Hello all <3 It’s been a while but my commissions are finally re-opening! I do 20 slot commissions, so please check my slot availability. Again, all payment is done up front and through P-ypal or C-shApp! You will recieve an invoice detailing your commission manually or through Paypal. Please keep in mind that complicated designs may cost extra. You may request a refund if the commission has not yet been completed, no questions asked. If you can’t commission me but would still like to support your local two-spirit ndn/roma artist, donations are very welcome! If you have questions or would like to commission me, please e-mail or DM me!
ukrainian roma are stuck in war zones with nowhere to go
there are roughly 400,000 roma in ukraine. it is estimated that 30,000 have no form of ID. our brothers and sisters in ukraine have long suffered under ukraine’s right-wing policies and now many can’t even escape the country as russia continues its invasion. ukrainian roma are being expected to fight for a country that hates them. i urge that you keep them in mind and educate yourself about the history of antigypsyism in ukraine by at least reading the thread below:
PAGAN PILLS | Brigid, la dea di Imbolc creata dai Druidi
PAGAN PILLS | Brigid, la dea di Imbolc creata dai Druidi
Oggi 1 febbraio si celebra il festival pagano di Imbolc di origine celtica che in Italia corrisponde alla Candelora. Il significato preciso è: la luce che torna dopo il buio dell’inverno. Nuova vita, nuovo inizio. Viene sottolineata l’importanza di lasciarsi tutto quello che non serve (relazioni tossiche, persone inutili, ansia e altro) alle spalle.
I was watching the episode where Fern wrote stories for her school magazine under a pseudonym and there is a scene where Francine and Fern are in the library talking about “Agatha Shelley”’s story, and Francine mentions a part where the main character dresses up as a g*psy. YES, SHE SAID THE G WORD. ON A Y-RATED SHOW.
You wouldn’t refer to Mexicans as b**ners on a PBS show, so why are you allowed to dehumanize Romani people in the same way? Also, this “g*psy” was hiding gold coins in her tambourine. Why is Arthur reinforcing stereotypes that Romani people steal things and like tambourine music? This is deeply problematic and I can no longer watch this show, one of my childhood favorites, in good conscience, knowing that Francine and Fern are racist asswipes who casually utter derogatory slurs on children’s television.
I don’t like to interrupt this haven with non-blue things, but this is important. I’ll keep it relatively short.
I am a Romani man. The Romani, also called Roma, are an ethnic group often known by the slur ‘gypsy’. This word is as offensive as the N word is in the US, don’t use it.
There are currently hundreds of thousands of Romani in Ukraine, but no one knows how many because they are often denied birth certificates or government ID, leaving them unable to work regular jobs or even get phone plans or set up an electricity account. This was partially established under Communist rule so we could be made as slaves to work on farms. We have been resettled many times, sent to death camps, forced to integrate, banned from speaking our language and deported to Siberia.
Many were living without water, heat or lights even before the invasion, separated from other citizens by a segregation wall.
Some who had a form of ID had them burned during recent neo-nazi pogroms when all of their belongings were destroyed. As refugees, they are having difficulty crossing borders into other countries without ID and establishing any kind of temporary lives without documents.
While the invasion is very difficult for everyone involved, it is particularly bad for the minorities, as usual. Romani men are volunteering and being conscripted to fight with the Ukrainian Army but without any assurance that their families will be able to escape the country.
Unfortunately, racism doesn’t magically go away when a crisis happens and Romani are facing more difficulties than many as they move into surrounding countries. Some of the aid organizations in surrounding nations are refusing to assist or treat Romani refugees
Please consider donating to one of these two organizations for Romani relief. Or, if you cannot donate, please educate people and share the situation. Thank you so much.
There was an attempted pogrom in the Czech Republic today. Neo-Nazis committed arson and attacked Roma.
POLICE DID NOT INTERVENE AS PROTESTORS MARCHED ON THE ROMA.
… that was until they started throwing rocks, bottles, AND EXPLOSIVES…
Immediately after the playground incident at the Máj housing estate, a Facebook page was created called “Protest Actions against Inadaptable Citizens", the current cover term for all the anti-Romani actions being planned..
and you can BET it won’t be taken down….
I AM SO ANGRY RIGHT NOW.
(more info available atROMEA.CZ (also available in English) and I’ll post more as I find out)
Loving our romani LGBTQ brothers, sisters, enbies, everyone will help us overall as a community. Shunning them due to values inherentied from Christain hegemony is hurtful TO ALL. They did nothing wrong.
The Romani reddit is being temporarily set to private mode. This is due to the fact that people are now sending threatening messages to staff on top of the non stop “Oh you banned me? I’m just going to make a new account and rejoin just to complain more”.
However, the posts that staff have been making on the Reddit (basically “Hey, stop being a jerk, so says the rules”) within the Reddit have been getting upvoted while the people who keep getting banned are going “Y U CAUSING PROBLEMS FOR US” (because the last set of staff basically were so inactive it was a “lawless land” so to speak) keep getting downvoted so by the looks of it, the silent majority of the community on said Reddit seem to be agreeing with what new staff is doing.
Please be patient while staff ride out this shit storm. We really didn’t want to turn it to private but the threatening messages on top of the non-stop repeat offenders essentially forced this onto the staff.
Figure I’ll post the update here since the last post got a lot of attention -
A lot of people are pissed off there that we’re actually holding and enforcing the “Don’t be a gatekeeping asshole” rule strictly. Staff are getting messages daily through the “modmail” of “OMG Y U BAN ME” and “OMG WE ARE JUST ENFORCING PURITY” (basically more or less).
Like, bro, no, stop.
No one should feel forced or pressured, regardless of what community you are apart of, to disclose potentially sensitive personal and/or family information like birth certificates “just to prove you are one of them.”
It creates stupid, pointless barriers that serve no purpose other than to HARM YOUR OWN DAMN COMMUNITY.
This page is dedicated to individuals of Romani and African ancestry and others interested in learning about our history, migrations and communities.
Individuals of Romani and African heritage most commonly have origins in South America, specifically. Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela and descend from Kale Roma deported from Portugal and Spain during the Inquisition and African descendants transported to South America during enslavement.
A second group of Black Romani are the descendants of Iberian Rom who were deported to the United States during the Colonial and pre-Colonial perid following purges of Roma from Spain and Portugal. Individuals deported with this second group were sent primarily to Spain’s settlements in Virginia. Some of these Kale were enslaved or kept as indentured servants and had children with enslaved Africans. Other unions were comprised of Roma with free Blacks, and other groups such as Melungeons, all of whom were typically classified as Free People of Color. Similar patterns of intermarriage of Kale
and African descendants occurred in the Caribbean, primarily in Jamaica and Cuba. Today there exist Afro Romani communities in Louisiana and Cuba. Other Iberian Kale populatons were deported to various countries along the west coast of Africa by the Portuguese. These individuals settled and on occasion intermarried with local African populations. The third block of Afro-Roma people descend from the intermarriage of Eastern European Roma, particularly Romanian Roma, and individuals of African descent in Europe, the United States and South America during the 20th century.
Due to traditional patterns of abuse, persecution and discriination, many Afro-Roma deny Roma ancestry, seeking inclusion as members of larger and more politically connected communities of Blacks and Latinos in the Americas and Europe. For these reasons,accurate statistics on the number of Black/Afro-Romani are difficult to obtain.
Notable Afro/Black Romani include the singers Ayo and Wanlov. American singer Jimi Hendricks also asserted Afro-Romani heritage
Image description: a reddit form where one man is trying hard to insist on “TRADITONAL VALUES, WE REJECT ADOPTED AND FOSTER CARE ROMANI” while the staff member in the thread is trying to defend allowing Romani who don’t discover they are Romani until later in life.
Tradition for the sake of tradition is ultimately what’s actively harming the community. Dictating essentially “who is romani enough to call themselves romani” HURTS EVERYONE.
My brother has a criminal record because he participated in a senior prank at his high school at age 16. No one was hurt, no property was damaged. He was the youngest kid there by a year, and the only one charged with a crime.He’s Romani.
I got a really nice question about this, so I’ll clarify why this show is the most offensive way to present a Roma woman’s fantasy life, and why that matters in relation to Wanda Maximoff:
The “Magical Gypsy” Stereotype
Just to clarify: The word “gypsy” is a racial slur, and I’m using it to make a point about racial stereotypes. I’m not giving you permission to use it. If you aren’t Romani and/or Irish Traveller, that word is not for you.
If you’re familiar with the 1960s TV show Bewitched, you’ll have recognized that Wandavisionis dressed up like an homage to that show. What you probably don’t know is that Bewitchedwas conceived as thinly-veiled allegory to interracial marriage, a major hot-button issue at the time. Samantha and her family were a different race from Darrin (Samantha’s husband), in that witches were not humans, strictly speaking. That culture clash was most of the show’s storyline.
It seems as if Samantha and her mother, Endora, were meant to stand-in for Roma women. The popular stereotype at the time was that Romani and Travellers were “mystical,” even magical. The “Magical Gypsy” is our most prominent stereotype. Bewitched’s premise fed right into that narrative, and Wandavision makes it even clearer.
Samantha deceives Darrin into marrying her by lying about her heritage, and then they spend the rest of the series fighting over whether Samantha should act “normal.” Samantha’s parents have no permanent home. They have century-old customs that baffle (and even frighten) Darrin and other humans. They’re sneaky, and they lie a lot, and they often use their powers for personal gain, including theft. The witches and warlocks look white, of course, but they aren’t reallythe same as the “normal humans” of the series. That hit a lot of Romani people where it hurt, back then and in reruns.
One of the witches is even named “Esmeralda,” in a direct nod to Victor Hugo’s famous Roma character.
The Maximoff Twins, Adoption, and Romanipen
The Maximoff twins, like many superheroes, have complicated backstories which have not been consistent from universe to universe. In the earliest universes, they are the children of Whizzer and Miss America. Later, they’re revealed to be the children of Magneto, eventually placed into the adoptive care of a Romani couple. In 616, it is retconned that the High Evolutionary tricked them into believing Magneto was their father–in fact, they aren’t mutants at all. Their mother is actually Natalya Maximoff, the sister of their adoptive father and a Roma woman.
So, they might be Romani children (born to Natalya). They might be the adoptive children of Django and Marya Maximoff, without any blood relation. It may seem to outsiders that these distinctions are important, but actually…
Romani people do not determine family through bloodlines, but through a concept called “romanipen.” A person born to two Romani parents, but raised by outsiders, is notconsidered Romani. A person born of non-Romani (or “gadjo”) parents is considered Romani if they’re raised in the community. There’s no such thing as the “Romani race.” Romani people are a culture, and you must be taught the culture to be considered one of us.
The Maximoff twins are just as Romani, either way.
There’s a long, painful history of Romani children being removed from their families by the state “for their own safety.” It happens in the USA, it happens in the UK, it happens all over mainland Europe. It’s happening right now. These losses are horrifying, not only on a personal level but also to the Romani culture. These children–often placed into social services for years, even if they aren’t adopted–are not being raised as Romani. They are not considered Romani children anymore. The government has completely stripped them of their cultural identity. This has devastated Romani populations in some countries, leading to full cultural genocide in only a few generations.
Assimilate to Survive
Nobody understands “hiding in plain sight” better than a Romani. There might be peoples who have experienced something equivalent–Jews, the disabled, and the queer community come to mind–but no one has needed assimilation more, or mastered it more completely. We have assimilated into every country we’ve ever lived. We go to your churches. We speak your languages. We wear your clothes and eat your food and laugh at your racist jokes.
When Wanda and Pietro Maximoff lose their family to war in the MCU, the Roma in me knows that pain. When Wanda is pursued by the government, when they try to cage and control her “for everyone’s safety,” the Roma in me is in that cage with her. When she’s made country-less, forced into exile, the Roma in me has never related to her more.
The alternatives to assimilation aren’t just horrible. They are genocide.
If you have a Romani in your school or workplace, you’ll probably never know it. We don’t tell people we’re Romani. Even admitting it anonymously on the internet feels like playing Russian roulette.
Watching Wanda Maximoff, a Roma superheroine, dream herself into perfect assimilation in time-after-time, place-after-place… That’s really fucking twisted. She dreams about being “normal.” She dreams about putting down roots. She’s constantly assaulted with the possibility that she might not be “normal” enough to live safely, or to have children. Assimilation is the story, here, and that is an integral part of what it means to be Romani.
But In the MCU, Wanda Maximoff Is Not Roma
We don’t have much representation in the media. The MCU strips Wanda of her cultural identity while maintaining all the bitter truths specific to our people. It’s an insult. This show is an insult.
The Romani have no voice on the international stage. We have no seats in congress (few politicians at all, outside Hungary). We have a handful of published writers, worldwide, and even fewer prominent actors onscreen. We are invisible, often by our own design. I have wrestled a lot with that as I’ve grown older. How much are we to blame for our own erasure?
I remember that to be Romani means to live with a constant fear of homelessness, of statelessness. To teach your children to be chameleons. To be an outsider in the country where your grandparents were born. We don’t deserve to be erased, and it wasn’t right for Marvel to whitewash our pain.
Our pain is red. Blood red. Scarlet, even.
I hope that’s clear enough.
This post is doing big numbers again, as it tends to do every four weeks or so. I always get the same few questions every time that happens. I’m tired of answering this one individually, over and over.
What do I mean when I say, “There’s no such thing as the ‘Romani race.’ Romani people are a culture, and you must be taught the culture to be considered one of us?”
I’ve already responded to criticism of my poor choice of wording re: race vs. culture vs. ethnicity.
I understand that the original post is still most likely to be shared, but I have addressed this several times. It’s in the notes of the original post.
Thank you, as always, for continuing to share and engage with this issue.WandaVisionrecentlywon the Harvey Award for “Best Adaptation from Comic Book/Graphic Novel,” which is… Wow. I guess it’s still a stellar adaptation when you whitewash your lead characters. Even in 2021.
This message is mostly for my fellow Romani, and I’m putting it under the cut instead of answering through asks because it could be triggering.
I usually let this stuff go because I don’t want to feed the trolls, and I don’t want to give outsiders a bad impression. But. Just.
I’m sick to death of getting harassed.
TW for under the cut: general cruelty, biphobia, anti-white-passing rhetoric (is there even a real word for this?)
I’m sure you thought the harassment that forced this post would come from gadje. In some ways, I wish it did.
I’m definitely too Roma for the racists, particularly the MCU fans.WandaVisionstans have me listed on hate accounts. I don’t even bother sharing that nonsense because I’d have no time to sleep. I haven’t posted anything on AO3 in a year because I stillget racist messages on my stories there, particularly my Avengers WIP.
I’m also not nearlyRoma enough for the Romani traditionalists, which… I’m sorry, but that’s absurd. I’m full-blood Roma. We were raised with romanipen. But the moment I admitted I was white-passing, a small (but vocal) group of Roma decided I’m not Romani enough for them.
I recently responded to a Twitter thread about me that I acknowledged was mostly respectful. I stand by that. It’s hard to stay good-natured about posts like that, though, when I’m simultaneously receiving shit like this. It comes from the same line of thinking.
I want to be understanding with Romani who don’t agree with me online, but you guys seriously suck sometimes. I regularly get links to posts and tweets and reddit threads where people debate my right to “call myself Romani.” Like it’s something I need to earn? By more than just being born to two Romani parents? Do you need mypermission to be Roma? I don’t think you do.
But it’s not really about that, is it?
You don’t like me, and you want to hit where it hurts. You want to invalidate what I say by invalidating me. By gatekeeping (yes, you are fucking gatekeeping) my entire family! You’ve never even met us!
You need to keep my kids out of this. For real.
What. Is. Wrong. With. You?
If you think I have no right to speak to you, you can literally leave. You can click away. You can block me. No one’s forcing you to read this. I don’t get paid a fucking dime to do this, and it’s often completely miserable to be here.
(I’m also not straight, but yes: I’m married to a cis man. Ha ha ha. Biphobia is hilarious.)
If you are white-passing, know that you are valid.
BIPOC don’t owe anybody their DNA tests. You don’t owe anybody else the “right” skin tone, the “right” interests, the “right” romantic partner, the “right” language. You don’t have to prove yourself. Anybody who asks you to do so isn’t worth your time, frankly.
I also hate the parts of our history that make this seem acceptable, even necessary. I do get it. I keep reminding myself that this is an anonymous platform, and we’ve been burned by so many Natalie Winters before. It’s why I continue to give you guys grace while you debate whether or not I even exist.
I’m taking a break. I have to step back again. Sorry to my followers, who are mostly very nice people trying to support each other. Sorry for losing my temper, I hate doing that. But my kids aren’t white, you asshole. Neither am I.
I’m not a “fakeass lgbt,” and I’m not “fakeass poc,” and you need to ask yourself what you hope to accomplish by shutting me down. I have never, not even once, sent something like this to any of you. I wouldn’t.
I initially responded to this ask in the middle of last night.
In the morning, I felt my response was too harsh. This was just one of so many similar asks, and certainly not the rudest. It just hit at the wrong time. A couple things were going on, and I’m always wordy so I put the second half under the cut.
1)Lots and lots and lots of people were calling me white on Tumblr. Some of them came at it sideways (“it’s giving White Savior,” “passing people might as well enlist,” “did your brown rub off in the shower lol”), but plenty more just straight-up called me a white person.
I’ve been really open about white-passing on Tumblr over the last year, because I feel that’s an important disclosure to make when I talk about Romani issues. I experience a lot of bigotry because of it. A lot. As in, at least one new asshole every couple weeks. I get deluges of it any time I post about something controversial.
I’m not white. I don’t have a “white side.” Both my parents are Romani, as are all four of my grandparents. It’s veryracist to call me a “white person” just because I don’t look the way you expect a POC to look. Not to mention, none of you actually know what I look like.
I assume, in my kinder moments, that people think they’re punching up. You can’t really punch up at a Roma anywhere in the world, okay, but many Americans don’t understand that. I have some privileges. I breathe through it and move on.
Days like yesterday, I’m less charitable. It was too much.
2)I was answering a lot of messages and asks.
I did notexpect to get so many questions. People wanted advice on how to navigate conversations about the Oscars with white people in their lives. Some younger people already had upsetting conversations, and just wanted support.
(If you’ve sent me an unanswered message, I promise I will get back to you as soon as I can. If you sent an ask, be sure you come off anon so I don’t have to answer you publicly. I don’t want you to see a rude comment before I can take care of it.)
I know that the Tumblr consensus was that everything I said in my post was “common knowledge.” I experienced first-hand that it is not. I left the post up as long as I did because it really was helping people. They felt safe to contact me, and talk over things that made them vulnerable. Several of them started their messages by telling me they felt stupid, and that sucks! They aren’t stupid! It was hard to watch so many BIPOC imply that everyone should know how white people will react, so it’s infantilizingto say the quiet part out loud. Not everybody has your life experience. Not everybody has your social awareness. It doesn’t make anyone an infantbecause they need this stuff explained to them.
I’ve tried very hard to be a safe place for people to come online, and that’s why I took down my original response to this ask. I rarely lose my temper on here. I just let myself get stretched too thin.
Was my post “necessary?” I don’t know. What would make it necessary? Is it enough that some people found a sympathetic ear, and some advice from stranger who won’t judge them for asking?
Was it “very stupid?” No. It was probably worded badly, but it was also true. If you don’t learn how to navigate situations like this from a relative or a friend, you’re going to learn it the hard way. It’s awful. I don’t want people to end up in awful situations.
Look, I’m a mom and an aunt. I know I bring some of that energy to Tumblr. So many of my followers are teenagers, and young adults. I always want young people to have the knowledge and the tools to make a choice, and to stand by that choice when it gets challenged. I want them to avoid some of the heartbreaks we had to endure.
There is no “common knowledge” when it comes to race relations, and it’s frustrating to see smart people act like it exists.
So, anyway, I took the post down because people were being both anti-Roma and anti-white-passing. That hurts. I can take criticism pretty well online, even when it’s en masse, but I’ll admit that this kind of bigotry wears me down. You can hate my post for its own sake. You don’t have to disrespect my race.
I struck a raw nerve, and that definitely wasn’t my intention. Honestly, I’m not sure why the post got so much traction. I apologize that it was worded in a way that made people feel talked down to. That’s my error. I truly don’t have an opinion on who was in the right/wrong at the Oscars, but I do know a lot about protecting yourself in white spaces. When we watched it happen live, in our living room, I knew immediately that ordinary people were going to get hurt. My inbox proved me right. So, I am very sorry for the way I said it. I’m not sorry for saying it.
I also apologize for bringing up spanking/smacks in the post, and I admit that I did notexpect it freak so many people out. Maybe that’s a function of my age/stage of life? Maybe where I grew up, or the culture I as raised in? I think it was triggering. That was in poor taste. I’m sorry.
There was criticism I agreed with, and will take to heart.
Umm, also, I’m annoyed, so here’s one extra thought to get pissed off at me about, I guess…
Having white friends is not the same as passing for white. It is not. That was kind of my whole point.
Fellow POC: Would your white friends say exactly the same shit to you if you, too, were white? I don’t know your friends! Maybe they would! From my personal experience, I doubt that’s the case.
Honestly, that’s for the best because people shouldtake your life experience into account when they speak to you. Shouldn’t they? It can be racist, true, but it can also be a way of respecting you. It can function both ways.
Best case scenario is that white people are just as kind and considerate and open-minded when we aren’t around. That would be great. It’s not the norm, though, which is shitty.
Sometimes, I’m in the room as the token Romani. Sometimes, I’m just another pale face. The room is different for me, depending.
White-passing is a completely different experience than having white friends. There are some obvious parallels to draw here, and you’re all smart enough to draw them. Don’t treat this like it’s the same thing.
I’m not trying to discount anyone’s opinion based on this bias alone, but it’s really bothering me. If you don’t believe me, ask a white-passing BIPOC that you know personally. See what they think. You might not like my opinions, particularly today, but I can’t let that weird take slide by unacknowledged.
One of my biggest life pursuits, is being MINDFUL. After a lifetime of being discriminated against, othered, invalidated, and in so many ways discarded, I developed the sad habit of disassociation. Staring off blankly into space, “checking out” - it’s a common defense mechanism of the abused and disenfranchised. Because of it, there is much of my life that I simply cannot recall. YEARS, in fact.
When I started my transition, I dropped the mask, shed my skin, and left the boy behind. I committed to being as completely authentic as possible; to be grounded, and to live in the moment moving forward. MY life, in abundance.
For me, that has meant embracing my heritage, expressing it. I’ve always been proud of my cultural origins. As a little Fia, I had the honor of knowing some of the immigrant members of my family. From them, I learned of our journey to the states, the difficult situations we left behind, and much of our traditions.
I also learned of our Romani background. Being Sicilian, in the areas I lived, in the TIME I lived, came with stigma, and discrimination. Romi folks have it worse, so I was told to keep that part of me to myself. To assimilate. I was in college before I understood why.
Over the years, as I researched my family history, I have become aware of the continuing persecution of Romani people, who - to this day, are denied access to basic human rights and face a life of poverty, discrimination, violence, and exclusion.
Part of my research led me to mr. R. Lee, a Canadian Roma who taught linguistics in Toronto, and who is responsible for creating the written form of Kalderash - the most widely spoken dialect of the Romani language. With his help, I discovered that the DeRosa part of my family is connected to the Napulengere clan of Sicilian Romani, which travels along the Salerno coast and in Sicily. I know my mother’s side also has similar origins, but so far have not connected them to a specific tribe. It’s difficult for me to communicate the significance of this information, and how deeply rooted in my identity it is.
As part of my investigation, I recently did one of those DNA things - “23 and me,” which goes into great regional detail, the trail of my clan, and the various conquering nations in Sicilian history.
I like knowing where I’m from, who my people are. It gives context to how I got to where I am, and empowers me as I begin this new chapter in my ancestral narrative.
I think it’s interesting to see the reactions to today’s Dracula Daily that are like, “He did a racism! He used the g-slur!” and don’t go deeper than that. I was born in the early 80s and didn’t know the g-slur was a slur until like between 5 and 10 years ago. I mean, there was a whole Disney movie that used the word like it was no big deal when I was in middle school. I’m not saying Disney wouldn’t do a racism, I’m saying Disney wouldn’t have put language in a 90s kids’ movie that wasn’t considered “politically correct” in mainstream America at the time. Anyway, my point is that until sometime in the mid 2010s, I honestly thought G****** was just what that group of people were called, or was a term for nomadic people in general. I guarantee there are well-meaning Americans in the year 2022 who aren’t tuned into online antiracist discourse who still think that. Stoker could’ve easily used the word thinking it was no different than calling someone an Englishman or a cowboy.
The blatant racism here is how the Romani are portrayed. They are “without religion, save superstition,” i.e. Godless heathens, i.e. their religion isn’t a version of Christianity so it isn’t a legitimate religion. They’re ignorant for only speaking their own language, even though Jonathan doesn’t speak or understand it and doesn’t understand most of the foreign language he’s encountered on this trip. They act overtly deferential and subservient to Jonathan. They take his money and then sell him out to the Count.
If this narrative had only used the word Romani or the name that this particular group of Romani used for themselves (I’m seeing meta that Szgany is a slur, too, but I haven’t looked into it), this depiction would still be racist. While it is important to update our language as we gain better information, I think terminology is ultimately less important than whether a marginalized character or group is being portrayed as an offensive racial stereotype. I see all kinds of writing by modern writers, professional and amateur, that uses all the correct 2020s terminology but still portrays characters as the invulnerable black woman, the submissive Asian woman, the predatory brown man, the Jewish moneylender, etc. Again, I’m not saying terminology doesn’t matter and shouldn’t be critiqued in older writing, I’m just saying we shouldn’t let terminology distract from content.
Hello all <3 It’s been a while but my commissions are finally re-opening! I do 20 slot commissions, so please check my slot availability. Again, all payment is done up front and through P-ypal or C-shApp! You will recieve an invoice detailing your commission manually or through Paypal. Please keep in mind that complicated designs may cost extra. You may request a refund if the commission has not yet been completed, no questions asked. If you can’t commission me but would still like to support your local two-spirit ndn/roma artist, donations are very welcome! If you have questions or would like to commission me, please e-mail or DM me!
November 5th is International Romani Language Day, so here are 10 facts about the Romani language!
1. Roma call their language Romanes, or Romani chib. In the Romani language, “Romanes” can loosely be translated to mean “in a Romani way”, while “Romani chib” means “Romani language”. The word, “chib” comes from the Sanskrit word for tongue.
2. Romani has over 80 dialects. To date, linguists have documented the existence of over 80 Romani dialects. The diversity of Romani is not at all surprising, considering Romani people have migrated to and settled in numerous countries and even continents.
3. Romani maintains a fair amount of Indic lexicon. Romani people originally migrated from the South Asian continent, so our language began, and is still classified as an Indo-Aryan language. Many dialects still retain a great deal of Indic words, many of which are Sanskrit in origin. In fact, simple Romani phrases are mutually intelligible among speakers of Hindi and Punjabi.
4. There is no official Romani alphabet. Because Romani speakers are widespread geographically, and because the language itself has come in contact with numerous other languages, there is no single alphabet used to write Romani. Romani is written in various Cyrillic alphabets, the Greek alphabet, Gaj’s Latin alphabet, the regular Latin alphabet, Hayots aybuben (Armenian) and even in Devanagari.
5. Many countries have tried to abolish Romani. Austria, Hungary, Spain, and various other European nations have, at times, made speaking the Romani language illegal. Under communism, numerous attempts were made to abolish various aspects of Romani culture, which included our language. Even today, many young Roma are strongly discouraged from speaking Romani at home by public institutions, such as schools. This has resulted in the near loss or complete loss of several Romani dialects.
6. No one knows how many people speak Romani. Lack of data regarding the worldwide number of ethnic Romani people makes it incredibly difficult for linguists to determine just how many people speak Romani. Estimates can vary quite a bit. The most accurate estimate is that roughly two-thirds of all ethnic Roma speak some form of the Romani language.
7. Not all Romani people can understand each other. The Romani language is unique in that it has been shaped by, and adopted the grammar and lexicon of various European languages in a relatively short span of time. However, because many Roma settled in south and eastern Europe, their dialects never became influenced by the languages of central and western Europe. Furthermore, numerous Roma have migrated to North and South America, so their dialects have been influenced by English, Spanish, French, and Portuguese in a different way than that of French, Spanish, or English Roma. Because of this, many Western European Roma can understand one another, but cannot understand Eastern European Roma.
8. Romani contains several “mixed languages”. Para-Romani is the umbrella term that is given to Romani dialects that have adopted the grammar structures of non-Romani languages. For example, Romano-Serbian is a Para-Romani language that primarily uses Romani words, but also uses Serbian grammar. One of the most well-known and best documented Para-Romani languages is Anglo-Romany, which combines Romani lexicon with English grammar.
9. Romani has two cousins. The Romani language refers to the many dialects spoken by Roma who migrated into Europe, but it is not the only language that belongs to the “Gypsy” diaspora. Lomavren is spoken by the Lom, a people who were initially part of the Romani diaspora, but settled in the Caucasus Mountain region, mostly in Armenia. Domari is the language spoken by the Dom, who left the South Asian continent several hundred years before the Roma.
10. Romani is gaining steam as a versatile second language. Throughout Europe, schools and universities are starting to teach Romani as a second language, which actively encourages the integration of Europe’s Roma without forcing them to abandon their native tongue. Many Roma are writing and publishing Romani dictionaries, which not only helps non-Roma interested in learning Romani, but also aids ethnic Roma who did not grow up speaking Romani, or who wish to learn a dialect different from their own. While Roma themselves have varying opinions on sharing our language, we are also the ones paving the way for integration strategies that involve preserving Romani.
“Um dia, Zé Mafra, pai de um ciganito meu amigo, disse-me uma coisa lindíssima, nunca mais a esqueci, parece um poema: cigano não tem casa, cigano só tem caminhos.”
Manuel Alegre, “Alma”; fotografia de Pierre Gonnord.
Anyway, daily reminder from a culturally isolated Romani person.
Gypsy does not mean wanderer.
It literally means ‘people from egypt’ or similar, as europeans believed Romani people were from Egypt. It has become known similar to nomad due to how our ancestors have been forced to be nomadic due to racism and ostracization, but it is a SLUR.
Romani people are STILL being forcibly sterilized.
Romani people are STILL being forced into ghettos.
Romani people are still facing violence and danger in countless European countries- and recently, I’ve seen the beginnings of the extremes in the United States.
Have a little fucking respect and DON’T USE A SLUR THAT’S BEEN USED FOR CENTURIES AGAINST US.
And for the love of whatever’s up there, ESPECIALLY do not use it to describe your witchcraft. It is playing on the ‘magic gypsy’ trope, and is EXTREMELY insulting.
This is a Crowdfunder for on-the-ground, mutual aid for Ukranian Roma. Currently, it’s mainly being shared amongst some UK-based Romani and Traveller activists/charities I keep up with but I thought I’d share here. It’s currently the only one of it’s kind that I’ve been seeing.
Roma will inevitably be forgotten BY EVERYONE during this war if we don’t do our utmost to remember and help them in any way we possibly can, even if that is simply boosting info about how to help them escape immediate danger.
Even if you can’t donate, please boost. We really do tend to be forgotten by virtually everyone when things like this happen and so many Romani are already living in greater poverty than the average citizen.
As a Romani man, I worry for my people in Ukraine when they have already faced so much and will face additional racism and struggles when they become refugees or face Putin’s soldiers.
Happy Pride Month! Some pride flags for Romani/Rom/Rromani people! Remember that Romani LGBT+ exist! The LGBT+ expands to people of all types over all ethnicity groups! Do NOT leave certain groups out this pride month!
