible minorities

I really cannot stand stand when people say “you’re not being oppressed in the US” because, one, you’re not Romani, you can’t tell me how bad my ethnicity is off here. That’s not for you to gauge. Secondly, there are numerous ways Romani people are being oppressed in America. It may not be as bad as Europe, where in many places our basic rights are stripped, we are murdered, raped, and physically assaulted for no reason other than our ethnicity, but there are plenty of harmful ways we’re oppressed in America.

My ethnicity is limited in representation in America. We have mystical depictions, that oversexualize Romani women, such as Disney’s Esmerelda. We have “reality shows” that exploit our culture, call us slurs, and oversexualize us, how us as uncivilized and thieves. This is how most Americans know us. SO when one of us does come out and say “I’m Romani” and have to explain that it’s related to “gypsy” we are associated with this representation. These depictions have led to immediate xenophobia and antiziganism. Our culture is constantly appropriated in America as well, which I have touched on in several posts. The word gypsy is now used to describe any sort of trend, when the word itself hurts us all on different levels.

When we are out and we wear traditional clothes, such as the diklo (a traditional head covering) we’re often ostracized and assumed to be muslims (and many of us are) which leads to islamophobia, which is extremely prevalent in America.

Along with this, we’re not recognized as an ethnic minority in America yet, though up to a million people in America claim Romani as an ethnicity. I still have to select other on any form, and that’s how I feel in America. Invisible. Othered. Not wanted.

On a regular basis i have to hear that my ethnicity is not wanted. That we are thieves. That we’ve plagued Europe and now we’re doing the same to America. That I should die in a gas chamber. That Hitler was right. That my culture isn’t real. And that I don’t matter.

Tell me now that I’m not oppressed. Try taking a walk in my shoes.

Tagged: romani roma rom ethnicity anti ziganism xenophobia racism america invisible minorities