4 ms·
You use the word "gypsy" a lot. The Roma I've met consider it very offensive, almost n-word level offensive. Is that not the case in Europe?
by Causality1 6y ago
You use the word "gypsy" a lot. The Roma I've met consider it very offensive, almost n-word level offensive. Is that not the case in Europe?
- EB-Barrington 6y agoNot that I have encountered. Perhaps all of the Gypsy/Roma I have spoken with are too polite to let me know otherwise.
- emteycz 6y agoHere in Czechia many use the 'vulgar' variant (cikán) themselves. I wouldn't use it in my writing though.
- malkia 6y agoIt's "циганин" (tsiganin, or ciganin) in Bulgaria. But this is now deemed offensive, hence roma.
- ratww 6y agoIn Brazil (which has a sizeable Romani population, and had two Romani presidents), the direct translation of this, "Cigano", is still the one officially used.
- figomore 6y agoI didn’t know that Brazil had two presidents with Romani origin. According to Wikipedia they are Juscelino Kubitscheck and Washington Luís.
- vram22 6y agoInterestingly, many variants of that word in different European languages. See section Exonyms in: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- crispyporkbites 6y agoIt’s complicated. Ultimately it’s rude to refer to anyone by their skin colour, ethnicity or racial “group”. There are almost no situations where it’s appropriate.
- AussieWog93 6y agoIn the US and certain upper-middle class echelons of other Western nations, maybe. Outside of that bubble, though, it ranges from neutral to positive to acknowledge a person's ethnicity.
- NoImmatureAdHom 6y agoThis is how I understand the world to be too
- thisrod 6y agoLol at the nominative determinism!
- AussieWog93 6y agoI didn't even realise. That's hilarious!
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoAlthough at the NGO level activists claim that "Roma" should be used instead of "gypsy", it is very common when talking to Balkan Roma to be corrected by them: “Don’t call us Roma, we’re <locally used exonym equivalent to ‘gypsies’>". Obviously their own endonym is Rom, plural Roma, but they sometimes bristle at outsiders using it.
- Bost 6y agoI have the impression those being better off, with (somewhat) higher social status, education being better connected to the majority population find "Gypsy" to be derogatory. But once I met a poor family referring to themselves this way, so a bit perplexed and curious I rather asked them directly if they consider themselves being Roma or Gypsy... only to get an ambiguous answer. Edit: I met that family in the eastern Slovakia.
- Viliam1234 6y agoIt depends. Sometimes, older people will call themselves "Gypsy" and may even correct you if you call them "Roma". But younger people have been taught that "Gypsy" is an offense, so they will get offended if you use the word.