#anti-romani oppression

[psychotrenny]

I keep hearing this line that the recent Palestinian attacks on Israel are "the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust" and it's so fucking disgusting. Like equating the genocidal violence of the Nazis with the Palestinian people's desperate attempts to escape their own genocidal oppression is one of the most stupid and abhorrent comparisons you could make. It's absolutely disrespectful both to the Palestinian victims of Israeli colonialism and to the millions upon millions of people who died in Nazi extermination camps; both the the Jewish victims (many of whom were Anti-Zionists) but the millions of other people such as Romani, Gay men and Transgender Women, Disabled people, Labour Activists and Socialists. And it tries to draw a link between two forms of violence that have absolutely no ideological or material bases in common. Indeed, the Settler Colonialist violence that Israeli subjects indigenous Palestinians to has far, far more in common with the atrocities of Nazi Germany than anything the Palestinians have done in return

[librastrai]

a larger post inspired by @tovezza's dives into the irish treatment of jews in their country cause i am an irish born jew, as well as an irish traveller & the hypocrisy i've seen from goyim regarding recent antisemitism + the i/p conflict is crazy.

they will call jews in the middle east settlers while throwing fits that minceiri, their own indigenous minority population, calls them settled & will throw out the most vile racism in opposition to it. settled irish + their government will prop up the colonization of themselves by the british as a shield against any accusations of racism (as recent as the very current riots in dublin spurred on by anti immigrant racism), & antisemitism (to denying ireland's own lack of action during the holocaust,) & the antisemitism raging in their every day society & now in government who are saying they're "more principled" regarding one of the most complicated sociopolitical conflicts in a region mired by it.

oh really? really, holohan? sympathy for palestinians is rooted in your own history of being colonized (which is used a shield consistently)? you can be more principled about the oppression of an indigenous people (which both palestinians & israelis are)?

explain the 1963 commission by the irish state, regarding the "itinerant problem" of which there was a system plan regarding the forced assimilation of irish travellers / minceiri into settled irish society.

explain how the plan was to sterilize minceiri women against their will, castrate minceiri men & forcibly steal our children, putting them into settled homes or insitutions run by the catholic church which spurred on untold amounts of abuse. abuse we are still healing from. how actions taken against us directly repeat actions taken by the nazis against romani women + men in their camps.

explain the ongoing genocide of minceiri folks that began way before this commission, hundreds of years of violent oppression, of theft, of cultural genocide & restriction to move. how the rate of minceiri folks imprisoned far outweighs our national population. how the camp sites we're forced onto, because our cultural way of life is restricted & criminalized, have no running water, no electricity, barely any food. how they're places you wouldn't even raise dogs, let alone expect humans to survive. not thrive, survive. how all of this is sounding very fucking familiar.

ireland's issue with jewish refugees from the shoah is built upon their insistence that their own indigenous minority, minceiri, refused to assimilate despite being beaten, raped, stolen & they knew they would not be able to do the same to jewish people.

i love my country, i have always loved my country & it's history & the gorgeous place it could become. it is not that place while it is perpetuating antisemitism time & time again, using it's own history of being colonized as a shield against criticism & ignoring it's own bloody, disgusting history of violent colonization & cultural genocde.

jewish people deserve better, irish jews deserve better & minceiri deserve better.

[renamami]

Facts About Romani People Because That One Person Asked For it On My Post About Azusa

A while back I made a post about how I wished people in the Diabolik Lovers fandom focused more on how Azusa is a Romani man and how cool that was for an otome game. Somebody reblogged and asked for somebody to make a post about Romani people so we'd have more reference on how to incorporate Azusa's heritage into more content of him so here it is!

I wanna preface this post by saying that I am not Romani or of Romani descent! I simply like learning about other cultures and groups of people and want people to learn more information about a race that has been villainized and oppressed for centuries. While I'll be discussing basic history, myths and stereotypes, and basics in culture, please make sure you go find Romani creators and people to get more information from! I love Florian on TikTok and YouTube so I recommend checking him out first!

As somebody who is not Romani, there might be some things that aren't completely correct since I'm relying on what is available. Always listen to Romani voices when looking for information. I'm just providing basics and am definitely NOT and expert!

Basic Terminology & History

First off, you might know Romani people often being referred to as the G-word. It's a racial slur that came from people believing they originated in Egypt and has been used for centuries to degrade and demean Romani people. NEVER USE THIS WORD.

The Romani people have a very closed culture and language which has helped them preserve it throughout the years. Translations and translators are hard to find and I don't recommend trying to find any out of respect for the community. What is known, though, is that there are masculine and feminine ways to refer to Romani people.

Romani: The race and communities as a whole

Roma: I'm slightly unclear on this one but it's another way to refer to the race and community itself. Take this with a grain of salt and do your own research

Rom: Way to refer to men as masc Romani people

Romni: Way to refer to women and fem Romani people

Romanipen: The Romani philosophy, rules, laws, and culture (note that there are a bunch of different communities since Romani is a race. There is Christian and Muslim Romani groups and people who's rules differ from others. Like all races, every community is different.)

Gadjo/Gadji: Someone who has no Romanipen, typically someone who is not ethnically Romani but can also mean a Romani person who does not live in Romani culture

Contrary to myth, the Romani people originate from South Asia, more specifically India. It's not clear when in India they came from but it's speculated that they came from the North-West region about 1,000 years ago. From there, they migrated to Europe and other continents. There are Romani populations all over Europe, commonly known mostly in Romania and Spain. Even now, the Romani language still has Indian and South Asian influences as well as Persian and Arabic influences.

From the very beginning, Romani people were discriminated against. They were labeled as wizards, thieves, baby-snatchers, etc. They were enslaved and coerced into chattel slavery in the Middle Ages by the Danubian Principalities where they were divided into groups by their owners. In the 16th-18th centuries, anti-Romani sentiment grew around Europe which led to many Romani people being murdered without any justice being served. They continued to be persecuted and blamed for a range of thing for centuries even up to this day.

In WWII, Romani people, along with Jews and black people, were at the very bottom of Hitler's totem pole and were targeted for ethnic cleansing in the Holocaust. While it's estimated that the death toll came in 150,000 people, others estimate it to be around 1.5 million victims of the Romani Holocaust. Unfortunately, the Romani victims are still very overlooked when the Holocaust and WWII is covered.

Right now, Romani people are still being persecuted and stigmatized. In Romania, they live in squatter communities with high unemployment. While some live a "nomadic" lifestyle, most migration is forced because a ton of communities don't accept Romani settlements. Discrimination is still rampant and all the violence and propaganda that racism entails is still alive and well when it comes to the Romani people, especially in Europe.

Please note that this is a VERY vague history and absolutely does not cover nearly a fraction of Romani history. This is just the cliff notes and I've only scratched the very surface and left out a lot of details.

Myths & Stereotypes

You ever see this shit before?

What you're looking at right here are racist racial caricatures and oversexualized fantasies of Romani women, specifically "fortune tellers".

Let's quickly get into myths.

Fortune Tellers: Romani people who were impoverished and desperate and down on their luck turned to earning money where they could. It was already a prevalent stereotype that Romani people were witches and mind readers, so many women turned to fortune telling and giving tarot readings because that was what was available to them and were thus painted as occult-loving scam artists. No, they are not supernatural being or seers. In the same way that somebody can practice spirituality, that's what they did. Nothing more, nothing less. Extra tidbit: tarot is not a closed practice specific to the Roma. Saying that it is is like saying banking is a closed practice for Jews. It's racist to push that narrative and if anyone tries to just know they're a dumbass.

The Exotic Wanderer: Romani people very rarely travel out of desire. They travel and migrate because everywhere pushes them out and denies them permanent residence. They aren't free-spirited nomads and portraying them as such further harms them. Speaking of exotic;

The Mysterious and Sexy Romani Woman: Notice how all the women in the picture above are super sexualized or have this air of mystery to them? That's because art, theater, and propaganda has painted Romani women as sexually available and provocative, gaudy, and "exotic". Women of color, you know what I'm talking about because we all deal with it. One of the biggest examples in recent history and the most popular in modern culture is Esmeralda from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame adaptation. She's portrayed as this mysterious and enchanting dark-skin Romni woman who all the guys are after in, again, stereotypical and oversexualized traditional Romani clothing. I mean, they had her essentially pole dance within the first hour of the movie. This portrayal of Romani women in media actively contributes to sexual violence against them. DO NOT ENTERTAIN THAT SHIT.

Thieves, Criminals, and Baby Snatchers: This one has been around for centuries. It's rather self-explanatory so I won't heavily explain the first two. Romani people have been painted as violent outsiders for as long as they've been in Europe and other places. Blaming disease, crime, and things going missing on them was (and often still is) a European's favorite pastime. The baby-snatcher narrative is common in media, again like in Hunchback where Esmeralda was originally a white French girl in the book who was stolen and replaced Quasimodo by Romani people. Obviously this is fucking gross and a vile narrative to push. When I talk more about Azusa, I'll get into adoption more.

There are obviously more myths and stereotypes but these are the biggest ones. Now, to cleanse your eyes, have what real Romani clothing and women look like.

See the difference? Modesty is a huge aspect of Romani culture.

Culture & Society

Again, much of Romani culture is closed and has been kept alive through remaining closed. This is just what they (or scholars) have chosen to tell and what I have personally learned. It is important to remain respectful of what Romani people do and do not want to share. That said, not much is left of Indian influence in Romani culture save for the people who still celebrate Hindu holidays. However, what has survived is the concept of universal balance. Many believe that everything, or almost everything, fits into a natural place. For example, birds are supposed to fly right? It's chill to eat those if your faith allows it. But a penguin? That bitch doesn't fly, it's a freak of nature, so don't eat it. A penguin is out of balance and, therefore, bad luck. That's why Romani people traditionally don't eat hen eggs because girlie can't fly. Of course, other faiths like Muslim Roma, who have special recipes, eat hen eggs.

Like every race, every community and individual has a different faith. Most popular is Christianity and Catholicism and it has become the primary faith among Romani people. Other religions like Islam and Hinduism are also practiced. These faiths have their own set of rules that they follow alongside Romanipen, which is not written and passed down orally. Romani people even have their own patron saints: Ceferino Giménez Malla, The Virgin of Hope of Macarena who is specific to the Spanish Calé, and Kali Sara who is an Indian deity and protector of the Roma. For Christians and Catholics, they also worship the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ.

Cleanliness is another big facet of Romani culture. Your genital area is considered impure and unclean. Because of this many Roma do not have pet cats or dogs because they lick their genitals. These rules are so strict that food must be entirely discarded should a strand of hair from these animals get into it as the whole meal is then contaminated. Additionally, tops and bottom are typically washed separately as to not mix pure and impure fabrics. This is especially true for AFAB menstruation, which is also seen as impure, as is childbirth. This is because of Romani code which is the most important part of Romanipen: pillars both honor and shame.

Like many societies, importance is placed on the men and subscribe to expected gender norms. In typical Romani home consists of a married couple, their unmarried children, at least one married son and his wife, and their children. Extended family and family in general are an integral part to Romani society so they will play active roles in a Romani child's life. It is possible to be expelled from your community, however, should you go against your community's rules or, for example, marry a gadjo. This is because, depending on the community, it would bring dishonor.

Every since the 16t century, Romani people have either made their livings or enjoyed their time through music and dance. Both still have Indian influences but have also added other elements depending of the region. For example, belly dancing is big among the Turkish Romani. Have you heard of flamenco music from Spain? Did you know that it came directly from the Romani Calé? Romani music has had a huge influence outside of the community, as it has inspired genres like bolero and jazz music.

Before I go onto how I want to see Romani culture integrated with Azusa content in the future, I want to touch up on adoption and interracial marriage. While interracial marriage is frowned upon in some communities, if a gadjo learns Romanipen and lives their life as if they are Romani, they are accepted as fully Romani. This also goes for adopted children. If they live by the rules and codes, dedicate themselves to the culture and society, then they are fully Romani.

Azusa Mukami, His Romani Identity, and What I Want To See More Of

While Diabolik Lovers does have it's problematic moments when referring to Azusa's past such as calling his community but the g-slur, it's super important to recognize how freaking awesome it is to have a Romani character who is largely not a racial caricature and not portrayed as less than simply for being Rom. He is a fully fleshed out and romancable character which is so cool.

It isn't explicitly stated whether Azusa was adopted by his community or is Rom by blood, but given the time period around the 1960's to 1980's (I recommend looking at @i-write-hurt-not-comfort's blog for more information on the Mukami's timeline) I would recommend steering FAR away from the idea of him being picked up since the baby-snatcher stereotype was and is still big. Plus, it's just so much more fun having a non-white Rom love interest. Let him be brown, y'all. Also, he's Romanian Romani, let me see him be Romanian Romani.

Speaking of which, know he's super pale but I want to see him be South Asian and anemic! It's so rare that Romani people are white and Azusa would look cute with tan or dark skin. I'd love to see more art where he has melanin. Brown and black people can be pale too due to things like anemia. Don't be afraid to make him look like a vampire that has not seen the sun in days who happens to be brown!

This man canonically loves spicy food! You know what race's food is super rich in spices and flavor? Romani food! I'd love fics where we get even a throw away line talking about him eating spicy stew or chile mole. Make him hold Ruki at knifepoint in the kitchen having him make some stuffed peppers.

Even small things like him not eating eggs or separating his tops and bottoms because that's what he learned to do as a child would be so damn nice to see. Tiny things that connect him to his race and heritage would be so cool to see in more content of him.

Final Thoughts

Romani people, each community and each individual, have such rich culture and history. They are incredibly interesting to learn about and have had so much influence over things we might not even thing about. They're not only in Europe. They're every where. South America, the US, Asia, every where. It's about time people started recognizing them outside of what governments and white supremacy teaches us and admire the resilience and beauty of the Romani people. Please do your own research and look for real Romani people to get more information from on TikTok, YouTube, hell even the damn bird app. I hope this helped whoever wanted to know more about the Romani people. Thank you sm for reading too, this was a long one.

[apollos-olives]

Hey, this is a somewhat complicated personal thing? But I’d really like your weigh in on it— you’re a blogger who’s perspective i respect a lot. I’m wondering if i have the right to call myself palestinian.

A bit of background- i’m a romani-jew. My family is, as far back as i can trace, indigenous to palestine, but when my grandmother was a baby was forced out and fled across the continent to romania, and eventually she left for the US to become a doctor. I believe this was around 1947 when they were forced out, if i’m pinning it to other timelines, but she isn’t sure and neither am i, so i don’t think i have the right to claim that. She doesn’t identify as Palestinian, only roma, and practically raised herself without her parents (who were absent via work) and identifies as jewish, vehemently anti-israeli and not actively practicing because of that. I was raised jewish, but really often with scorn to most local jewish orgs and institutions, and i know my family is very actively excluded from the bullshit ‘right to return’ programmes in our area because we are, well, roma, despite how at this point compared to my grandmother we are very pale— to them, it’s a blood thing. My father is no contact with my grandmother, so i was not raised with her. My father does not identify as Palestinian as well. I wasn’t raised with her culture and practices because of that— I am almost completely divorced from what would be my own culture, but i still, when i hear her stories now, and her perspective on the very active genocide going on, wonder if i have the right to speak on it as a voice with any authority on the matter. Am i able to identify as palestinian? Do i have any claim to it at all, really?

i wrote practically a whole essay and then tumblr deleted it right before i could post. so i'm gonna make my response significantly shorter, but i'll explain why.

you are not allowed to call yourself palestinian. you were never raised as one, you were never part of the culture, and your family does not identify at all as the people of the land. you have not lived your life as a palestinian, and you do not have claim or authority to speak on the matter at the same level of other palestinians at all. it is not your right to call yourself palestinian, and claiming to have any authority of what the palestinian experience is like is incorrect. i assume you're about a quarter palestinian, yes? but only by blood. not by culture or connection or anything. your family identifies as romani, and do not identify with the palestinian identity. you have not experienced life as a palestinian, diaspora or not, and you have not suffered the same type of oppression that indigenous palestinians have faced. while your father would be half palestinian (i assume), he could technically be considered as palestinian diaspora (as would your grandmother), but since both of them have been disconnected from the culture, and don't identify as palestinian, then you do not have claim to that identity. like for example my grandma is half (i'm unsure about the percentage) turkish and palestinian, but my mom does not identify as turkish, and i do not identify as turkish either, because i was never part of the culture and never lived my life as a turkish person. i can say im part turkish by blood as a random fun fact, but claiming i have authority to be a turkish person is not correct. i also want to mention that being palestinian is a nationality, not a race or a specific ethnicity, so that is another factor you must consider when evaluating your identity.

you can, however, look more into palestinian culture and try learning about it. i hope when palestine is free, you can come visit and fall in love with our hospitality and culture, and look into your ancestors who lived there. and if you'd like to connect back with your palestinian roots, that's absolutely something that we are welcoming and would love for you to do. many palestinians who fled during the nakba have a tough history and connection with the land, so i'm sorry your grandma had to leave and disconnect with palestine, but i hope one day you can come to a free palestine and celebrate with us.

if your grandmother was a baby during the nakba, i assume you're very young. around teenage years (early twenties maybe). i know that figuring out your identity is a big part of this stage in your life and you're probably looking into your family's past. i suggest to look into palestinian culture, but don't discard the romani and jewish part of you. being part of those communities is a very culturally rich experience and you should be proud of that. don't stress too much on having to "choose" what you're trying to connect to.

in the end, i can't tell you what to identify as with your romani-jewish family and your palestinian ancestry, but calling yourself palestinian currently is not right. i hope i answered your question.

[ihopesocomic]

I’m gonna mention. I feel like the Travelers are p Romani coded. there are lies spread abt them abt infantacide (or in the case of Romani ppl, kidnapping), the slur used in place of their actual name, and their beliefs. So far it hasn’t been too offensive, which is a breath of fresh air, since SO MANY stories that take inspiration from Romani ppl do it the most horrible way possible. Some seem like they went down an itemized list of harmful stereotypes and tropes. I just want to let you know that even if this wasn’t intentional, it seems really baked in there, and if you’re worried abt anything, getting a Romani sensitivity reader could help! There’s also lots of literature written by Romani ppl detailing their history of oppression, and how it’s been used in pop culture (What We Do In the Shadows, for example, was an incredible anti-romani show)

That said, thank you for the kind representation. I really like Storm, and her being a butch gnc maned lioness just kind of rocketed her to the top of the fav list lol.

Ahh thank you so much, it's so good to hear these kinds of asks where we're doing OK with this kind of cultural representation because it's obviously something we're quite passionate about showcasing. Without buying into stereotypes, of course. The whole Traveller culture actually draws inspiration from Irish travellers, as they are also subject to the same discrimination you're talking about, especially in the UK. I mean, that's not shocking considering they're Irish or of Irish descent.

They are stereotyped as being thieves and basically leeches of society over here, except their "thieving" is actually them going around and asking for any items that are broken and useless so that they may take them and either repair them or use their parts to fix something else entirely. Extremely useful if you need something getting rid of for free and it's just something that's always been a thing for as long as I can remember.

They'll also contribute other things to the community such as tuck shops (basically selling candy from a moving truck) and handymen services. Like I say, they've just always been a presence around me and I went to school with some of their kids.

They're basically just about getting resources from honest labour and reusing materials and they get hated on for it, purely because it's "different" and "weird" and it's truly not right. Especially when we as individuals outside of their culture take advantage of these services anyway.

There's plenty of media over here written by Irish travellers detailing their childhoods growing up so I'm also drawing inspiration from those sources.

But yeah, Irish travellers are subject to similar discrimination as Romani so completely understandable why you're getting those vibes. c: - RJ

[djuvlipen]

If you came here to block me, especially if you're a Romani girl, PLEASE READ THIS FIRST.

Romani women are oppressed because of what we were born as: our biological sex.

Some Romani communities practice sex-selective abortions: when they learn a fetus is female, they abort it, because a girl is considered a burden. (x) "The birth of a daughter is quite a tragedy for a family, whilst the birth of a son, glossed metonymically as ‘birth of happiness’ (bucurie) is always an outstanding event (see also Gay y Blasco)." (x)

Romani women were sexually abused all throughout slavery. Assaulting Romani women was essential to slavery because it terrorized us into subjugation. It also allowed the slaveholder to control Romani women's reproductive abilities: birthing children meant more livestock for them. (x)

Romani women were shipped as slaves to American colonies to be bred with plantation slaves and, once again, increasing the number of slaves. (x)

During the Holocaust, Romani women were once again targeted by sexual violence, at higher rates than Romani men. Romani women were forced to serve in military brothels by the Romanian army allied with the Nazis (Anton Weiss-Wendt, The Nazi Genocide of the Roma). Romani women were also forced to serve in Nazi camp brothels (Sonja M. Hedgepeth, Rochelle G. Saidel (eds.), Sexual Violence Against Jewish Women During the Holocaust).

Romani women have had our reproductive rights threaten times and times again, we were sterilized in Sweden (x), in Hungary (x), and in Czechoslovakia (x) during the 20th century (not to even mention the forced sterilization of Romani women in Nazi camps).

Romani women are among the first victims of the sex trade in Europe, we are trafficked at alarming rates by our relatives, friends or strangers, Romani or not. (x)

Because we are female, we are impacted by racism in a way that Romani men aren't: Romani women are more likely to have complications and to die during pregnancy and labor. (x)

Biological sex is relevant, even essential, to studying and challenging violence against Romani women. In all these instances, a privileged sex group (males) oppressed another sex group (female Roma) to dominate us.

Sex is an observable fact and distinct from gender. Gender refers to a set of roles ascribed to one sex in one given society. Gender is enforced by violence. You are socialized into a specific gender, whether you want it or not. For the Roma who are born female, that means:

You are expected to marry a man. A man whom your family approves of. Some Romani communities practice arranged marriages for their daughters, some of them are not even adult yet (x). It's not racist to state this, Romani women deserve bodily autonomy just as much as White women.

You are expected to remain a virgin until you're married. This is once again enforced with violence: in Spain, Romani women insert a handkerchief with their finger in the vagina of the bride to make sure she's a virgin, lest the entire family is dishonoured. (x)

In traditional communities, you are expected to stay at home, cook, and clean for your husband. You are expected to respect a strict dress code.

If you disobey to those rules, if you don't dress modestly, if you are a lesbian, you can be beaten, shunned, excluded by your Romani community. This is something I've personally seen and of which testimonies are easy to find.

These gendered expectations are part of the reason why Romani women are hit more harshly than Romani men by structural anti-Romani racism:

Romani women are more likely not to complete education.

Romani women are more likely not to know how to read and write. (x)

Romani women are more likely to be unemployed. (x)

Gender non-conformity is strictly punished, because people have a fixed idea of what being a woman is, and they will punish you if you try to act otherwise. The solution to this is not to say that a Romani woman who wants to pursue a career, doesn't dress modestly, or date other women, is actually a man or non-binary. The solution is to fight gender roles and get rid of gender altogether. Radical feminism is about fighting for the rights of those born female (women) against the domination established by the privileged sex class (men). The way to do this is to dismantle gender roles.

Stating this is not transphobic in any capacity. If you want to call me a "transmisogynist" or a "fascist" and block me, I want you to think really hard on why you are so ready to silence Romani women fighting to end the sex-based oppression we suffer from, do you think you are really a good ally by doing this?

[scarlet--wiccan]

Would Wanda & Pietro have been homeschooled by Marya & Django?

Possibly, but I can't really attest to what that would look like. Homeschooling, at least in modern America, still involves, like, textbooks and stuff. Education inequality for Roma is a serious issue, and we know that the Maximoffs were extremely poor, so they probably wouldn't have had access to those resources.

In looking back on Wanda and Pietro's childhood, I'm reminded of Peter David's racist remarks about Romani families, which were made at NYCC '16 in response to a question from Roma activist Vicente Rodriguez, regarding David's work with Romani characters like Quicksilver. David invoked an unfortunately common narrative about Romani culture-- that our children are routinely abused, kept out of schools, forced to work or beg at a young age, and pressured into early marriages. These are social issues that have more to do with poverty, segregation, and discrimination than actual Romani cultural values, but it has been very convenient for a very long time for racists to place the blame on us while obscuring the true history of our systemic oppression. This is a fundamental device of anti-romani rhetoric.

I'm bringing this up because I think a lot of people, whether they realize it or not, have internalized this view of Romani culture. While many traditional communities may seem closed off or insular, I think that the relationship between Roma and outside culture is misunderstood. Families like this don't want to stifle or harm their children, and it's not like we're behind the times-- we have feminism and other social movements. But it's hard for that kind of change and growth to take root in communities that are deeply oppressed, ghettoized, and routinely displaced. This is a documented issue, and you can see the same thing play out across race and poverty lines in America.

So, I feel very strongly that characters like Django and Marya can be used to combat this prevailing, harmful narrative. When we see families like the Maximoffs, I want to really emphasize the fact that these are people who would do everything in their power to protect their children and give them a happy childhood. Same thing goes for the von Dooms, and even Margali when she's at her best. Maybe they didn't have the means to give Wanda and Pietro an education, but I believe that Marya and Django gave them as many opportunities as they could afford to learn, and play, and grow, and I think that's why they grew up to become the intelligent, studious people we know them as today.

[moontheoretist]

This moment when you learn that Adventurine is Romani and that his entire planet is named with a word that in both english and slavic are considered slurs against Romani people... I guess the galaxy at large is anti-Roma if they called that planet Sigonia-IV. If Hoyo doesn't give us info that this planet was actually named differently by the people living on it that wasn't named a giant slur, then I'll have to assume that Hoyo is ok with naming a whole ass planet full of Romani-based people with a slur used against those people. And it's bad. At least Adventurine's clan is named somewhat nicely, but what does it change when every single one of them was killed and Adventurine is the only survivor?

I can't shake the feeling it's a very racist portrayal, because the meta message basically assumes that a Roma-based character can't have anything akin to a normal life. That they have to suffer, lose everybody, and become a tragic character "working" for a huge space corporation that couldn't care less about people. Only to ultimately "die" for the sake of said corporation and possibly never be able to come back from the state of spiritual death. And even if he managed, he knows that all his achievements were monopolized by that corporation and that he has virtually nothing to his name and nobody to come back to. The only positive is that he is supposedly blessed with luck by Gaiathra.

Don't take me wrong disgussing the tragedy that happens to minority groups is important and should be done in media, but there is also a point often brought up that if your group is constantly represented as struggling to get by and opressed and nothing else then people start to internalize the idea that this is the only way those characters and people they're based on can live. That there is no normalcy that they have in life, so no normalcy is expected from their portrayals. This happened to queer people. We all grew tired of being constantly only represented as a group whose only point in the story is to be visibly opressed and that we never got a chance to have normal lives as well.

If he comes back, will Hoyo give him a better life? We will see.

Still... the implications are so ugh. I can't speak more about it as I'm not Roma and I definitely don't understand the stuff enough to say anything substancial, but this just looks kind of bad as it is now.

Fortunately there are Roma creators I can direct you to for better insight in regard to Adventurine and his roma-based heritage:

In addition to the video: When I learned that Adventurine (Kakavasha) is supposed to be Romani his design stopped being ok to me. Because it means Hoyo appropriated a real life oppression of a group so they could then stick it to a white guy in a video game. It says a lot about Hoyo, who already had similar issues in Genshin Impact before. It feels like Hoyo fears melanin, because there are other Chinese video game studios who don't stray from using dark skintone on their characters and those characters are selling pretty well, so what's the issue?

[notdeezy]

Jesus fucking christ

Can we STOP praising characters that are blatant Roma stereotypes?

Shit like the fortune tellers or the alleyway scammers or generally the "g*psy" outfits. Like these are all harmful and shitty Roma stereotypes and Romani people have been VERY vocal about that. Stop ignoring it just because you like that character so much.

While I'm at it, stop ignoring the blatant racism or stereotyping against Romani people in videogames too. Or even worse, actively "stanning" characters that actively spout Anti-Roma sentiments (*cough* Honkai Star Rail) because then you're a part of the damn problem.

Anti-Roma oppression is real. It affects real people in their everyday lives. If you play these games chronically, or watch movies or read books over and over that are full of Roma stereotypes, you're bound to internalize those stereotypes and carry them over in your real life. That fact is well studied.

Get educated.

If you want to get started, I suggest that you check out Florida Florian. He's a romani content creator who covers Anti-Roma oppression very well on his channel.

[tlajtollirambles]

Lavander Languages! (Queer Languages)

Lavander Languages are ways of speaking adopted by the queer community, sex workers and people of color. Often times they were used as code in order to be safe in a world where people want to bury us.

"Lavender languages" are the (anti-)languages, cants and slang created and used by LGBT+ communities. Throughout history, people have used a myriad of secret signs and symbols to identify themselves to other members of their community while avoiding detection (and thus danger), but perhaps none are so intricate as lavender languages.

These languages all have a few things in common. First, they are used by a community that needs secrecy for safety. Second, they are influenced by a variety of languages, but especially languages spoken by other oppressed classes. And third, as they become well-known by those outside of our communities, their purpose is lost.

Polari

When homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom, people had to be very careful about who they could trust. One way of figuring out if a stranger was gay or bisexual was to use a Polari word in conversation; if they responded in kind, you were safe, as the film above demonstrates. Polari was also useful for conducting conversations safely in the open - if anyone overheard, they would have either heard gibberish, or, understanding Polari, would be a friend and ally.

As a cant, Polari is fascinating. You can tell so much about British culture through to 1960s - and the LGBT+ community's place in it - simply by tracing its origins and influences.

Tagalog Beki Language  (Swardspeak)

Also known as Bekinese, Bekimon, and more recently gayspeak, Swardspeak is spoken in the Philippines by the gay community. According to Jon Shadel, gayspeak is a mixture ofTagalog, English, Spanish, and a little bit of Japanese, along with regional influences. Gayspeak is an amazingly camp, hilarious language.

Many terms come from the names of celebrities, brands and a cornucopia of other colorful sources. “Walang Julanis Morisette,” for instance, translates to “there’s no rain,” a play on a lyric from Alanis Morissette’s single “Ironic”—“it’s like rain on your wedding day.” It is language as pun, as inside joke, as subversion—and it is as metaphorical as it is ephemeral.

Lubunca

Lubunca has been spoken in Turkey since the early 1900s. It too is a language born of necessity; "LGBTQ sex workers, particularly transwomen" created Lubunca to be able to communicate safely with each other. Like Polari, Lubunca has been influenced by Romani (both the Romani and sex workers were segregated and pushed to the fringe of society, thus occupying the same space where language flowed freely), and there are also elements of Kurdish, Greek, and Bulgarian.

Like gayspeak of the Philippines, Lubunca has continued to adapt in response to mainstream familiarity. Dalia Mortada writes that "because certain words have become so mainstream, they are no longer used in the sex work community". One former sex worker she interviewed spoke of girls inventing new words as needed, simply saying: "it evolves".

IsiNgqumo

Thought to be influenced by Sesotho and Nguni or isiZulu (all of which fall under the Bantu language umbrella). IsiNgqumo has been described as "extensive and colourful", a cant that "incorporates many languages and styles...the sophistication and pervasiveness of isingqumo is an indication of the developed nature of black gay subculture and its rootedness in South African Black townships on the reef." Stephanie Rudwick & Mduduzi Ntuli provide an example of isiNgqumo: "Awu, dali, awukopit ucako akasalele kanje dali"; [wow, darling, can’t you see this cute guy, what a darling].

Gayle

Gayle is usually spoken by gay descendants of colonial settlers in South Africa. It is influenced by English and Afrikaans. Gayle has been traced to the 1950s, and interestingly has been influenced by Polari, using some of the same words.

Gayle uses women's names for words with the same first letter: "Carol" means cry, "Lulu" means laugh, and "Monica" means money. "Gail", funnily enough, means "chat".

Oxtchit

An Israeli Gay Lexicon, that comes from the word “oxtchot” used to describe young, effeminate gay men of

Middle Eastern or North African descent. Oxchot (and therfore oxchit) is a term original to Hebrew that is most likely derived from the Arabic for “my sister”.

It is  is usually characterized in terms of exaggeratedly high speaking pitch, wide pitch ranges and high levels of pitch dynamism all laid over a distinct and unique set of lexical items.

Pajubá

A secret language spoken by black brazillian Transwomen and Travestis.

A mix of the African language Yoruba and Portuguese, Pajubá is a secret language that works sometimes as a protective shield, sometimes as a weapon. One of the many queer languages of the world, Pajubá is unique in its outrageous performance of femininity.

English, Spanish, and French worda are also borrowed in Pajubá. Likewise Portuguese words are used with double meaning.

Born in Terrarios, places of wordship for afro-brazilian religious practices, Pajubá means gossip or news, there's a great emphasis on body language with an over-the-top, camp, feminine performance.

Bahasa Binan

Bahasa Binan (or bahasa Béncong) is a distinctive Indonesian speech variety originating from the gay community. It has several regular patterns of word formation and is documented in both writing and speech.

One pattern of word formation modifies standard Indonesian roots (normally composed of two syllables) to have e as the first vowel and ong closing the second syllable—hence providing regular assonance with the standard Indonesian word bencong [ˈbɛntʃɔŋ], a male homosexual, trans woman, or male crossdresser. Another word formation pattern adds -in- infixes to other Indonesian roots. The best example is the word binan itself, formed with the word banci, "male transvestite", to which the -in- infix has been added and from which the second syllable -ci has been dropped.

Bahasa Binan also uses a range of standard Indonesian words with altered meaning.

Sources: https://www.lgbtculturalheritage.com/lavenderlanguages

https://www.out.com/out-exclusives/2016/8/17/lavender-linguistics-queer-way-speak

https://medium.com/matter/learn-the-secret-language-of-brazilian-transwomen-80d5b021f222

[pineapplerightsideupcake]

u do realize that the world isnt just americans and europeans right...not every anti american post is coming from a european lol

This website is over 85% North American/Australian/Western European

The chances I’m talking to someone outside that demographic is slim in the first place but I find that people from countries with actual grievances talk about their specific issues with America. You are invited to notice how I don’t police people bringing up American imperialism or our war crimes.

I think the American government and military are evil. I’m never looking to defend them.

But it toasts my ass cheeks that Europeans, grumpy that their empires are waning, write endless self pitying posts about how “America isn’t the whole world!” But they want our music and fashion and movies and TV and tech. Then they complain about how the ubiquity of American culture is oppressing them somehow. A Native Hawaiian can complain American culture was forced on them. I’d never dream of calling that out. I’d reblog them. We came with guns and worse and have done everything possible to erase their culture. But I’m sorry Pierre and Gustav, no American came and tied you to a chair Clockwork Orange style and made you watch “Iron Man VII”. If you hate that American culture is ubiquitous, feel free to go see a local film and skip Barbie! Vote to invest in entertainment. Koreans are killing it with producing TV and music the whole world wants to enjoy. Japan has had global anime fans for decades. I’m rooting for Indian and Thai movies to gain more popularity. Like stop bitching and make your own media and prioritize it.

And God forbid Americans on an American website use Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. Or don’t tag a legal tip with #sorryforbeingamerican

It’s the height of hypocrisy that Europeans frequently accuse Americans of always centering themselves while un-ironically demanding that 50% + of tumblr’s userbase cater to the preferences of its Euro users and not you know, their own.

And this isn’t even getting into Europeans using America’s problems and issues to deflect their own history of brutal imperialism. Let’s talk about their appalling treatment of Romani people. Let’s talk about “cultural purity” being a dog whistle for white supremacy and ugly Nationalism. Let’s talk about rampant anti semitism.

When Europeans rant about “hey American you’re not ackshully Italian/Irish/French/German because your great great grandfather came from there.” despite Americans explaining we know we aren’t literally from another country you can feel them dying to call you a mongrel race american that has no blood right to their country. Because if they didn’t care about cultural and racial purity they’d listen when Americans explain what our mixed heritages mean to us and how we express it as individuals, communities, and as national points of pride. They’d be excited that so many Americans do try and learn the language and do want to visit and do want to learn the culture.

Oh and by the way, let me know how Western Europe feels about the US military if Putin ever sets his sights further west than old soviet countries. Because I’d bet money suddenly they don’t have a problem with the American military-industrial complex. Most Europeans aren’t anti imperialist- they’re anti AMERICAN imperialism. They like us just fine when we enable their subjugation of their own empires. They love our money and our protection.

Anyway Tl;dr I’m aware not everyone criticizing the US is European, but the butthurt hypocritical posts they make are they only ones I’m talking about.

[the-king-andthe-lionheart]

I honestly hate so much the way Targaryen antis will throw around the term “n*zi” to describe the Targaryen’s while having no actual understanding of what that word actually means or the actual history of antisemitism and anti romani racism. Like I’m Jewish and I’m lucky because all four of my grandparents had left Europe before the holocaust began, but as a Jew I still feel profoundly impacted by it and the legacy that it left on the Jewish community. It just feels so cheap to use a real historical genocide to score fandom points and demonize Daenerys and argue that anyone who stans her is evil and problematic. It’s really disgusting.

Hello @daenerysthevampireslayerr !

I'm really glad your grandparents left Europe before that happened! The Holocaust was horrible and IMO one of the greatest tragedies in human history.

This fandom has a big tendency to throw around buzzwords without understanding fully what they are saying, and how throwing around these words can affect other people in fandom. They say the viliest shit and and try to act concerned about "n*zi's" and colonialism and genocide and blood purity, but they don't have a goddamn clue how their words are like a slap in the face. Seeing people compare the Targaryen conquest to colonialism is frankly fucking absurd to me. Pretending the Stark's and all of the other noble houses are natives and were "oppressed under Targaryen rule" and were "genocided" makes me want to fucking barf, as a woman from Native American descent from one side of her family, who has no fucking access to her people and to her history and to her culture due to genocide and colonialism. And then dealing with anti Native American micro-aggressions from her white side of the family every goddamn Thanksgiving, and then experiencing the erasure of her people's pain from history books. God it makes me want to break things. I could only imagine how it must feel to be Jewish and seeing people throw around words like "n*zi" and "white supremacist" and "Aryan" to describe things and people that are fictional and doesn't even compare one iota to the real thing.

I don't know what's wrong with this fandom, and it's only something I've noticed in the last few years, but for some reason throwing buzzwords out became a thing. I've been in online fandom, for various fandoms since I was in my early teens and now I'm 35, so I've been in a lot of fandoms. But only recently have I seen this being a thing. I don't know why. All I know is that the people throwing out words like this are usually the ones who either faced no oppression in their lives, or they are women who like being oppressed and are tradfems and/or tradwives and/or tradcaths.

There truly is something vile about this fandom that I've never experienced before and it honestly truly concerns me. Not only does it expose how many people are so anti-intellectual that they can't even properly research something and are baa-ing sheep, but it shows that they like using the pain of others to back up something as unimportant as a fictional gripe. It truly is disgusting.

[rotzaprachim]

ASK MY PERMISSION TO REBLOG 

i don’t want to draw lines too sharply here in that in my opinion the imperial labour camps parallel MANY unjust and horrific forms of prison camp formed by authoritarian states across history. THAT BEING SAID. IT is a constant slap in the face of how goyim live in a world where this was not a reality for a huge portion of their entire culture in very very recent history when our population was decimated. to see things taken straight from the historical record of how jewish and romani people were systematically slaughtered and see them put in as Good Writing, Good Worldbuilding, not from malice but just ... ignorance. the shoes thing. the shoes thing. that was not something that the writers cooked up. the separation of prisoners from their shoes during transport to camps was a very real part of the process of the shoah, and images of the piles of civilian shoes stripped away from feet remain, an image i believe the show purposefully invokes with cassian’s beachy espadrilles - the epitome of a civillian shoe- falling on the ground with the others. the specific physical reality of the removal of the shoes is so much a part of the memory of the holocaust it has been used in memorials, such as this one on the banks of the danube river: 

it stands here because jewish shoes were taken from jewish feet before they were killed, because they were worth more than jewish lives were. 

there is no one jewish opinion on anything. i myself have not fully collected my feelings on this section of andor, although i do believe it has been, for the most part, brilliantly done. we live in a time in which a real genocide has been spun off almost constantly into metaphor and sci fi and fantasy and yet the real humanity of real jews cannot be fully included, recognised, seen in the eyes. as one of the sharpest sayings on this goes, i think- antisemitism is about preferring peaceful corpses to broken survivors. i think andor did an excellent job by looking in the eyes of those kept in the camp and refusing dehumanisation, refusing to make any of them less than a fully human man. I think it’s done a great job burning simplistic moral purity politics to face people broken by oppressive situations with radical kindness and empathy. but seeing the fandom response has been a disturbing jolt about how little, truly, people know about the shoah, how little in general they are willing to engage with the particular reality of antisemitism and anti romani racism as being not side feature but absolutely fucking central to fascism. so learn. remember the dead. love living jews. love the descendants of the survivors. love living jews everywhere, and remember to include us in your activism. and may the memories of those murdered be a blessing 

[dragynkeep]

if you’re not a gypsy, you can’t say it ✨

if you’re not romani you can’t then claim something is “drawing on anti romani stereotypes” when it’s your own ignorance & bigotry showing through, especially when you are given direct evidence that it’s not romani cultural clothing ✨

if you’re not a jew you can’t give excuses for goyim antisemitism or excuse a hehe funny mini hitler ✨

if you’re not a jew you can’t criticize jewish headcanons made by jewish people in a marginalized ethnicity that has direct correlations to jewish oppression & literally has a hebrew first name ✨

especially when the same show has made their nazi inspired stand in a shitty ass creepy lesbian ✨

if you’re a racist, antisemitic piece of shit, stay in your lane ✨

[the-path-to-redemption]

Vol 9 Ch 2 Review

....Man.

Spoilers for Chapter 2

Again, what is with this tonal dissonance between the situation and the characters? It went from, “hehe haha what a whimsical place” to “nothing make sense, and this world is fucking stupid” to “we’re terrible people and everything we touches goes to hell” within a minute. The tone transition doesn’t feel natural, and it nearly gave me fucking whiplash just looking at them interacting.

I do appreciate the more cartoony, slapstick style of animation though. Even if it’s, once again, tone deaf and weird AF.

Wow, Blake is finally a bookworm again. After 6 fucking years.

A little nitpick, but really? Alix and the Jabberwocker? That’s the length you’re going with? Just fucking slap me with a brick that said “it’s Alice in Wonderland”, I don’t think I caught the memo yet. /s

The Dormouse gag with Little is getting a bit tiring tbh. 

Two thoughts about Jinxy: 1) he’s kinda cute :3 would pet. 2) Oh my fucking god, please tell me this isn’t a caricature of Romani/travelers, please please PLEASE. You can’t just do something else?? Bro, we know fairy tales are laced with antisemitism and anti-traveler rhetoric but you’re supposed to be AGAINST it.

*flashback* “hey it’d be kind of interesting to see Yang without an arm and having to adapt to the situations without relying on-” 

*Yang got her arm back literally the next episode, killing any potential ideas of her actually being interesting as a disable character having to navigate and adapt to her surroundings using skills and wits*

...I’m in hell.

Speaking of Yang:

Yang: Alix was kind of an asshole huh. :/

Also Yang: I’m going to disrupt a public event full of civilians, beat up someone in front of the guards and potentially create chaos the moment I step foot in a foreign community, despite Blake telling me to “when in Rome, do as Romans do”.

Hypocrisy has a bloodline, and it started with Raven. 

Another nitpick, but wow, I wonder which is the arm. The two ambiguously looking items, or the scepter that looks exactly the same as the damn arm. 

Also, ENOUGH with the Bumblebee pussy footing. “What’s the meaning of love?” “Are we holding hands? :3c teehee no no, just teasing.” Get. It. Over. With. You wanna fuck each other, just do it already and spare me 8 more episodes of your pseudo-queer bullshit. 

Again, the tonal dissonance. Ruby’s having a crisis over Penny’s sword (I’ll get to this madness later), Yang excitedly running away, Blake is frantically doing the same... Weiss just walk off nonchalantly. ISTG if this is her stihck for the Volume I’ll wrangle her myself. 

Blake: I just didn’t expect us to be morals in a story.

...so, the entire White Fang storyline, in which you were constantly on Adam’s case about being “pacifistic” in the eyes of systematic oppression, continuously making a fuss about an issue that affects YOUR race and life despite barely doing jackshit, and always fucking around when it comes to the reality of a racist world that shits on your people wasn’t a moral journey to you. 

Can’t say I’m surprise, Blake, you pasty All Lives Matters bitch. You continued to ignore an enterprise’s legal slavery after TWO people you knew shows you the horror of racial discrimination while your ass was cozy in an island mansion. You can’t be trusted to talk about morals, you lacked them. 

Ruby herself is giving me so much mixed feelings right now, more bad than good. She’s broken up about Penny, which is understandable, but I really, REALLY can’t believe her when she honors the poor girl. Not after gaslighting her in Volume 8, not after barely having a discussion about the events of Beacon, not after everything between them that was just Penny giving and Ruby taking for the entirety of Atlas. 

She got a W though, for being the only sensible person at the end. None of them know what they’re doing, not after crashing a kingdom and economically cripple another in your absence. So stop acting like they know what is going on. 

[crvvys]

watching Kim Foster’s video on patreon where she discusses Israel and Palestine and she’s pushing back on some of her commenters that basically disagreed with her when she said Jewish people were likely the first people to be racialised.

a couple commenters are saying black people were the first to be racialised and how the construction of blackness and black people was antecedent to how Jewish people would be treated. and I’m sorry but I just find that extremely fucking hard to believe like even with various slave trading happening on the African continent (I specifically mean the Arab slave trade bc that was older than European chattel slavery), I just feel like that’s bold to suggest that that slave trade influenced how Jewish people were racialised?

if Jewish culture is like over 2,000 years old…and a major part of their history is having to migrate to escape violence from multiple groups of people in different ethnic regions bc they’re this “othered” race of people, how is that also not being racialised as an “other” with its own complicated history? you could even say Romani people are right up there too with being racialised (separate of anti-blackness) and migrating and being enslaved before white supremacy even came into the picture.

that is just such a bold thing to say that racialising black people is what drives other dehumanising atrocities historically and contemporarily. not everything that black people have endured has directly effected something else. some historical events are entirely from the ethnic tensions and histories between groups in certain regions bc the world is a big fucking place and people aren’t immune to tribalism and xenophobia.

I really do hate this afro-pessimist point of view that anti blackness is the center of every system of oppression. it’s really fucking not. learn about other peoples’ histories and develop your worldview. how can you flatten other peoples histories and say it all started with your suffering and how your suffering defines everyone else’s. and even further, how your suffering is necessary for the continuation of all other societies. how can you think that and not think you sound ignorant at best and solipsistic at worst?