by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
On Friday, January 29, 2010 a “Roma Tomorrow” event takes place at the University of Texas, run by Prof Ian Hancock (who does happen to be Romani), with the rest, aside from the musicians, all being Gadje Gypsyologists, who make a good living on the back of the poor Gypsy.
Bringing academics all the way from Europe to the UT for such an event defies all logic and is all just, yet again, in aid of self-perpetuation of those Gypsy “experts”; the Gypsy Industry, as the late Tom Odley used to call them, and rightly so.
While it is indeed important that the Romani, the Gypsy, be represented at the Holocaust Memorial and that the Romani martyrs of the Holocaust are not forgotten, gatherings of academics bring us nothing; nothing whatsoever.
Neither does it benefit us if some people start screaming blue murder at every slight insult. We should by now be used to it and also to the fact that such things are happening.
While it is racism and discrimination for media and police to, for instance, again and again make a point of the possible ethnicity of a perpetrator by saying “Gypsy origin”, “Roma origin”, or, as in Germany, “a Sinti and Roma” (duh?), and should not happen it does and all screaming and jumping up and down won't do a thing.
There is only one way of combating this and that is that our People learn to be proud of what they are and show that they are Gypsy and work in professions, etc., and that our People get away from some of their ways of “making a living”, for instance.
Denying that certain things are done by members of our Race and claiming even that it is all a figment of the imagination of the media help no one. They, in fact, will make matters worse.
But, instead of trying to work for real change the Gypsyologists and others of their ilk only try to score political points and there are a number of people that could be mentioned but I will refrain from doing so.
However, as long as we claim that there is no trafficking of children for sordid things, no organized crime, no this or that, happening when all the evidence shows that this is so then we only appear as even worse liars to the outside world.
Our “leaders” and academics – and could the Gadje ones please go home and find another hobby – should concentrate on turning the tide for our People and emancipating them in a real way. All those studies on language and such do not help one little bit.
I rest my case...
© 2010
