This Shit Is All Racist
Nothing against you, everything against the racist shit you're spewing.
When I point out that the word gypsy is racist and people immediately defend it in one of inumerable, but obnoxious ways. These retorts include (but are not limited to):
- I didn’t know it was racist and everyone else uses it, so shut up
- Wikipedia says it’s not racist
- It’s just a drawing/photo/quote
- You can’t just get pissed at a word, there has to be MORE that you’re pissed about
- You just want a fight and I’m not going to fight you.
- You’re over-sensitive and emotional
- I have gypsy blood (from my great-great-great x10 relative in Russia)
- You called me a racist word (gadje) so double standard!
- Gypsies aren’t real
- Esmeralda
As I said, there are many more that I hear on a daily basis.
According to gadje (non-Walking People) we are not allowed to defend our ethnicity for all of the above (+) reasons.
I got one today, asking me ”which parts did you take as an insult?” After answering that their use of the word gypsy was the largest ‘insult’ and that I didn’t see why it was necessary to tag something completely unrelated and quite obnoxious with the word I received a reply:
“i still don’t get what parts you think are racistic because you can’t answer my question”.
I did. The word GYPSY is RACIST. Period. The end. It is not a point to argue. You tag some stupid drawing with the word gypsy, it’s racist (especially when the drawing has nothing to do with gypsies—barely even the romanticized, sexualized, mythologized version).
I can be pissed about how you represent my ethnicity if I so choose.
Gypsy isn’t your word to use as you like; it isn’t a play thing or a toy to glamourize or sexualize your art work or make it seem ‘bohemian’ or ‘edgy’.
It’s a people; an ethnicity; and so much more.
is not magical, fantastical, or perfect.
It’s painful, lonely, sad… and fucking hard.
I had a big post written out about this, but tumblr ate it, and now I just don’t have the energy to post with the same heart.
I get tired of people following me because they think I’m one of those boho-hippie-gypsy blogs that posts whimsical photos of girls with messy hair in fields of corn.
Only, that’s not my life. That’s not what being Rroma is about.
I guess that’s why they get disappointed whenever I do write about anything and immediately unfollow… or get mad and write me passive-aggressive notes and then unfollow.
I just don’t understand. They want to be “gypsies”, the want to know about our lives, our religion, our feelings, but they don’t want the truth. They don’t want to know about me.
They want Esmeralda and Kate Moss….
Not Dale Farm and Romanian Ghettos.
Struggling to pack and take what we can ahead of the sheriff and eviction reminds me of the times my grandmother was evicted, often without notice in the middle of winter, with nowhere else to go. We’d help them grab whatever they could and shuffle it across to a sister’s or uncle’s cottage or caravan. Sometimes, we’d split between two or three relatives—as if we were doomed to be found if we stayed together.
I’m so tired of being disliked because of my ethnicity. I know some of you are rolling your eyes right now, thinking “god you’re so… angry. You’re always angry. It’s not about your ethnicity, it’s how you attack people” (quoted from an ask I received)…
I don’t ever just attack people.
And it’s always about my ethnicity.
I sometimes feel like I should start misappropriating slang words and clothing from white hipster girls and calling it something else entirely.
Emonerd so Buckra
Ugh.
I just feel like I need a loud speaker wherever I go to yell at people…
I just don’t feel right anymore. I don’t feel welcome. I don’t feel happy. I don’t feel like I belong anywhere. I don’t feel like I fit in, not even here in this anonymous world.
I just feel so… at odds with everyone and everything.
o mothodipe si mothodo thaj bistardo
I wanted to post this because it’s very very true. People get upset when you reveal the true person behind the curtain. It’s very easy to romanticize real peoples and real cultures. It’s not so easy to show them the truth. So when you pick and choose the parts of various cultures that you think are super QT and ~mystical~ chances are you’re erasing everything else about them. So don’t get mad when someone comes out to school you and fill in the blanks.
This post is from here, and is in response to this post.
First off, props to stfugadje.
Second, I really think this really applies to all of the Native racism discussions I see on here, where people come in QQ-ing when we’ve called someone out on their racist bullshit. Especially the last line. If you can’t comprehend that racism is much more worse and complicated than just plain rudeness, I don’t know what to tell you. Because rudeness != racism.
