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Ahh. A very interesting one. I was once robbed by Gypsies/Roma in a rather spectacular way. The whole family was involved. Given the fact that these folks ro

Ahh. A very interesting one. I was once robbed by Gypsies/Roma in a rather spectacular way. The whole family was involved. Given the fact that these folks roam around the continent willy nilly, it's rather difficult for them to be actually employed. Maybe in the past, as specialized workers? Point being - thievery and corruption may not just be a more common artifact of their culture it may be an existential and critical part of their culture. 'Running scams' may be deeply integrated into their culture, such as it is a common custom. You go 'to school' from a young age. They might 'learn how to rob' from a young age - because it's their livelihood. Not only this - robbing people, and a culture of robbing people from a young age, implies a deeply problematic view of others by people in that culture, it has to be deeply cynical. To be clear: I'm not saying any of this is absolutely true. Someone needs to write the paper. I'm saying that some negative attributes are a fundamental part of specific cultures. Maybe it wouldn't be too hard to think of attributes of our own culture which are not so great. But because this would just be a pop-culture holocaust - it could never possibly be discussed, let alone researched. I guess sometimes the interests of peaceful and polite culture trump the darker truths we may sometimes want to shield from ourselves.

danielam 9y ago
> Maybe in the past, as specialized workers? My grandmother had some interesting encounters with Roma when she was younger. Apparently, the only time people locked their doors in town was when the Roma caravans rolled through (otherwise, you'd risk them entering your house uninvited, etc, etc, which did happen to her at least once). However, they were apparently also quite good at certain kinds of labor, such a replating (industrial?) mixing bowls with tin, a job she hired a "gypsy king" for, who assembled some of the younger Roma in his group for the task. I.e., mobility is not mutually exclusive with having so-called marketable skills or providing services.
- alexasmyths 9y ago
  Yes, and there are some English gypsy types who specialized in horsemanship or managing horses. I feel however that these kinds of jobs are going to be far and few between as everything becomes professionalized.
virgilp 9y ago
Oh, significant parts of their culture are abhorrent (e.g. child brides) - and I don't think that "cultural genocide" is a thing (we can and absolutely should kill the harmful parts of some groups' culture). But the whole gypsy thing was meant to be just an example of how a stereotype, while being grounded in truth, can also be harmful due to the instinctive response that it generates (that's because I believe the solution is to integrate them in the regular societies and thus destroy most of their toxic "cultural heritage"; but the prevailing response in our societies is to avoid them as much as possible, which mostly helps to perpetuate the problem).

danielam 9y ago

> Maybe in the past, as specialized workers? My grandmother had some interesting encounters with Roma when she was younger. Apparently, the only time people locked their doors in town was when the Roma caravans rolled through (otherwise, you'd risk them entering your house uninvited, etc, etc, which did happen to her at least once). However, they were apparently also quite good at certain kinds of labor, such a replating (industrial?) mixing bowls with tin, a job she hired a "gypsy king" for, who assembled some of the younger Roma in his group for the task. I.e., mobility is not mutually exclusive with having so-called marketable skills or providing services.

alexasmyths 9y ago
Yes, and there are some English gypsy types who specialized in horsemanship or managing horses. I feel however that these kinds of jobs are going to be far and few between as everything becomes professionalized.

virgilp 9y ago

Oh, significant parts of their culture are abhorrent (e.g. child brides) - and I don't think that "cultural genocide" is a thing (we can and absolutely should kill the harmful parts of some groups' culture). But the whole gypsy thing was meant to be just an example of how a stereotype, while being grounded in truth, can also be harmful due to the instinctive response that it generates (that's because I believe the solution is to integrate them in the regular societies and thus destroy most of their toxic "cultural heritage"; but the prevailing response in our societies is to avoid them as much as possible, which mostly helps to perpetuate the problem).