#cw anti roma racism

[stonebutchwritings]

berlin is planning to destroy parts of the roma sinti memorial for those murdered under the n*zis for a new subway line. please sign this letter to stand against the destruction of what is referred to as a "symbolic grave" for the roma and sinti ppl of europe.

[eldritchlittleblackdragon]

Astarion spoilers, cw: anti romani bigotry

I noticed in Astarion's backstory he was specifically attacked by people who belonged to the "Gur" people (and it was via this attack Cazador took advantage of Astarion and got his teeth into him), and I figured that was a bit of Forgotten Realms lore I didn't know about and I looked it up and... it seems they're very much supposed to be a Romani analogue.

And Astarion makes a racist comment about them when you talk to the vampire hunter, who also belongs to that ethnic group.

GRANTED, both you and the NPC can call Astarion out on said racism which is good.

Just. idk something about the situation really rubs me the wrong way, especially since I have heard of the anti romani stuff in connection with the book Dracula.

I feel like I'm struggling to put it into words but its like. Everything else about this game and most stuff associated with Astarion is so well done. But this detail bugs me. Maybe just. Makes me think of the whole stereotype of Roma folks being involved in stuff not above board?

Still love BG3 and Astarion but it's like. Hmm. Not sure about that part. Don't like that.

[hazel2468]

Today, August 2, is Roma Holocaust Memorial day. I’ll be lighting a candle today, as I did on Yom Ha Shoah, for all of the Roma killed during the Holocaust, and for all of the Roma who continue to be persecuted to this day.

[norsesuggestions]

“in the shadow of the worst war of history”wrote a swedish ngo collecting money to send to danish ww2 refugees in sweden the year of 1944

[picture from a news item about danish ww2 refugees in Furuvik 1943. photo Carl Larsson/Länsmuseet Gävleborg. i believe this picture shows volunteers making dolls to sell, so that they could then send the profit to danish refugees]

Älvkarleö Fredsförening was a local gävle based ngo who spent the their time during ww2 with fundraising for money to send to refugees of ww2. of note, is that in 1944, i am pretty certain, the danish refugees they are talking about are the the 99% of the jewish community of the nazi occupied denmark, who fled to sweden during october 1943 in order to survive the genocide of nazi germany.

because of this, that the majority of the danish jewish population escaped to sweden that october, 99% of the jewish population of denmark survived the holocaust.

i point this out, both to give context to why there was a ngo in gävle fundraising for giving money to the danish refugees and also to give context to how this ngo in gävle started their summary of their deeds during 1943-1944:

swedish language original:

Årsberättelse avgiven vid Älvkarleö Fredsförenings Årsmöte den 2 april 1944.

“Kamrater!

Vi nödgas än en gång samlas till årsmöte i skuggan av historiens hemskaste krig. Vi få dagligen höra om förföljelser och grymheter, ja, massmord av värnlösa menniskor. Man står frågade hur någon kan komma så långt i cynisk grymhet som det vi i dag får bevittna. En överdriven nationalism, millitarisering av folken redan från skolåldern, jämte den äregloria varmed man omger våldsprinciperna, detta är några av rötterna på det träd där dessa hemska frukter växer.

Men då krigets oskyldiga offer, de hemlösa och svältande menniskomilljonerna beretts den första hjälpen, då de förorättade folken och de fängslade menniskorna fått sin upprättelse, då produktionen ställts om för fredliga behov, ja, då kommer ett efterkrigsproblem som är större än alla andra att föras fram med ett tusenfaldigt rop; Kampen emot kriget!

Vill du, och jag och vi alla vara med i denna kamp eller ska vi stå med korslagda armar, tills olyckan nästa gång sveper in den arma menskligheten i natt och undergång på nytt. Om det fredsälskande folket i alla länder ville vakna upp till kamp och arbete och framför allt tro på sin sak, skulle ett nytt ragnarök kunna undvikas.”

english translation by admin:

summary of hour work this year. written in Älvkarleö Fredsförening annual meeting the 2 april of 1944.

“Comrades!

the war is still ongoing, so once again we been forced to meet for our annual april meeting. this meeting is happening in the shadow of the most horrific war of history. we are daily informed about persecution and cruelty towards humanity. Yes, a genocide of innocent and defenseless human beings is ongoing right now.

One asks oneself, how anyone are even able to reach the point when they commit these remorseless acts of cruelty, that we have been the daily witnesses of during this war. the answer lays in a overblown nationalism, a militarization of the people which is starts in primary school. this coupled with the gloria of honor, that sociaty has enshrined the those that commit violence for the state. yes, these are some of the roots, which created the current situation.

but! when the day comes, and the innocents victims of this war are liberated from the camps*, when these millions of starving are free and we have given them health care, and when these millions of human beings that belong to the oppressed ethnic groups, who are been unjustly inprisoned, has achieved justice for the crimes commited towards them.

when that day comes, the industry will once again stop producing weapons, and produce what humans needs in times of peace.

therefore, when the war is over, we must all, shout with the voices of thousands: “no more war!” that is the only way, to stop a equally horrific war to happen again.

you must, and i must, and all us must, commit to the struggle of building a new society, a society which doesn’t create a war is inhumane and horrific as this ongoing one. are we going to be silent on lookers to what is going on? no! we must never stop working for a peaceful future. if all the lovers of peace, in all countries of the world, would just stand togheter, and side by side fight for peace, and they will togheter dare to believe there is a better future to come, well then we would be able to stop that another ragnarök, like the one currently ongoing, will be repeated.”

end of translation

*they don’t explicity write out “nazi concentration camps” or “nazi death camps”. but when they say “when the milions of people belonging to the oppressed peoples are liberated”, who else than the jewish, and roma in the concentration and death camps of nazi germany could they be speaking of?

my comments

the orignial text writes about “inprisoned people” and “millions”, and “massmurder” in the same context, so i am pretty sure they are talking about the holocaust.

i though this text was interesting to lift forward, because it is written by someone who is just some average person in gävle most likely, but still it shows, how much knowledge there was for a politically informed swedish citizen about the holocaust to gather in 1943 - 1944. the writer of the text is so clearly aware that the genocide of jewish and roma is ongoing, and that millions are being killed in this genocide, the holocaust, during ww2.

Source

http://arkivgavleborg.blogspot.com/2018/06/i-skuggan-av-historiens-hemskaste-krig.html

[pandoratelenor]

And Kati [Katarina Taikon, sister of Rosa Taikon] began to write, and she wrote a few books about social affairs. About the injustices Roma had to bear when doors closed in our faces and they [the swedish people] wouldn't let us settle in houses. They wouldn't admit us into schools. They didn't give us anything. They chased us away. For three weeks we were permitted to stay in one place. Then we had to go somewhere else. We weren't allowed to stay longer than three weeks. That's why we started to do social work in 1963.  And every day we went to the swedish parliament and said to them, “You must give us Roma flats so we can live in flats. So, our children can go to school, so people will hire us.”  From 1963 to 1966.   Now there are no tents.  There are no wagons.  We live in flats, but I can't say that in Sweden there is no racism, there is, there is. But underneath. They don't show it.

Rosa Taikon (1926-2017)  interviewed by Milena Hübschmannová, Prague 2000. Rosa Taikon was a swedish-romani women who where an important part of the roma civil rights movement in sweden. during her entire adult life she worked both as a famous silver smith and as a roma rights activist.

[Rosa Taikon in her silver smith workshop. the photograph on the mantelpiece is of her sister Katarina Taikon, who were the leader of the Romani Civil Rights Movements in Sweden during the 1950-1970s. photo by Bengt Weilert via högdalsbygden website. click for link]

Sources

Full interview: http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cd/data/pers//data/taikon-it-01.en.pdf

link to her page on Rombase, which published the interview. the link has have some more info about Rosa Taikon: http://rombase.uni-graz.at/cgi-bin/art.cgi?src=data/pers/taikon.en.xml

[norsesuggestions]

Excerpts from "Our Romani History" a Göteborg Musuem project about Romani History in Sweden

The text was published by Göteborg City Musuem.

DEPARTURE FROM INDIA

Where do the Romani people come from? To find the answer, researchers have studied their common language, Romani chib, and learnt from this that their ancestors lived in central India. At some point in the past they migrated to northern India where they remained for a while.

Between the 8th and the 12th centuries, the Romani ancestors continued their wanderings, moving west. Why they left India is not known, but it may have been as a result of famine and social unrest. It may also be that they fled from the Islamic conquest of India. In time, the Romani reached the Byzantine Empire via Persia and Armenia and settled in the vicinity of present day Turkey and Greece.

ARRIVAL IN EUROPE

During the Middle Ages the Romani people spread across Europe. In the 13th century they were to be found in European parts of the Byzantine Empire. By 1322 Romani people were present in Crete and there is evidence that others were living in Walachia in today’s Rumania by 1385.

By 1435 they were a recognised presence in most European towns. The 15th century saw the first expulsion of Romani people. Shortly after this they began to be consistently persecuted.

WHAT HAPPENED IN SWEDEN?

In the 500 years that Romani people have existed in Sweden, new immigrants have continuously arrived here from other parts of Europe. They have brought different languages, cultures, identities and educations, making the Swedish Romani population of today a richly varied group.

The first record of Romani people coming to Sweden is from 1512, when Countess and Count Anthonius arrived with their accompanying entourage. In the 16th century Romani people travelled around Europe with various letters of recommendation, stating – for example – that they were on a pilgrimage of penitence. Those Romani people arriving in Sweden were soon regarded with distaste. They were described as loose-lived and godless and in cahoots with evil powers through their healing skills and abilities to tell fortunes. Many were also skilled craftsmen, and thereby a threat to the Swedish craft guilds.

From the very beginning of their stay in Sweden, the Romani were harassed by laws that aimed either to force them to leave the country, or to limit their freedom of movement and means of support. Attempts at reducing the size of the Romani population have included deportations, compulsory sterilisation and the arbitrary taking into custody of their children. Moreover, there was a total ban on Romani immigration into Sweden from 1914 to 1954, while the two world wars raged in Europe.

One conventional method for categorising the different Romani groups living in Sweden is by using the time of their arrival. By this method there are five main groupings: Travelling Romani, Swedish Romani, Finnish Romani, Non-Nordic Romani and Recent Romani arrivals.

ACTIVISM

The 1960s and onwards have mainly been characterised by campaigning from activists, among them Rosa and Katarina Taikon who worked intensively for the betterment of Romani conditions, demanding the right to education and housing. Other causes taken up by the activists have been the right to retain their own language and culture and to end discrimination. The activist movement is also concerned with asylum questions and with improving the situation in Europe generally.

source text and further reading

Click this link to read the full text, and also for tips for further reading about Romani history in sweden. There is both a Swedish language and English language version of the website: http://www.varromskahistoria.se/en/production-sources

Produced by Göteborg City Musuem in Sweden.

[norsesuggestions]

Rosa Taikon's video message: The Romani Elders, 7. Berlin Biennale

Amazing video of the swedish-romani Rosa Taikon, sister of Katarina Taikon who where the leader of the romani civil rights movement in sweden, talking about the history of the romani civil rights movement in sweden.

Rosa Taikon (1926-2017) was a romani women born in sweden. When this video was filmed she worked as a silver smiths in Sweden. She also keept up the struggle for ending the oppression of romani people, in sweden and the world during her entire life.

the sub-titles does sadly not convey how amazing Rosa Taikons way with words is, but it does communcate her general message, even if sadly some of her talking points are not included in the sub-titles. hopefully someone could add more word by word sub-titles to this youtube video at some point!

[norsesuggestions]

little lutheranisms things

telling people that the way to be a good christian is to understand god through intellectual indepent study of the bible

THEN

when they follow your teaching and get like, their own ideas. just kill them. kill them all. who needs parish members anyway? honestly.

also kill people that don’t go to church, people of other faiths, kill people that looked at the priest weirdly. just. none of the catholic guilt thing, in swedish lutheranism it is obey or death

*the creepy stare of the historical swedish lutheran church who historically really were.... something else allright.*