chirikli:

chirikli:

I appreciate everyone spreading info about antiRomani racism in Europe and everywhere else, but you NEED to stop saying it’s “xenophobia” or just anti-immigrant sentiment because it is VERY SPECIFICALLY antiRomani racism. Romani people have been vilified and oppressed since we left India in 1200 CE or so. This has always been the case and even nations that view themselves as progressive or non-racist still hate Romani people with a passion. They don’t even view it as racism because they quite literally don’t see us as human.

Please call this what it is. It is antiRomani racism.

Additionally, Roma/Romani people aren’t ~from~ Eastern Europe. We aren’t hated because we’re “Eastern Europeans”. As previously mentioned, Romani people are a South Asian diaspora. I understand that our name is similar enough to Romanian that people get confused, but we are NOT the same. Romania is a country that enslaved Romani people for about 500 years. There are Romani people in Romania, but we are not inherently connected to that country. While Western Europe can be quite xenophobic against Eastern Europe, antiRomani racism has nothing to do with that and is its own seperate thing.