GF is a Racist

[Jack_Dawson]

She has this fear / loathing of "Gypsies". When I ask her who are these "Gypsies" she never has a clear answer. I ask her where they are from and apparently they are from nowhere, but they are dark skinned and live in "villages" and steal a lot. They also beat up friends of hers when she was 5 in what was then Czechoslovakia.

She is otherwise a very intelligent, college educated, rational person.

Can anybody shed any light on this for me? Thx.

:beer:

[Captain Hilts]

1. Well, in Europe, they DO mug folks. A friend and I saved a young fellow from a swarm of them...

but they have been completely screwed by all the European states and were thrown in concentration camps in huge numbers in WWII.

The book "Bury Me Standing" is a great history of their plight.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

6. That IS a terrific book -

I had a gypsy grandfather. A very rough history there, and it's shocking how so many people have absolutely no knowledge of what happened to them under Hitler....................

[Bobbieo]

13. Many anthropologists claim they came from Northen India and slowly migrated westward into Europe

about 700 years ago.

[Confusious]

35. Saw a film from world war 2...

The woman was getting her doctorate in Germany at the time, and was talking about gypsy children were "Untermensch" sub-human, they would only be good for physical labor. They also used them in "medical" experiments mengele style.

What can you say about that? revulsion, and wondering if she was still working, and survived world war 2 to see how stupid she really was.

[BettyboopW]

38. The best way to wear your passport and money

The best way to do this is to get a long neck strap and wear it over your neck and across your body, under your armpit. One notorious way of being mugged by any groups, particularly in Prague, is for a group pickpockets (and they work well in teams, traveling the rails after the operas, etc.) to divide with one group getting on in the very back of a train and the other starting at the middle, backing up as though the train were crowded. Then a person can be pushed back and penned in between the two groups. They will start feeling up and down, trying to access money belts and pulling up neck straps. They will feel up shirts and around pockets. But if your strap runs in the way described, it cannot be pulled up or accessed.
Try as hard as possible to get a seat rather than stand.
Also, groups will get off at one place, and then ride another train to a different stop and wait for the same passengers.

[virgogal]

2. Is this a teaser or are you really in the dark about this? eom

[Touchdown]

3. Long History of Roma hatred in Central Europe.

Gypsies were the 3rd most persecuted group in Nazi Germany, and there's still animosity towards them today. I'm not a European, so I don't really know why.... but then, hatred never needs a reason, does it?

I think Roma is the term used for them, but I could be wrong. Gypsies originate in Romania, south-east of the Czech Republic. The Carpathian Mountains share the border between Slovakia and Romania.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

8. Romany -

that's their preferred designation....................

[BettyboopW]

37. I work with the Roma in Ukraine

I have just returned to the USA from another trip working with the Roma. I work primarily with one village, a small camp, and a larger camp in a major Ukraine city near the Hungarian border.

The word "gypsy" originated when those around them assumed they came from Egypt. In fact, DNA work has confirmed that the Roma came originally from Northern India and due to unknown reasons, migrated to the West, all around the same time, dispersing to various regions.

In this city where I work, the Roma live in the limits, but have no running water, no way to dispose of garbage, the children cannot attend public school, they cannot hold regular jobs. The conditions in which they live are atriocious. Some are preyed upon by the 'Mafia' because it is the only income they can secure. These persons often live in large homes within or close to the Roma camp, or slum, as it would better be called. There is a substandard Gypsy school in this area, but children are mostly unsupervised, due to the young age of mothers. The children crave just a little bit of attention, and generally have no possessions or their own.

Most girls are married by 15, have many children by 25, and many are widowed at an early age. I know many women (girls) who live in a closet-sized house with their children, are widowed, and have only something that passes for a bed, no way to cook, and no way to relieve themselves. Unsanitary conditions are beyond belief.

[Avalux]

4. Sounds like she had a bad experience with Gypsies.

I knew a Russian woman who is racist; hates anyone who isn't white. Maybe that's just the way it is in that part of the world.

[AllieB]

5. Racism toward the Romany is centuries-old.

even extremely liberal and tolerant Europeans display incredibly racist attitudes toward them. There were recent incidents in Italy of Romany settlements being burned. I have an Italian friend (a very liberal guy) who also displays these attitudes toward them. It is far worse in Eastern Europe where there is a larger population of romany.

[dugaresa]

30. I was in Northern Italy and there were groups of gypsies that were quite aggressive.

It is so bad in some areas that some shops have buzzers and the owners won't let you in unless they assess whether you are worth coming into their shop or not.

To escape a group of young men that were hounding us and it got far worse when they found out that we were not Italians but Americans, we actually found refuge in a jewelry shop. It was really awful and the store owner said some very nasty things about the gypsies as she let us into her shop to help us out. They actually loitered about the outside of the shop until the owner told them she was calling the police, it was really kind of creepy to think they were waiting for us to emerge so they could continue with their aggressive begging. An otherwise wonderful day of sightseeing and light shopping/eating in a lovely medieval city with a twist of darkness. The shop owner however was a hoot, unfortunately her wares were very high end and all we could do was admire them as we were not in the position to spend thousands of euros on the baubles she had to offer.

[AllieB]

34. I've never been bothered by gypsies in Europe to the extent of many of the descriptions here.

They will approach you near Notre Dame or the Louvre in Paris, but if you keep walking and look straight ahead, they generally back off. I have never been aggressively pursued or bothered aside from the usual'spare any change', which I also experience daily on the streets of Boston or Cambridge.

[Critters2]

7. When I was a kid in Wisconsin, there were "gypsies" who would come around our small

town once a year or so, and camp out at the local parks and campgrounds. I have no idea what group they actually were--Roma, Irish Travellers, no idea. Everyone said they were thieves and would really lock down things when they were around, but I never actually heard anyone say they'd been victimized by them. I'm still curious as to who they were.

Whoever they were, there was a lot of prejudice against them.

[Berry Cool]

10. Cher song reference in 3...2...1...

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves,

they'd hear it from the people in the towns,
they called them "Gypsies, tramps, and thieves,"
but every night, la lal I dont' remember this one exactly,
all the men would come around
and lay their money down...................

[alfredo]

19. Cher's an Armenian. I believe there are ties between the Armenians and

the Romani.

http://www.imninalu.net/Gypsies.htm

· Armenian Lom

Armenian Roma call themselves “Lom”, and are the only non-European Gypsies that may be regarded as authentic Roma (except of course Gypsies in the American Continent, Israel, Australia and all other groups that are originated from European Roma). Their presence in the historic lands of Armenia, which were extended over a much larger territory than the present-day Republic of Armenia and included most of Eastern Anatolia, dates back to at least the 7th century c.e. In fact, there are several Armenian terms in Romany language, as Roma sojourned for a long time in the Armenian realm before having been pushed into Europe, probably by the Seldjuk invasions, in the 11th century c.e. However, the Lom have evolved in an independent way, as by paradox, the Lomavren, that is the Romany dialect they speak, even though plenty of Armenian loanwords, shares very few terms of Armenian etymology with the European Romany. Consequently, the Lom may descend mainly from a second immigration wave, that may have taken place contemporarily with the Roma's arrival in Russia through the Caucasus and in the Byzantine Europe through the Bosphorus.

The Lom have been strongly Armenized, notwithstanding, they have kept their Gypsy identity and perform the traditional Romany professions and practises, except fortune-telling. They belong to the Armenian Christianity and are present in Armenia, Georgia, Russia and Israel. They are no longer endogamous, and intermarriage with Armenians or Assyrians are common. They are well identified with the Armenian culture, and several Lom have been important personalities in Armenian history (an example here).

[Tangerine LaBamba]

20. I once passed Cher on a Manhattan street -

this was years ago, before she had all the plastic surgery and messed up her gorgeous face - and it took me a while to figure out who she was. The camera really loves her.

She looked like a nose with legs. I mean, a schnozz like you couldn't believe. It seemed to grow out of her forehead, like a unicorn. Unbelievable.

But, she photographs beautifully - well, she used to, anyway......................

[alfredo]

21. Shes got the good hair of an Armenian.

[Touchdown]

11. Gypsies aren't nearly as dangerous as CARNIES!

They smell like Cabbage!

[Dennis Donovan]

9. ...then don't show her my post:

[gateley]

12. A friend of mine was swarmed (that makes it sound worse than it is -- there

were 5 of them) by Gypsies in Vatican City during the day. They were kids. We were constantly warned to keep an eye out for them. I was in a little village in the mountains and a little Gypsy girl was walking toward me, her eyes weren't quite straight, her dress was kind of tattered. I was going to give her some money but our tour guide started screaming like a banshee for her to go away. Like all of a sudden hundreds of them would appear from nowhere and destroy us. Reminds me of the fear here before they caught Ted Bundy -- magical powers were bestowed upon him. I think it's somewhat the same with these people. That little girl broke my heart and I feel horrible to this day that I didn't go after her and give her some money. And a hug.

[EV_Ares]

15. Madonna learned her lesson on this and how deep the hatred goes in europe towards

these people when she made her speech at a concert in europe. Almost turned ugly.

[Jack_Dawson]

16. Link? n/t

[EV_Ares]

25. Here.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090827/ap_en_mu/eu_romania_madonna_gypsies

[ZombieHorde]

17. Then she would hate me, a lot of my ancestors are Gypsies. nt

[izquierdista]

18. They do have an insular culture

"Gypsies", or "Travelers" or "Tinkerers" as they are also known, bring some of the heat upon themselves by their economic dealings with outsiders. They believe that cheating a non-Gypsy out of money is a perfectly good way to make a living. One of the largest settlements of Gypsies (Irish Travelers) is in Edgefield county, South Carolina, and they would go to different states to pull scams (for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm6RWs3X2b0), and then return to South Carolina, where they would abide by the laws. In the '90s, S.C. Attorney General Charlie Condon brought several prosecutions for fraudulent home repair transactions and curbed them somewhat.

Another part of their culture that comes into conflict with US laws is their custom of marrying off girls at 12 and 13 in arranged marriages. When you would see a group of "Travelers" out on the town, the girls as young as 4 or 5 would be tarted up like Jon Benet Ramsey so that young men in the group could evaluate her bride potential in a couple of years.

There is the saying about free speech that "I disagree completely with his opinion, but I support 100% his right to say it". In a similar way, the Gypsy/Traveler/Tinkerer culture takes almost everything about our free society to the very edge so that they are a very difficult group to defend the rights of. And who ends up in the cross-hairs, when some demagogue wants a convenient group of people to demonize and whip up anger about?

[proteus_lives]

22. Hatred of the Romany is quite acceptable in Europe.

I know a counselor in high school named Kat. He was from Romania and he was a nice, fun guy. But man did he hate "gypsies". He would say things like "If you shake hands with a gypsy check to see if your watch is still there. I asked him about it once and he just shrugged and said, "They are all dirty thieves." He said like he was stating scientific fact.

Traditionally they and the Jews were the two groups in Europe that always got it in the neck.

[optimal-tomato]

23. Does she still live in Europe?

If she lives in America (or anywhere else with a low gypsie population), then don't see why it's a problem. She had a bad experience, she's irrationally afraid of them.

If I said the same thing about my girlfriend who was attacked by a shark as a child and hates them, but we live in Kansas, I'd let it drop. Even if she doesn't agree that they are majestic and misunderstood beasts, it's not worth fighting over. (And no, I'm not equating the two, just saying that it's probably not such a big deal.)

You could seek out some movies or television shows that paint them in a fair light, but bounds of reason: life is short.

[pipoman]

24. The gypsies I have had dealings with

fall into 2 types. One group refer to themselves as 'roms', they own real estate, often run palm reading or psychic store fronts. In my area they are in the scrap metal business. They aquire some of their scrap metal from very shady places..we have all heard stories of wiring and plumbing being stolen from construction sites but rarely hear of anyone being caught with the stolen metal...etc. This group has tried to intimidate me but have never made any serious threats against me.

The other group are not eastern European, they are nomadic and often harbor criminals. This group does light construction, roofing, and paving. They are known to acquire their materials illegally and occasionally are busted for possessing stolen property. They live in travel trailers or mobile homes. This group have threatened to kill me on several occasions and also threatened to harm my family.

Both groups share one activity..they like to drive new cars and trucks without paying for them. There are a few scams they do to get vehicles. One is that they marry their kids off to people outside of the group. On the eve of the wedding they take the groom or bride out to car dealerships usually on a Friday. If the person's credit is good enough to buy a vehicle, they go to every dealership in town and buy a car with the person. After the wedding, all of the relatives drive away in one of the cars. They often buy several of the same make model and color. Then they change the door locks and ignitions out between the cars to make it difficult to repo. Then they tag the cars in the area where they live and send the tag to another family member with the same make model and color of vehicle. This throws off the repo man (which is what I was doing with them). At one time a few years ago, Chrysler Financial's fraud department had over $3million in bad debt just associated with one gypsy family who I know.

[-..__...]

26. "I fuckin' hate Pikeys".....

[cwydro]

27. There is a lot of that prejudice in Europe.

I have a Czech friend who has spoken of it too; just no discussing it with her.

[bridgit]

28. I've known 'gypsies', one g-gf we hung for years she'd show me...

how part of it works, at least for her/in her family: after sensoring people she'd walk up to them in the produce dept of grocery stores, public parks, mostly women, she was able to read an-approach-into if you're catching my drift and speak to them about their tired/troubled eyes and face, dry skin colicky, fidgety, crying babies (seemed crying babies an easy vicarious mark with some parents being so willing to show penance for disrupting their child's happiness with so many little tears) but then came the, "Show me your palm" and the pensive reading over splintered life & love lines and how she'd have her cousin light a candle for her/them in The Basilica of the Rosary in Lourdes, France, that evening, along with an offering of a novena of their choice for $5 that could, if sincerely engaged, release them from this mortal coil for a time; 'spiritual services' it should be mentioned received free by persons themselves were they to have knocked on *that* door at their local rectory or nunnery, soon, sometimes, but mostly in short order we'd be sipping Starbucks noshing a pumpkin scone in an international food court talking about other things & matters

I've dealt blackjack and cast Tarot but still some think Gypsies are wayward hippies riding round in Gypsy Carts and it is to that extent one is able to short-change both themselves and the Roma

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPoZWFNB8Jo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2TBMeHyEMY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsJysVskw64

[Minimus]

29. If anyone knows where I can find one that will touch me and say "Thinner"

please let me know.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

31. why do you care? from all i have heard about your gf, the only thing you care about is she is hot &

significantly younger than you. what is the sudden interest in her intellect?

[SoCalDem]

32. Many Americans have "gypsy" ancestors

Even if your name is "Smith"..:)

http://www.imninalu.net/Gypsies.htm

[niceypoo]

33. My inlaws are exactly like your GF

My wife is Croatian. My mother in law believes that all of the worlds ills stem from Gypsies. If my inlaws don't like or trust someone, that person is labeled a gypsy.

We were at my wife's aunts house and I mentioned that we were going camping the next weekend. She gave me a puzzled look and asked, "Why you want to live like Gypsies?"

I will never understand it.

[surrealAmerican]

36. I suppose the thing to ask her would be ...

... if anyone from her own ethic group ever did anything that hurt somebody from another group. Should she be held responsible for those crimes?