Gypsies and Marginality

"Writing about music is like dancing about architecture" - Various *** "Marginality may be perpetuated by the reaction of the marginal group to its peripherality andlor by the persistence of a dominant group’s discriminatory policies, laws and attitudes... The dominant group need not outnumber the marginal group, as is evidenced by the situations of South African Blacks and of Albanians in Kosovo. Forms of marginalization (political, social, economic, cultural, etc.) may not, indeed, often do not coincide; a given population (e.g. the Jews in the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy) might be politically marginalized (e.g. barred from public office) but economically dominant, possibly marginalizing others (e.g. refusing to employ meinbers of other ethnic groups). And marginality is not a static condition; through time and across boundaries marginal status may change. For instance, Russians in Estonia enjoyed a dominant position during the Soviet period but since 1991 under home rule they have been politically marginalized. And while ethnic Turks suffer from discriminatory state policies and social prejudices in Bulgaria, they dominate in Turkey, and can and do marginalize the Kurds... Although political systems and their policies toward the Roma have changed, system, regime and policy variations have had little apparent effect on the Roma’s marginalization. The most important reasons for this appear to be the constancy of negative popular attitudes toward them and the Roma’s own reluctance to conform to social expectations, let alone to be assimilated... the continual marginal status of eastern Europe’s Romani population; but their status cannot be understood without acknowledgement of their steadfast preservation of their identity... Nor are the Roma homogenous in their use of language: in Romania, for instance, an estimated 60 percent speak Romani in the family (most also speak Hungarian or Romanian); in Hungary only 20 percent of the Roma can speak a dialect of the Romani language. Comprising a heterogeneous set of communities, their diversity is such that it is not clear what the Romani identity is, especially since many Roma do not consider themselves members of a cohesive ethnic group hut instead idetitify with the subgroup to which they belong... Integrated Roma might well face the rejection of their more “traditional” kin. The chances for Romani assimilation are very small since it would entail a considerable disadvantage (i.e., loss of distinct identity) for themselves. Moreover, many of their traditional values and beliefs discourage participation in the political and socio-economic systems of the dominant groups around them. Thus they maintain their own marginalization; when the choice is between that status and assimilation, as it often has been, many Roma opt for preserving their cultural identity... The Romani culture and the resistance of many of them to assimilation are the curse and salvation of this people. Their marginality has not only rendered them readily identifiable but also has enabled them to maintain their unique identity in spite of (and perhaps because of) amazing obstacles. As a perceptive observer of the Roma has noted, “The Gypsies, for all the abuses of them, and for all their poverty, are still free.”... The communist regimes’ notion of assimilation appeared to be as simple as the application of a formula: (Gypsy) + (Socialist wage. labor) + (Housing) = (Hungarian worker) + (Gypsy folklore)... [On Communism] In a plethora of publications the conditions of the Roma were painstakingly described and decried, but the causes of these conditions were rarely investigated. For instance, the complex reasons for the low educational level of the Roma were frequently ignored... The Roma are by far the most disliked ethnic minority in the east and central European countries where there are substantial Romani communities... One of the few remaining similitudes in these increasingly dissimilar societies is contempt toward the Roma... Many east Europeans blame the Roma for their problems. Nearly everyone has a “Gypsy story”: a purse snatched, a pocket picked, having been cheated in a business deal and so forth. The Roma are blamed for begging and stealing instead of working but what many critics do not seem to realize is that social problems like crime are to a large extent socioeconomically predetermined phenomena... Undoubtedly the Roma commit proportionally more crimes than the dominant groups with which they live; most of these, however, are economic in nature (such as subsistence-theft) and non-violent. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that the Roma commit more crimes than people of similar social and economic status; poverty, marginality and lack of education customarily lead to crime, irrespective of ethnicity. Romani politics has become the bailiwick of a relatively small group of Romani intellectuals and activists who have not been able to draw the millions of Roma of the region into political processes... The new Romani associations and parties have been plagued by many problems, however, most of them similar throughout the region. Internal dissension (which, to be sure, is a problem shared by many other parties) is most detrimental to the authentic representation of the Roma. Since 1989 Romani parties have typically formed around leaders who attract or appeal to a specific constituency, none of whom is willing to share power. A rift therefore occurs in the leadership with the result of splinter groups and parties that do their best to undermine each other. Even leaders with impeccable credentials have not been immune from the barrages of accusation and innuendo in the process." --- Living on the Edge: The East European Roma in Postcommunist Politics and Societies / Zoltan D. Barany, Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 321-344
Victim blaming! Tsk tsk. Far better to follow ideology blindly, keep complaining about discrimination and protesting and enacting policies to institutionalise the marginal mindset.