An upcoming project: The Porjamos

I will be beginning a new project over Christmas break and that is to write a paper on the Romani Holocaust, the events that lead up to its creation, and the effects it still has on the Romani today.

Few people know of the fate of the "other victims" of the Holocaust. How can they? History text books often list the "other victims" inside parenthesis. It usually looks something like this: 'six million Jews, along with other victims (Catholics, Jehovah's Witnesses, homosexuals, and Gypsies), were murdered by the Nazis during the war.'

Alas, this method of labeling marginalizes these "other victims" even further. The Nazis fought more than a two front war. They fought several wars on many fronts.The racial war the Nazis made on the world included Jews and Gypsies. The war against the spiritual world included the Jehovah's Witnesses, Catholics, and any religion that spoke out against the Nazi party. The moral war they waged was against the homosexuals, and the war on the 'mental' home front took out both ends of the spectrum: the mentally handicapped and the intellectuals who dared to speak their minds. These people are all dead, and those who were marginalized by history no less dead and were no less human beings than the Jews. Life is life, regardless of who is living that life.

The Roma are currently being fingerprinted and photographed in Italy. The last time this happened, two million Gypsies were sent to the gas chambers. Now Italy has stated that they do not intend a racial war against the Roma, that they are only trying to deter crime. If the government really wants to deter crime, then they must fingerprint and photograph ALL of their citizens. It is a racist action to target one race based on stereotypes.

Unless one sees this evil for the true evil it is, to recognize its features and opinions, one will not be able to speak out against it when it happens again. Genocide has happened since World War II and will happen again unless we, as world citizens, watch for it and take action.

Divorce Court

I can't say it only happens to Gypsies. It happens everytime there is a disaster and national television shows up to interview someone who witnessed the event. The well dressed newscaster will never seem to be able to find anyone around who looks even semi-normal. He finds the large woman wearing a frumpy house dress and fuzzy animal print robe. She hasn't taken the curlers out of her hair yet, even though it is four in the afternoon. She is wearing makeup, however, usually a gaudy red lipstick and powder blue eyeshadow so she looks like the scary woman on The Drew Carey Show. She may or may not have her teeth in. This seems to be optional for being on national television. She will explain in her own interesting fashion how the incident occured, showing off her linguistic skills and sharpened vocabualry.

This is the important thing to remember. She is not a representative of that entire population. See, she is the one gawking and squawking while there is work to be done. She has opted to go before the camera instead of working to clean up, fix the problem, or do something, anything, that seems helpful. She is looking for her 15 minutes.

The couple that appeared on Divorce Court today, "Gypsy and Honey", are like that woman. They do not represent me or any other Romani I know. I don't know any Romani who were taught to steal as a child, who would discuss such matters on camera, or who would even take such matters to a gadji court.

Whatever motivated them to go on screen and say what they said only disgraced themselves, entertained a people who already think all Gypsies are this arrogant and stupid, and set relations with the gadji back even further.

Any member of any race or religion can be a criminal, a cheat, and a liar. You can't judge an entire race based on a few people you have seen or a few stories you have read. To do so is racist.

Please learn more of what it really means to be Romani. Learn the history, the traditions, the customs. You may be surprised to discover that what you think you "know" as truth is actually a stereotypical myth.

Don't let Gypsy and Honey lead you the wrong way to see what wonderful people the Romani really are.