#roma peoples civil rights movement

[djuvlipen]

Why is it so acceptable to be racist to Roma? Even some of the most progressive white people I’ve met (not the Twitter account being called out) proudly say racist things about Roma.

Everyone acts like I’m silly and naive when I confront them.

https://twitter.com/transiamagick/status/1684176611107819521

Yeah, I've seen that tweet and heard of that misandristlana user... she is popular on radtwt and, if I recall, British. Her account was recently suspended, apparently. It's very disheartening because my of the reactions were in support of her, tweets saying "she is right though" or implying it's libfem behaviour to call her out. Unfortunately I am not at all surprised by this because, as you said, the mere idea of not being racist toward Roma is completely unfathomable to Europeans. White Europeans are ready to accept Black people having *some* civil rights, Arab people having *some* rights, Asian people having *some* rights, but the minute you say that Roma should have rights too they lose their minds. Their idea of antiracism doesn't extend to Roma and whenever I hear Europeans talk about "Romani antiracism" they always treat it as a joke or they get upset because a movement like that would really show that "the woke movement has gone too far". Once a Romani boy from my country called out anti-Roma racism on Twitter and some guys replied with "fuck even the Gypsies are woke now". They always react like that.

It's even more annoying when it comes from people of colour. I thought misandristlana was white at first too but I have since heard that she is actually Afghan. I don't know if she ever claimed to be antiracist or anything. Once again I am not even that surprised that a woman of colour would be racist against Roma because many Europeans of colour are racist against Roma. In my country there is absolutely no Romani rights movement. The antiracist movement is a coalition of different groups of people of colour (black, mena, asian) working together but those groups never work with Roma and never even talk about Roma. That may be an urban legend so don't quote me on this but a Romani woman once told me Roma were even excluded from some antiracist groups. Myself and another Romani feminist I know have also felt uneasy in feminist antiracist groups. Not that we are uncomfortable per se, it is just that everyone (including ourselves) feel like we don't belong in the global antiracist movement because antiracist activists never thought about discussing Romani issues, working with Roma, and sometimes they even perpetuate anti-Roma racism too.

It's because no one cares about discussing anti-Roma racism because everyone thinks we deserve it. When you ever speak out against anti-Roma racism people treat you like a joke. In fact people love joking about the racism we experience, because they don't take it seriously. You can see that everyday on the internet whenever a Romani person talks about racism and the Americans jump in the replies to say "lol europeans are so hitler lmaooo". Roma aren't laughing though

[beardedmrbean]

Dries Van Langenhove, the founder of the far-right movement Schild & Vrienden, has been sentenced to a one-year effective prison term for violations of the racism and negationism law.

The Ghent correctional court announced its sentence for Van Langenhove, a former MP for the Flemish far-right party Vlaams Belang, on Tuesday. He has been given up to one year of effective imprisonment for violations of the racism and negationism law, including denying the Holocaust.

He also has to pay a €16,000 fine and loses ten years of his civil rights, taking away his right to vote, but also the right to be elected or hold public office. He was also handed down ten months of suspended imprisonment for violations of the weapons law. Van Langenhove was again not present at the hearing.

The final sentence is more lenient than what was initially requested by the prosecution (a two-year prison sentence and a fine of €24,000). However, the Ghent court judge used strong language in the sentencing, stating that the accused was "an instigator of racism and negationism."

The judge also spoke of "criminal behaviour" and contributing to hate speech and violence. "He creates a hostile atmosphere in society. He contributes to antagonism, discord and conflict and thus fosters physical and psychological violence. All this points to a particularly dangerous mindset."

'Bigoted racism'

The verdict has long been awaited. The criminal investigation started more than five years after a VRT Pano report showed that racist and antisemitic messages were shared in secret chat groups of Schild & Vrienden. In June 2019, Van Langenhove was officially put under suspicion.

Before the trial, several people and institutions have taken civil sides, believing they are victims of the group, including the equal opportunities organisation Unia, the Human Rights League and Ghent University. Former magistrate Henri Heimans, whose parents survived Nazi concentration camps, also declared himself a civil party.

"I am not euphoric, but I am satisfied with the verdict and especially with the justification of the verdict," he told VRT after the verdict was announced. "The court says that bigoted racism sets society against each other. That is substantiated in the verdict, which I think is the most important thing."

Five of the six other defendants, also members of the far-right movement, received jail terms with deferments of six to eight months and effective fines of €8,000.

The final defendant received a suspended sentence with conditions, including an escorted visit to the Dossin Kazerne in Mechelen, which between 1942 and 1944 served as an assembly camp for thousands of Jews and Roma people before they were sent to concentration camps.

Today likely won't mark the end of this case, which has lasted for over five years, as Hans Rieder, Van Langenhove's lawyer, will immediately appeal the verdict.

[thenuclearmallard]

21.03.2023

Racism in Russia: Report of ADC Memorial and International Committee of the Indigenous Peoples of Russia to the UN CERD

To the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

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Marking March 21 – the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, ADC Memorial and the International Committee of Indigenous Peoples of Russia have prepared an alternative report to the UN CERD, informing the Committee about the violation of the rights of ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and migrants by the Russian regime. The criminal war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine has spread discrimination and repression to the occupied territories, aggravated the situation of the Crimean Tatars in the annexed Crimea, and caused irreparable harm to indigenous communities and ethnic minorities. Conscription and the imposition of contract army service mostly affected the poorest regions of Russia – exactly those where ethnic minorities live, thus they disproportionately suffer from mobilization. For indigenous peoples, involvement into the war threatens their physical survival, while mining companies continue to destroy their traditional territories.

Over the past decade, state propaganda has been shaping a discourse about Russia’s exclusivity, its “unique historical path” and “traditional values”, superiority in the possession of natural resources. By 2022, civil society and opposition movements were practically suppressed, independent media were closed and/or expelled from the country, anti-war and in any other civil activity criticizing the actions of the authorities and expressing solidarity with Ukraine is being persecuted. The repressive legislation on “foreign agents” has affected the rights of dozens of individuals and organizations. Leading human rights organizations have been liquidated or restricted in their work, including leading experts in the field of combating racism and discrimination. Recently it became known that the Ministry of Justice filed a lawsuit to liquidate the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis, that has been analyzing the problems of racism, xenophobia, and human rights violations in Russia for many years.

The gradual degradation of Russian society under the influence of the state propaganda and the tightening regime took place in an atmosphere of escalating hatred and discrimination against various vulnerable groups.

Russia’s migration policy remains extremely harsh, and numerous migrant workers from Central Asian countries face racial profiling, police and judicial arbitrariness. Structural discrimination of Roma population has not been overcome; in recent years there have been massive interethnic conflicts that turned into violent pogroms; thousands of Roma were forced to flee from their places of residence. Russia’s repressive policy has spread to the newly occupied territories: Crimean Tatars are now being persecuted not only in Crimea, but also in the South of Ukraine.

The massive propaganda of national exclusivity and xenophobia inevitably legitimizes direct violence and permit aggressive nationalists to move from words to deeds. Hate-motivated conflicts, including among children and youth, often occur, and there is every reason to expect an increase in the number of ideologically motivated attacks against foreigners, migrants, and representatives of minorities.

[jai-makes-music]

trans rights and disability rights are fundamentally intertwined. you cannot truly fight for the bodily autonomy of one group without being on the side of the other. to truly commit to unlearning transphobia is to truly commit to unlearning ableism and vice versa, to say nothing of the vast overlaps between the groups.

this extends to queer people and fat people and women's rights. this extends to civil rights for people of color, for jewish folx, for indigenous folx, for roma, for all. this extends to the houseless, to the veterans, to the prisoners. for workers, sex workers and factory workers included. everyone our society has fucked over

intersectionality is not simply an option; it is a requirement. unlearn your bigotry or leave our movements. we will create a just world. this society is not the only possibility, and we will create a better one. hope is here. life goes on.

[rametarin]

All Nazis are bad, not all enemies of Nazis are good.

The 'antifa' were not good people. Ideologically, they lumped everybody that opposed them into the 'fascist,' camp, the same way religious fundamentalists in a movement of expansionism go around accusing everybody of being an outsider, aligned against The Fundamental Institutional Good that is their religious organization, and encouraging close minded powering through of the bleating masses towards said outsider.

This included Nazis, yes, but it also included any kind of capitalist, Jews included (whether capitalist or not), Roma, homosexuals, those of mixed races. The only difference was you had more antifa drinking the kool-aid at the lower levels that put face value belief in the 'all of humanity, working together' spiel. The reality is more grim than the same ANTIFA would view a post-WW2, post-Civil Rights March, post-Brown Vs. the Board of Education, United States, when it comes to racial solidarity. And it wasn't just because of, "hand-me downs from a patriarchal white supremacy," any more than any revolutionary action counteractive and disruptive of the status quo was a hand-me-down from said conspiracy.

You don't get to dust your hands clean just because, "the revolutionaries were first generation and flawed" just because they got the ball rolling, as the constant reminders that the founding fathers don't get a free pass just because they worked to abolish the economic and institutional industry of slavery before freeing their own slaves. You'll her apologism for any Soviet motherfucker as, "just a part of his era/generation," pretending that their contributions were irrelevant negatively, but then rely on some other pinko to bring up how awful western historical figures are, and thus their positive contributions are overridden by them not doing enough positive change. If you're the sort to shit all over American historical figures for not going further, fast enough, or outright negating their positive influence because, "American society was still racist," you don't get to speak of WW2 Antifa or socialists working in Europe (East or West) as anything but a bunch of systemically corrupt usurpers and terrorists, based on the nail bombings and kidnappings and extortions they pulled in Eastern and Central Europe to seize businesses and public infrastructure.

If Hitler had just adjusted his disgusting socialism a little bit, bent Germany over and submitted to Soviet Socialism, then Nazi Germany would've had its crimes overlooked and continued to exist as a state. The Soviets and what they labeled the Red Revolution intended to roll over the rest of Europe and Asia like a tide and annex territory, piece by piece. This is not up for debate, this is what they practiced historically and what was planned. Hitler's big mistake was not submitting to the USSR or the Marxist-Leninists that wanted that participation and submission. That's why they fought, not because of the horrid bullshit Hitler and the Nazi party were doing.

The USSR freed nobody. It was never about freedom, it was about their own brand on the shackles and forced participation in their society. And it fully intended on doing to West Germany what was done to the East; Russification of the domestic population, deportation of the native Germans to elsewhere in the Soviet empire to scatter their native community to the winds.

'Revolutionaries' viewed everything not of their own revolution as capitalistic and status quo, and therefore, fascistic. Fascist from the mouth of a socialist has no more worth, weight or value than to be called a sinner by a fiery preacher-man from the American south, trying to flag an individual as open season and acceptable to condemn as an enemy of God. Irrespective of their actual crimes, if any.

For so many fucking decades these assholes have romanticized themselves as some punky underdogs that pluckily fought off jackbooted militaristic thugs in the name of human life and decency, when the sheer cold reality was they're the same tankie motherfuckers that would've preached peace with Nazi Germany and annexation/carving up of Poland, if Daddy Lenin or Stalin told them their marching orders in USSR affiliated socialist worker magazines. They were never grassroots freedom fighters, they were always Soviet disrupters and guerilla agents on behalf of the USSR. The exact same filth they claim is so terrible when they work for the CIA in countries Russia and Marxist guerilla forces are trying to get a bigger hold of, today.

And the constant goalpost moving where they pretend they're unaffiliated with the people that shared their values and culture of the past, that, "you can't blame US because we're not THEM." Meanwhile they argue if you're part of a western society, you're not exempt from the ills and injustices those societies and states inflicted upon others in the past. Enough so even after attempts are made to rectify or reimburse and heal over, old wounds can be ripped open again just from the fact those problems existed in history, at all, and become a modern talking point about how those damaged parties need restitution.

meanwhile they claim no responsibility for flying symbols and stanning beliefs of the culture that led to the USSR brutalizing Poland, to say the least. Just being American makes you guilty for trans-atlantic slavery and its echoes, but choosing to believe in Marxist ideas of justice and revolution exempts you from the crimes of the revolutionaries. Bullshit.

[paddysnuffles]

Does what's happening in Palestine fit the steps for genocide? (Spoiler: Yes): Part 1/2

A lot of people have been taking issue with calling what Israel has been doing to Palestine a genocide, so I thought we’d go over the 10 steps experts say take place before/during a genocide and see if Israel’s actions qualify.

To be clear: I’m NOT saying that all Jewish people are complicit in Israel’s actions nor that they all agree with it. Jewish people are no more monolithic than any other group and people should be judged based on their personal beliefs and actions, not as a group. In fact, most Jews outside Israel have been speaking out AGAINST Israel's actions.

I’ll be using the Montreal Holocaust Museum’s resource on the ten stages of genocide and will link to sources for all the claims that I make (if I forget to link anything by all means remind me to fix it).

Step 1: Classification

Groups in a position of power will categorize people according to ethnicity, race, religion or nationality employing an us versus them mentality.

According to Pew Research, slightly more than half of Israelis think that Arab Israelis should be expelled from the country.

Step 2: Symbolisation

People are identified as Jews, Roma or Tutsis, etc., and made to stand out from others with certain colours or symbolic articles of clothing.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip have different colours of IDs from those of people in East Jerusalem and Israel to set them apart (those in the west have green IDs, those in the east have blue IDs.)

Step 3: Discrimination

A dominant group uses laws, customs, and political power to deny the rights of other groups. The powerless group may not be granted full civil rights or even citizenship.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians must have their IDs for internal travel, due to the checkpoints interspersed within the territory. This system has drawn comparisons to laws in apartheid South Africa designed by whites to control the movement of blacks and mixed-race people and to keep them in inferior positions.

It is illegal for a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank to travel to Gaza and Jerusalem unless they have a special travel permit from Israel. Likewise, Palestinians in Gaza are forbidden from going to Jerusalem and the West Bank unless the Israeli military issues them a permit.

“Israeli law had different military orders in the West Bank and Gaza Strip,” Elayyan said. “Each territory was administered by a different Israeli military commander. The point of that was to maintain the division between the two territories, to make them easier to control.”

Step 4: Dehumanisation

The diminished value of the discriminated group is communicated through propaganda. Parallels are drawn with animals, insects or diseases.

The Prime Minister of Israel tweeted from his official account that Palestinians are “the children of darkness” and implied that they were animals by saying that Israelis are fighting for “the way of humanity” whereas Palestinians are fighting for “the law of the jungle”.

Step 5: Organisation

“A state, its army or militia design genocidal killing plans.”

This one is harder to discuss because we don’t have access to that kind of government information. That being said, however, 300 rifles were handed out tto Israeli civilians.

Make of that what you will.

Step 6: Polarisation

Propaganda is employed to amplify the differences between groups. Interactions between groups are prohibited, and the moderate members of the group in power are killed.

The Israeli government employs a tactic it calls “hasbara” in the news it puts out.

Hasbara has its roots in earlier concepts of propaganda, agitprop, and censorship.  Like them, it is communication calculated to influence cognition and behavior by manipulating perceptions of a cause or position with one-sided arguments, prejudicial substance, and emotional appeals.  Unlike its progenitors, however, hasbara does not seek merely to burnish or tarnish national images of concern to it or to supply information favorable to its theses.  It also seeks actively to inculcate canons of political correctness in domestic and foreign media and audiences that will promote self-censorship by them.  It strives thereby to decrease the willingness of audiences to consider information linked to politically unacceptable viewpoints, individuals, and groups and to inhibit the circulation of adverse information in social networks.

The “Hasbara Handbook” explains many standard techniques of propaganda and deceptive rhetoric.  It rehearses specific arguments and counter-arguments and outlines a program of training for advocacy and rebuttal.  It also stresses the importance of labeling or “name-calling” – the linking of a person or idea to a negative symbol.  The handbook places itself in a larger context.  It commends the work of “CAMERA” – the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America – an organization notorious for the viciousness of its efforts to blacken the reputations of those who criticize Israel or advance accounts of events that deviate from the official Israeli narrative by branding them as “anti-Semitic” or “self-hating Jews.”

[gretasworld]

Alucard suspects about Greta's roots - "It must be nice to belong from somewhere, you could trace yourself back to Carthage. "

Greta answers - " My family DOESNOT belong from anywhere. We are all from here. I have lived here my whole life. "She confirms her home NOT to be Carthage but somewhere else her ancestors came from.

These are their dialogues in S4. NFCV. Watch S4 and hear for yourselves,fully.

Reason for this post is, we were asked in a DM if Greta is Carthaginian or Roma. Someone also called us racist for saying Greta is not black. Wtf ? Get out of here.

If you calculate history, the story of the show,time line, Greta's home, her appearance and location of village, the more sensible answer comes Szekely or Roma. No racism from us here.

Alucard's speculation " you could trace yourself back to Carthage " is NOT correct because Greta herself says ' no ' by correcting him in the show. Simple. Wikia Fandom DOESNOT explain things properly and so fans remain confused over this bit of information.

Let's talk of Carthage now. Historically speaking, Carthage was a colony of ancient Rome at one point. Rome is not Romania BTW. It could be possible that in the past the colonised people of Carthage traveled as far as Transylvania although records say otherwise.

Carthage is in North Africa. It has huge history. Ancient Carthaginians/Phoenicians are today's Tunisians, people's Republic of Tunisia. 🇹🇳 Their ancestors traveled to Spain. These people used snails of a sort to produce the color purple. Speaking of what Ancient Carthaginians looked like? Well, take a look at Tunisians in the picture below. A lot of them are and were a Semitic people. ( Arabs, Mediterranean or Hebrew looking ) They were neither Afro black nor European white. They are closer to Lebanese and Syrians. Its even better to say Carthage genes were diverse from ancient times, some dark skinned, some olive, some very fair. There were whites and afro blacks in the region too. It's best to say it held different types of people being such an important place in the ancient world.

You want to know about Carthage and north Africa ? Talk to a Tunisian who is a modern day Carthaginian. Not every African country in the diverse African continent is afro black unlike how Afrocentrism (stupid recent political movement started in U.S having nothing to do with Africa) likes to portray by erasing every other culture and people's contributions. Tunisians complain that the Afrocentrists are trying to claim carthage as fully black civilization and rob the Tunis off their tradition and heritage. Similarly, in Egypt, the afrocentrist criminals are trying to create false proof to claim all things ancient Egypt to be black and trying to snatch Egypt heritage from Egypt's own people. This is crime. The crime is growing rapidly.

A big example is Fuckflix Cleopatra. She was no where Afro black, every proof left behind says she was Macedonean of ptolemys and more accurately, an inbred 🙄.

Who gave Fuckflix, a corrupt corporation, and Jada, a lunatic, the right to rewrite history and manipulate other country's culture and heritage, disrespect other country's people ? The show calls itself a documentary trying to blackwash the whole world with lies ! How dare they disrespect age old civilizations that has existed thousands of years before birth of America ? Fuckflix is such a panderer to Afrocentrism crime. Wtf man, history is history.😒

We have said it before and we will say it again.

Fuckflix is a danger. It is a virus and insult to everyone. Netflix produces its own shows with certain purposes which is to mislead and lie, create false information as proof and fabricate facts on both fiction and non fiction. It is not entertainment or education. People should boycott watching it.

Present day Carthaginians/ Tunisians. Descendants of a type of ancient people called the Berbers/Phoenicians.

[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]

Taikon - Officiell trailer

rough translation of the lines said in the trailer

Katarina Taikon holding a speach: you are aware, and you should never deny, that romani people are persecuted because of our origin. it is your duty to understand this!

shows images of Katarina as a child: they came to buy me, and i had no idea they had arrived to arrange my marriage to a man.

Rosa Taikon, Katarinas sister, while images of travelling is shown: everyone wondered were Katarina was located, because she had run away to stockholm!

voiceover of someone i can’t identify talking over images of Katarina Taikon as an adult: that charismatic girl, who really enjoyed having a good time, also became filled with a intensive political fire. she said, now it is the time for us roma to do something, we have to go into politics and change society.

voice sounding like a radio host, while printing presses are showned: a powerful constribution are made by Katarina Taikon to the public debate with her book, with the name “Roma Women”.

Katarina Taikon talking on screen: our demand is that these romani are to be considered political refugees by the swedish state

Katarina Taikon interviewing a politican:

Katarina Taikon: can we hope for a bright future?

Politican: we are going to consider your proposal

Katarina Taikon: they [these romani refugees] have nowhere to return to.

voice i can’t identify: she was a superstar of her epoch

a second voice i can’t identify: she [Katarina Taikon] constantly got sent racist letters.

Olof Palme, then prime minister of sweden: we do not have capacity for taking too many romani people. we have to have what we called “controlled immigration”.

Katarina Taikon: in all of europe, there is a racist persecution of romani people.

voice i can’t identify: Olof Palme betrayed her

second voice i can’t identify: then finally she said, i am hitting a brick wall when trying to work with these politicans, perhaps focusing on children would be productive to get somewhere in our fight for romani rights. and that is when, she starts writing the “Katitzi” books.

Katarina Taikon: i want humans to see the world in a logical fashion, and think with a clear head, and the things i am demanding are nothing one can’t expect from basic human decency!

i really recommed watching this documentary about Katarina Taikon. it is very well made!

[msfbgraves]

Tainted media

"Hey look. That creator is racist/classist/sexist/terfy/ableist/nazi/homophobic/colonialist/supremacist/what have you and it really shows in their work. Best not engage with it."

Sounds appealing, hm? If you read something that presents something bad as good, you might start believing it. You might become it. We cannot have that. Protect yourself.

What a sad, scared view of our own intelligence.

We're not helpless sponges for other people's evil!

If you find out that the creator of something you encounter has beliefs that you feel are harmful, or has done things that you find despicable, this does not mean that everything they do or say or create is automatically going to make you absorb that evil trait. If Pablo Picasso is a misogynist asshole, appreciating Guernica does not mean you will become an asshole or agree with him. It also doesn't mean that this piece of art is automatically worthless.

Is it, perhaps, preferable to support creators that are not misogynist assholes? Sure! Do your research and look for them. But if you do end up engaging with, even appreciating something by someone you know has done or said harmful things, do you know what that does to you? Absolutely nothing.

Hitler has some interesting things to say about the flaws of the democratic system. Polanski has made a fine film with The Pianist. I promise you, watching that will not turn you into a rapist; it will not make you believe that rape is somehow justified or offset by it. Not if you don't let it.

And - newsflash - it is possible to both be a member of a marginalised group and express harmful views! A queer, disabled Latinx creator may still say something antisemetic. It happens! They're not immune! An intersex Jewish person can be a believer in American exceptionalism. A Roma woman could say something xenophobic or racist. So even if you were to only consume media by oppressed groups you can still encounter things you know, from your lived experience or from listening to other people's lived experience, to be actively harmful.

You are not destined to become what you're exposed to. You can second guess ideas. And even though Socrates was, in my view, sexist toward women, does not mean the whole socratic method is thereby inherently useless. Reading Calvin has not turned me into a Calvinist, it is entirely possible that Mao has had some wise things to say, and that wisdom is not rendered moot by the fact he comitted crimes against humanity. This purity movement in media engagement runs the risk of not letting us develop our own skills of discernment. The fact that Susan B. Anthony was a raging racist does not mean that what she has to say about women's suffrage is no longer worth noting, or that by reading her you can no longer recognise or seek out the perspective of Sojourner Truth. The fact that Martin Luther King was an absent father, an adulterer and a cheating scholar does not render what he has done for the Civil Rights Movement obsolete. Reading Angela Davis will not make you a Honecker apologist (who? Look em up, and also fuck them; but I believe even Margot Honecker may have said a wise thing or two in her time).

You do not need to stop engaging with people and media who have harmful ideas, however you define that. I think that is impossible. What you need to do is learn discernment.

Is what this person says based in fact? Can I check that?

Does this piece of media contradict something I know to be true? But then why do they say that?

Am I even right? How do I know?

If you do that, you will not be tainted by something. You can read Hitler without becoming anti-semite, really you can.

If you artificially limit your information intake based on a desire to remain morally pure, you will

Probably fail. No piece of media is a hundred percent woke, we all have bias

Not hone your thinking skills - you need to be exposed to their techniques to recognise them

Miss out on fun and beauty

Miss out on new ideas. You can even find something good by thinking: this piece of media is so bonkers wrong, I am going to look up the opposite out of spite.

And, you know - if you want to watch Disney, you can. It won't stop you from watching studio Ghibli, or emerging animation. You can even watch the Dumbo cartoon, or Song of the South, and still support Black Lives Matter. Because you can see why those films are racist and reject the racism.

Stop censoring yourself out of some moral obligation to "pureness." Learn to think, and you're not a defenseless victim to misguided ideas. Active exposure to different ideas, even harmful ones, will make you less likely to get brainwashed. It will not make you evil.

And reading Enid Blython will not turn you into a Stepford Wife. Reading Peter Pan will not suddenly blind you to Native concerns.

The best defence against brainwashing is using your brain.

[djuvlipen]

The Forgotten History of Romani Resistance

May 15, 2015 By Pierre Chopinaud

On the evening of May 16, 1944, in the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, SS guards armed with machine guns surrounded the area of the camp designated for Roma and Sinti prisoners. Their intent was to round up the nearly 6,000 prisoners there and send them to the gas chambers. But when the guards approached the area, they were met with armed resistance from the inmates.

The prisoners had learned of the planned “liquidation” and fashioned weapons from sheet metal, wood, pipes, rocks, and any other scraps of material they could get their hands on. According to the memories of survivors and witnesses to the incident, the inmates forced the guards into retreat, and though some prisoners were shot that night, the act of resistance allowed the Roma and Sinti prisoners to put off execution for several more months.

How can such an epic episode have been lost to history? Who knows about the Sonderkommandos revolt of August 1944? Who knows about Witold Pilecki, who infiltrated Auschwitz to organize its resistance network? Keeping alive the memories of these events could help prevent such crimes from happening again in the future. 

This is why La Voix des Rroms is raising awareness around May 16, the Romani Resistance Day in Europe. The Romani Resistance Day represents a change in the way Romani culture and identity appear in public space. This change comes from an understanding of this space as a political one, where a history of resistance replaces a history of oppression. We have urged Romani organizations across Europe to embrace this date: there are several events planned this year in Budapest; Lety (Czech Republic); and Paris, where we are organizing Romani Resistance Day (Fête de l’insurrection gitane) in collaboration with other stigmatized minorities like Muslims and blacks.

For too long, Roma people have been misrepresented by stereotypes: the beggar, the prostitute, the compassionate victim, the folkloric artist. Those stereotypes overshadow the nuances of Romani culture and identity, which have to be the result of political struggle. Romani cultural creation aims to challenge mainstream culture, identity, and representation, just as the African American civil rights movement in the United States changed the whole of America’s identity. 

We must do all we can to promote Romani culture and identity. For more than four decades, Europe’s Roma communities have wanted to establish an institution that would give their traditions and creations their own stage. Across Europe, institutions exist to celebrate an array of cultures, nationalities, and identities, but there is nothing of this kind for Roma.

The European Roma Institute, recently proposed by the Open Society Foundations, the Council of Europe, and leading Roma organizations and figures, is a unique way to address this imbalance and give Romani traditions and creations their own stage.

In order to be successful, the European Roma Institute will need to tackle the breadth of Romani culture and identity. A lot has been done in the past to promote Romani culture with the help of an institutional framework, but it failed, in my opinion, because the specificity of Romani culture cannot be expressed using mainstream categories. There are some very specific features of Romani identity and culture that need to be addressed, like Romani humor; among all Roma, there is a common perception of the world, a common distance from society, as is exemplified in Charlie Chaplin movies—whose grandmother was, in fact, a Roma woman from England. 

The main challenge of the European Roma Institute will be to deal with the tensions between unity (we are all “Roma”) and multiplicity (we all belong to the “landscape” or the territories we live in). That double belonging has always structured Romani identity. It needs to be fully addressed.

La Voix des Rroms is a grantee of the Open Society Foundations.

[the-necessary-unnecessary]

hey, can you tell us a bit about racism in Spain? I'm incredibly uneducated about it, and I don't know much about Spanish history especially racism wise so it would be really nice to get an insight from you about it.

this is a big question, since Spain’s relationship with xenophobia dates back centuries and I’m neither the most qualified person to take you through it nor someone who has suffered from Spanish society’s racist tendencies. However I’ll try to piece a bit of something together and maybe other people can add on if there’s other stuff to include. Also, this is mainly Spanish history from a racism perspective, there are many other positive things in other areas that I haven’t included (patriota pero no mucho)

So basically, up until the 15th century, Spain (in its then form) was a relatively harmonious melting pot of different cultures. With the Roman invasion, settlements and a Visigoth takeover (Germanic population) thereafter, Christianity was pretty firmly established in the country/iberian peninsula by the 2nd Century AD. In 711 AD the Moors, who had control over Islamic Africa, invaded the peninsula and established a Caliphate named Al-Andalus which had a particular stronghold in the south: in Andalusia and their Córdoban capital. Rule was stronger or weaker depending on the region but largely Islamic rule was established and Jewish and Catholic people were treated as second class citizens. Córdoba became the wealthiest, largest and most sophisticated city in Europe by the end of the tenth century, with trade and rich intellectual North African traditions forming a unique culture in the region.

There is a strong historical basis that during a lot of this period there was pockets of ‘La Convivencia’ ie. the co-existence of Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Like for example, around Toledo where in universities the three backgrounds contributed to tremendous amounts of sharing of knowledge etc.

However, from about the 9th century onwards the Catholics who still held strong points right in the north, begun ‘la Reconquista’, the “reconquest,” where they began chipping away at the Caliphate’s dominance. By the early 11th century they had gained more land than was held by the Muslims and 1492 is where we set our next scene.

This is probably one of the biggest and most path changing years in Spanish history. Most known for being the year when Columbus landed in America, this enabled the start of Spanish imperlism which would extend to almost 5 centuries afterwards, conquering territories in South America, Africa and Asia and subjecting them to imperialistic rule and policies of white totalitarian dominance.

The second important happening in this year was the fall of Granada, the last remaining territory the Caliphate had in Spain, signifying the end of Muslim rule in the country. They were, as expected, thrown out of the country in their droves and many others were forced into hiding being subject to situations that would only get worse with the Inquisition in full swing.

The third, and last, big event in this year was outlined in the Alhambra Decree where the expulsion of all practicing Jews was announced. Now this had already followed the forced conversion tens of thousands of Jews had been subjected to in 1391 and 1415 (ie. crusades and masacres against them). As a result of the Alhambra decree and the prior persecution, over 200,000 Jews converted to Catholicism and around 160,000 were expelled.

This ended religious diversity in Spain, the Inquisition sealed this fate. If you’ve heard of one thing about all of this I’m sure it’s the spanish inquisition. Primarily set up to identify heretics among those who converted from Judaism and Islam to Catholicism and ensure the establishment of the Catholic monarchy, it became a method of torture, fear and murder for those who were perceived to cause any threat to the Spanish catholic order. The effects of the Inquisition are widely debated, with some saying the death toll and magnitude has been blown up by the Protestants in other European countries at the time and does not show the full picture of the hundreds of thousands of converted jews and muslims who remained and overtime became integrated into Catholic society. Whilst others remaining firm to the devastating measure of these actions and the ‘pure blood’ mentality it created. What’s for certain though, is that by the end of the Inquisition in 1834 very little religious nor ethnic diversity remained in Spain.

Jump forward about 100 years and the Spanish Empire is no more after the 1898 crisis, there’s a weird back and forth period with Republics and Monarchies and dictatorships until the Civil War broke out in 1936. It lasted until 1939 when the Nationalists, led by Franco, took total control of the country and submitted it to a dictatorship that would last until his death in 1975. I don’t even know where to begin with a period that many people see as rosy and many others ignore completely whilst Historians have now gone so far as to call the 1940s and 50s the ‘Spanish Holocaust’. However I’ll break it down to one or two main things that have predominantly spurred on today’s racist attitudes.

During the Civil Rights movements of the 50s and 60s Spain was largely immune to the winds of changes due to their isolationist policies and dictatorial power holds. We didn’t take part in any of the dialogue nor go through any racial reconciliation, at least to much a lesser extent than most other countries. It’s quite a common thing to say that what much of europe did in 70 years we’ve only had time to do in 45, and there’s much of a grain of truth in this.

A famous conservative spanish politician called David Aznar defended these views and can be extrapolated into the sentiment that existed to facilitate the transition to democracy and still remain today: "In the democratic transition there were implicit and explicit agreements. One was that we Spaniards don't want to look to the past. Let's not disturb the graves and hurl bones at one another.” As a society, we hate to think about the past, it’s just not widely done. There’s ONE museum solely dedicated to the Civil War, the Historical Memory Law passed in 2007 to try and increase the rights of victims and their families was met by so much opposition and is devastatingly underfunded etc etc. This still translates to spaniards’ views on racism, saying it just doesn’t exist here and moving on. There’s a refusal to confront this and microagressions are ingrained in the culture.

As I’ve kind of mentioned before, issues of race extend much further than towards just black people which is why the US BLM movement cannot simply be traced onto Spain. People who are originally from Latin America face extreme stereotypes and varying forms of discrimination against them as do Arab populations and other people who have immigrated from MENA countries plus the large Roma communities. 

The refugee crisis has further perpetuated the stigma around African immigrants in the past years, whilst the social effects of the 2008 Financial Crisis and beyond also continue to contribute to a xenophobic and nativist perspective where true spaniards should be prioritised with jobs, opportunities etc. For example, the alt-right wing party Vox that’s blatantly racist, anti-immigrants etc posted something with the slogan ‘Spanish Lives Matter’ the other day. They are purposefully incendiary.  

Anyways, hope this was a suitable start for you, you can’t summarise millennia worths of history into a few paragraphs but I tried my best. Also there are obviously many who stand for none of these values, politicians who have tried to right these wrongs, activists who keep fighting the fight, people who have broken down barriers and areas where there’s complete coexistance. However the fact remains that these views and ideas are ingrained in people’s minds, theres blatant job discrimination and a lack of equal opportunities despite laws that may have been put in place.

I’m going to point anyone who has got this far to a couple of articles about racism from an Anglo-Saxon perspective below, racist football culture is almost always mentioned. Being a black traveller in Spain; Same Spanish Holocaust link as before but an extremely important book review read; Irish perspective on the Enigma of Spanish Racism; Racism? What Racism? Asks Spain; Opinion: Racism Is Alive and kicking in Spain

[cirocchio]

AU details 01. royalty etc.

( still pointing at tsun as the instigator for this post )

‘royalty AU’ is too vague for me though so this is going to be a more all-encompassing general description of possible ideas for ‘AUs that all can take place in a political/ court setting’. No fancy introductory story-like excerpt.

Some things to note:

Firstly; because I like to keep Ciri’s Roma heritage I’m more inclined to make her a bastard child that may or may not be legitimised by her father. Usually not. Her uncle, as always, dotes on her. He’s also the more popular of the duo, the heir of the throne, etc. Another idea is that she accompanies Remo/Silvan to court as a child, as Remo would want to lobby for more rights for Rroma/ commoners in general. She can be as high or low-ranking as is deemed suitable for the plot.

Secondly: Ciri will never be a happy ruler. The responsibility of such a position weighs her down and restrains her and has never been something she wants to live with; Ciri both fears and hates power so her having that will make her incredibly uncomfortable. She doesn’t have the talent for scheming and intrigues nor does she command enough respect for her advisers to listen to her: she’d be a puppet at best, a scapegoat or victim of an assassination plot at worst. Ideally ( and even realistically ); she never gets stuck in the position of ruler/heir to the throne in the first place, but if she somehow did, she would work on a way to abdicate or even get banished without too much commotion or sending the country in chaos.

Ciri’s reputation ( aka the one thing I can talk about with almost utmost certainty ): Regardless of her position (low-ranking noble or royal blood), she’d be a bit of an oddball at court. She’s sensible and pragmatic and has plenty of interest in languages, culture, and music, promising traits. Yet when it comes to other matters she is bored, unmotivated, and dreamily stares out of the window during important lessons and meetings. She has no tact and will tell nobles, teachers, and missionaries alike when she does not like them, something they say or do, or disagrees with them without any regard for whether it’s appropriate or not. Being a bad liar Ciri quickly gives up on trying to play with and figure out the different masks people put on and stubbornly stays true to herself, demonstrating her distaste for the two-faced behaviour at court. She spends more time reading books and playing with her birds in the gardens than she does attending festivities, banquets, or councils ( and if she does attend either of those it’s to listen to or talk with the bards and poets and whatnot ). She has proven herself a terrible fighter and tactician at an early age, and actively avoids war generals or soldiers – making her dislike for them obvious. On the other hand, she is known to slip in the kitchens ( is surprisingly resourceful when it comes to this, even though she later confesses her mischief ) at night and speak informally to the servants.

While teachers find her temperament easy to manage, her select interests are frustrating. When she’s not motivated she will not put effort in her tasks, unless perhaps Remo convinces her to, but he’s known to be lenient with her. She openly talks about her fantasy of meeting magickal bards who will steal her away for marriage ( or just adventure ). Rumours circulate that she talks to her birds and kisses them in the hopes of turning them into fairies. In many ways she is a child, yet sometimes she seems wise beyond her years. 

She’s passionate about introducing literacy for the common folk, and purposely lets her maids listen in on her classes or gives them ‘homework’ to practice writing, but other than that does not have an active interest in the welfare of the commoners and is thoroughly unhappy with the responsibility to care and decide things for them. She also has romantic views on what it’s like to belong to the common folk and often says she wishes to be one of them, unaware of how limiting, inconvenient, and difficult poverty can be.

The general consensus is that she’s better avoided as her lowborn mother’s traits show in her boorish behaviour and clumsy movements, proving that she has no place at court; wouldn’t want that to rub off on you. Some people enjoy her company and soothing voice, though. Mostly lower-ranking nobles of little consequence, girls a few years younger than her, and the servants she befriends of course. She’s also, obviously, seen as bad wife material. This might make her sound like a rebellious child but Ciri is not the type to throw a tantrum over things, purposely upset others, start fights or otherwise and would endure gossip and humiliation with a meek smile and, or if she reacts her words would lack subtlety and ‘intellect’, aka it makes her come off as an idiot and wouldn’t be too insulting to the person who insulted her first. She minds her own business and so long as others mind theirs she’s happy, as is also the came in most of her other verses. In other words, it all really comes down to her presence at court being very misplaced. Remo thinks it’s endearing and ‘gives the people something to talk about’, so he doesn’t scold her – protects her where he can. Silvan tries his best to ignore her existence altogether, though that’s a bit more dependent on the plot that’s decided on.

Possible situations, place at court:

Remo & Silvan are of royal blood, Remo being the crown prince. Ciri is Silvan’s bastard child, raised at court but not acknowledged by Silvan. Remo takes her under his wings and raises her as an important member at court, using her as a pawn ( to make Silvan seem more sympathetic/ involved/ as a spy under the guise of her talent as a (travelling) court musician/ to strengthen political bonds by arranging a marriage ). Little is Ciri aware that her position is a direct threat to her younger half-sisters; her being older, does she not have as much right on the throne as them? Whether her half-sisters see it the same way is up for discussion.

Similar as above but Remo dies at some point, leaving her back in Silvan’s awkward care. Silvan, convinced and aware of his own limitations as a ruler, would appoint her as his successor so he may abdicate quickly. Ciri resents him for this, ignorant as he is that she’s every bit as unsuitable and unwilling to lead a nation as him. Cue her trying to weasel her way out of it, or early assassination plots, or manipulative leeches trying to make a puppet of her; this would be a scenario where it’s advisable to look for a different successor.

In the event that Silvan/Remo are nobles or even just wealthy merchants who bought their way to court, and have come there to voice their grief about their village/ the Rroma etc. and thus lobby for better conditions, Ciri would mostly be left alone and treated with little interest by others, although she is still in danger of being an assissination victim, as it’s not in everyone’s best interest that Remo convinces the king/court of his right.

Another for if Remo passes away (whether by accident or assassination), better if he’s no heir but just nobility trying to improve the conditions of Rromani; here are actually some options for Ciri to want to actively partake in politics, if only to honour his memory & ‘fulfil his wish’, or even to uncover who murdered him. She’d still suck as before though and would need to rely on others to actually achieve what she wants: it’d be an incredibly dangerous undertaking for her.

Of course she can also be the servant or maid or musician appearing at court and take it from there, but then it’d be your muse’s royal au, not Ciri’s.

Anyway there’s a lot that can happen, catch me coming up with 25 more ideas depending on your muse.

Other things to consider ( on my side of the plotting ): - the position of roma in the society this would take place – are they accepted, outcasts, does it take place in a fictive court where they are a well-represented; is her heritage openly known or kept secret? on the other hand, could the roma try to use her existence as a means to get more rights and visibility in this land? - whether her gender is an issue or not. I’m a fan of not, of using a fictional setting where female monarchs are as common as male (meaning female soldiers and diplomats etc are also equally common), but either way works. - the stability of the country: is it peaceful? on the brink of the war? is there civil unrest or not? how important is it to have a stable ruler? How divided is the court, how many enemies are there? - Ciri’s popularity among the common folk largely depends on what they value/need. Because of her mousy appearance she’s not impressive as a strong leader who guides and unites the people, but her gentle demeanour can be useful if the people value benevolence and mercy - she will always suck and want to get out just know this. would also need help in getting out. - will never care much for a difference in ranks and loathes the titles and formalities that ought to be used.

[chalabrun]

why hector’s enslavement is toxic from a historical standpoint

Disclaimer: I am a white person whose background isn’t affected by these very disgusting circumstances European minorities found themselves in for centuries. However, that being said, seeing as Castlevania is a historically-influenced game series and show no matter which way you go, I believe it’s imperative that this is brought into the light and made known. I am someone who believes herself capable of applying the history I do know to inform others in a respectful manner. This isn’t an attack on the fandom so much as a PSA of a point in history that isn’t commonly known to Western audiences. 

To begin, I think it goes without saying that when the topic of slavery is addressed, the other half of Dracula’s Forgemaster duo, Isaac, is a recognizable example of this occurring that the fandom already recognized that how graphic and flagrantly anti-black the treatment of his past slavery was and how deplorably it was demonstrated in the narrative. Seeing as the Trans-Atlantic slavery trade that occurred among black African peoples is the most well-known facet of slavery that Westerners (specifically, Americans that are the bulk of who this post is intended for) can recognize for what it is and how horrendous it was for the peoples involved. 

Given that the CV fandom seems to already have an understanding of this, I feel I don’t need to mention the despicable exposition of isaac’s past slavery and will therefore move on from it. 

However, it’s the other half, Hector, that concerns me today.

TW: S3 spoilers, mentions of Hector’s enslavement and abuse

To begin, as we’ve seen in the show, Hector’s enslavement was something foreshadowed as early on the season two finale. From Carmilla beating & collaring him, many predicted for a while that Hector’s enslavement would likely feature in the next season, and to our worst fears, this was confirmed with the season 3 poster that graphically showcases Hector nude and chained and submissive to a character later revealed as Lenore, one of Carmilla’s ‘sisters’ and a white vampire woman. 

From there, we’re treated with explicit and cruel treatment of the abuse Hector receives while imprisoned. This includes everything from being forced to walk hundreds of miles in the snow without shoes, jailed in a cell in the nude, given rotted scraps of food and splashed with frigid water to ‘bathe’ him. It goes on to include beating, physical abuses, dehumanization (both verbal and physical), and worse.

From there, the vampiress introduced as Lenore (that we can likely and rightly assume is a white woman) demonstrates the real brutality of the dynamic and of Hector’s station. Throughout the show she beats him, coerces and manipulates him, culminating to her ‘giving’ him a ring aptly called the ‘Slave Ring’ that binds him to her will and that of anyone else wearing copies--all after swearing his self to Lenore’s ownership in a dubiously consensual sexual encounter (in itself foreshadowed as an abuse of power due to their power imbalance) that is outright expressed as being a slave submitting himself to his new, white master. 

The reason this is despicable isn’t solely because of what transpires, but by the very real belief that Hector was likely coded as being non-white. While his exact ethnicity isn’t made known, given that his game counterpart was originally from Anatolia (in modern day Turkey that was part of the Ottoman Empire at the time), it’s likely that he was meant to be depicted as Romani, Turkish, or another non-white ethnicity from the region with my personal belief that he was meant to be coded as Romani.

Given that he lives in Romania, it’s very likely that Hector is, at the very least, coded to bear a significant amount of Roma heritage. 

The reason this is problematic and racist is because, since the 1400s during Alexander cel Bun’s reign of Moldova (Wallachia’s neighbor), Romani have been enslaved in Romania for centuries. 

While it is a commonly forgotten page in Europe’s history--especially in Eastern Europe where it’s the most prevalent--is that Roma people were an enslaved people. While Wallachian/Romanian slavery was slightly different from American slavery, it was still the same in the systematic abuse, dehumanization, and estrangement Roma people faced because of their status in European society and how brutally they were discriminated against.

Why this is so toxic is because Warren Ellis, a white British man, cheapens the Romani narrative by reducing a problematic and devastating chapter in Romani peoples’ history into a racist, edgy narrative for a brown (presumably Romani) man that didn’t need to be leveled with such horrific treatment in the first place, fictional or not. 

As many people are aware (especially non-white peoples across the globe), the history of extant minority peoples (like the Romani, Native Americans, African-Americans, etc.) are often treated like fiction to gentrify and apply to fictional stories written by privileged white people to dramatize the suffering of their fictional peoples while completely overlooking and erasing the sources from which they came, an act of aggression in itself against those who don’t have the luxury of escaping from the pages of fiction and into a problem-free life. 

We saw it in James Cameron’s Avatar when he appropriated Native history into his fictional Na’vi. It happened again in Detroit: Become Human when the Civil Rights Movement was appropriated on to androids and their state of enslavement by humans, all while overlooking the events that influenced the whole story in the first place. It happens all the time when ridiculous organizations like PeTA try and liken the meat industry to the Holocaust, something they have no right to co-opt, especially by non-Jewish people. 

All examples of white authors/creators appropriating non-white histories and glamorizing it in fiction, which happens with Ellis and his treatment of Hector--and Isaac.

While I can’t verify whether or not Hector is Romani, given the fact that he’s a brown man enslaved by a white woman in the 15th century when the enslavement of Romani peoples was systematic, it nonetheless is an inappropriate parallel Ellis had no right no co-opt for the sake of making the show have higher shock value (when it’s tasteless at best).

Regardless of how you feel, what you headcanon, or the like--Warren Ellis had no right to appropriate a very real chapter in the history of Romani people all for the sake of a shock value and edginess in a show that will eventually die down from its hype and be nestled deep in Netflix’s archives once again.

Because this doesn’t go away. Romani people are still stigmatized and face heinous amounts of racism in Europe today with their history being forgotten and their brutal past glossed over by people who like to pretend that Europe is faultless compared to the US. They can’t escape this past in the same way someone can just detach themselves from the TV once they finish binge-watching season three.

In conclusion: Warren Ellis doesn’t have any right to appropriate the history of minorities and graft them on to his show for the sake of transient shock value. Especially when so many of the show’s POC are treated as expendable enough as it is.

Important reading:

Article on Romani slavery authored by travellerstimes, a website by and for Romani people. (Warning for G-slur usage, but please note that, in this case, it is a slur being reclaimed.)

Citizenstruth article on continuing stigmatization and racism Romani people still face today.

[evilelitest2]

Why is rightwing nationalism on the rise? I don't just mean for the u.s. I mean in lots of other countries too. Is it older people? I know not all young people are #woke4progressives (that hurt to write) and some are becoming more right wing but like why? What's making the 21st century go backwards

This is a complicated and it varies a bit depending on what country you are in.  Roughly speaking I think its a few follows 

1) The complete failure of most of these nations to make a consciousness effort to address their racist history.  Even those nations who do at least acknowledge that they did a racism in the past don’t make a major effort really come to terms with why that happened and how it continues to seep into society at large.  When you don’t address things like this, it gives bigots cover to continue pushing for their bigotry, especially when many of them...never went away.  Like in the United States, all of those White Supremacists who opposed the Civil rights movement?  They didn’t just vanish in 1966, they continued to vote, many of htem are still alive today.  And while the rhetoric has changed, they basic world view hasn’t, they still believe that white people are superior, that segregation was good, and the the Federal goverment as an enforcer of equality must be opposed.  The united states tends to teach about segregation as “hey remember when a bad thing happened that one time?” rather than “This is how bigotry works, why it self perpetuates, and the type of rhetoric/narratives they use.  

Or to use Europe as an example, the way the Holocaust is taught in most country is usually “oh man, the Germans were so bad the way they showed up and killed all the Jews who we loved dearly.  Wasn’t that terrible, and yet totally not our fault in any way?”  While in reality the Holocaust wouldn’t have been possibly without the assistance of various Polish, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Baltic, Balkan, Austrian, Hungarian, Romanian...you know what, lets just say non Bulgarian Europeans in general, who as a rule, actively helped and participated in the Final Solution.  Which is because of two thousand years of anti semitism that is just seeped into Europeon culture which they never addressed.  Oh and anti Roma sentiment, which is just utterly unaddressed.

Or India, which never really had a reckoning with Hindu Nationalism and how toxic of a movement that is.  Or Japan’s refusal to acknowledge their War crimes.  

2) The failures of Neoliberalism.  This is a bit overblown in my opinion, but even before the Far Right took power...things kinda sucked. Ever since the 80s we have had unrestricted capitalism in all of its ineffective glory, and it sucks.  I’d list it, but basically look at every single system that made the Covid virus worse and that is it.  people aren’t happy with the current status quo, and sadly, because most people are idiots, rather than turn to reform, they turn to right wing natioanlism

3) The failure of the media.  I want to be clear here, the media is not controlled by a secret cabal who are trying to conduct world affairs, that is only Ruburt Murdoch.  But most forms of news are in a crisis (only partly of their own creation) and this means we have an even less informed public than we usually do 

4) The backlash effect (I recommend the book by the same name).  One of the effects of marginalized people making some degree of progress, privileged groups often rally to push them back down, because they start to get scared about their own status 

5) Things suck and are defined by crisis.  The Iraq War, the Great Recession, and very little political reform following that.  

6) Our education system sucks

7) Finally you could make the argument that because the most influential works of culture made today are trying to be apolitical, it gives the Far Right and opportunity to expand

TLDR: Nations need to education their people about how bigotry works, or this happens.  

[lo-lynx]

The Nordic influences in His Dark Materials

TW: Eugenics, racism, sexism

Spoiler warning: The whole His Dark Materials book series (but mainly The Golden Compass/Nothern Lights), minor spoiler for La Belle Sauvage, very minor spoiler for His Dark Materials the tv-show.

 When one of my favourite podcasts Girls Gone Canon announced that they were going to start covering the His Dark Materials novels in preparation of the launch of the TV-show this fall, I got very excited. I had read the first novel, The Golden Compass/Northern Lights, as a child but remembered very little so I decided to re-read the entire series. Reading the novels now, as a nerd in my twenties that’s working on getting a master’s degree in gender studies, and is born and raised in Sweden, I quite quickly got very interested in some aspects of the series’ worldbuilding. Namely, the way “The North” and its people are portrayed. Phillip Pullman’s story takes place in several different worlds, but we start out in what I’ll call “Lyra’s world”, a world similar to ours, but also quite different. Over the course of the first novel our heroine Lyra, travels with a group of gyptians (a people that seems to be inspired of our world’s Roma people) to “The North” to recover children that a corrupt religious government agency has kidnapped. Now, exactly what counts as “The North” is slightly unclear, but the group’s first stop is the town of Trollesund in Lapland. In our world both Trollesund and Lapland exists, but Trollesund is most definitely not in Lapland. The northern most states/regions in both Sweden and Finland are called Lapland.  On the first map bellow Trollesund is marked out, and on the other two the states/regions of Lapland in Sweden and Finland are marked.

Regardless of exactly where Trollesund is, I’ve always assumed it to be in a Swedish speaking area based on the names given to characters and places in the novel. These are for example Martin Lanselius and Einarsson’s Bar (Pullman 2007, 179). These names definitely sound more Swedish than Finnish. Lanselius could possibly be Norwegian as well, but the Norwegian version of Einarsson should be Einarsen (I have no specific source for this… but Swedish last names are often constructed as [name]sson, and Norwegian ones as [name]sen.). In the television adaption of His Dark Materials Trollesund seems to be in Norway however (Cremona 2018). Now, even if I’ve tried to figure it out, it remains unclear exactly where the Lapland of Lyra’s world is, but my guess is that it’s somewhere close to the Laplands of our world. It should be pointed out that in Pullman’s other novel that takes place in the same universe, La Belle Sauvage, a character visits the town of Uppsala (also a real town), which is stated to be in Sweden (Pullman 2017, 45). So, the state of Sweden seems to exist, and be separate from the state of Lapland. Now, why do I care about this so much? Am I just curious because this is “my neck of the woods”? Well, partly yes. But I also find it very interesting that Pullman has decided to create a separate state of Lapland and have several important parts of the plot take place there.

In our world, the word/name Lapland (or Lappland in Swedish) means l*p land/country. What does l*p mean you might ask? Well, it is a derogatory term for the Sami people, a people indigenous to North Norway/Sweden/Finland/Russia. Their own name for this land is Sápmi. The Sami people have lived in this area for several thousands of years and have traditionally (and still today) used that area for reindeer husbandry, hunting, and fishing (Samer, n.d. a). For a long time, they have been a nomadic people, which has been exploited to claim that they have no claim over the land, even though they have dwelt there. To write an exhaustive account of the exploitation of Sami people is beyond the capabilities of this essay, but I recommend the site www.samer.se which is a site run by Sametinget (the parliament representing the Sami people in Sweden, that also functions as a state agency), which can be translated into English. However, it should be noted that this exploitation has been sanctioned by the Swedish state pretty much since the time of the unification of Sweden in the 16th century (Samer, n.d b). At the same time the missionary work of the Swedish church started in the area and by the 17th century Sami people were forced to attend church (Samer, n.d. c). By the end of the 19th century racist ideas of eugenics/racial biology started gaining traction in Sweden, which also impacted Sami people:

It began being claimed that the Sami were born with certain "race characteristics" that made them inferior to the rest of the population. Therefore, they could not live as "civilized" people in real houses. If they did, they would become "lazy" and start neglecting their reindeer. That would result in all Sami people having to become beggars because they did not have any skills besides reindeer husbandry. The [Swedish parliament] decided in 1928 that the Sami who were not reindeer herders would not have any Sami rights either. For example, they were given no special right to hunt and fish in the areas where their ancestors had lived. In this way, the state drew a sharp boundary between the Sami living on reindeer husbandry and those who support themselves in other ways. The Sami schooling was also affected by racism. A law about a special nomad school came in 1913 which stated that teachers would wander around the mountainous regions in the summer. There, the youngest schoolchildren would be taught in the family's cot for a few weeks each year during the first three school years. The rest of the school time consisted of winter courses in regular schools for three months a year for three years. The teaching would only cover a few subjects and it had to be at such a low level that the children were not "civilized". Children of nomadic Sami were not allowed to attend public primary schools. 

[my translation] (Samer n.d. d)

This eugenics movement did, however, not just result in substandard schooling and rights in general. I have previously written about the ideas of eugenics, as well as the way the Swedish state sanctioned them, but some aspects of it is specifically relevant to highlight in relation to the Sami people. In 1922 The State’s Race Biological institute (Statens rasbiologiska institut) was created in Uppsala in Sweden, by the “scientist” Herman Lundborg (Hagerman 2016, 961). He wished to research the Swedish race, and the mixing of races in Sweden. This was done in several ways, both by looking at records of marriages and birth (often supplied by church officials who had access to so called “church books” that recorded this), and physical examinations of people. He, and other “scientists”, travelled around Sweden to examine the Sami people and other groups that were considered inferior (such as Finns, Roma people, Jews, disabled people etc). The physical examination of Sami people often happened in collaboration with local churches or schools (Hagerman 2016, 984). Another part of the eugenics movement in Sweden that is worth mentioning here is the forced sterilisations that took place during this time.  As Hübinette and Lundström writes:

(…) a sterilisation law to hinder the reproduction of the lower classes, and simultaneously to increase the birth rate among the ‘better stock’ (…) The sterilisation program was in effect between 1934 and 1975, and turned out to be one of the most effective in the democratic world, resulting in the sterilisation of over 60,000 people. Moreover, it was both racialised, gendered, classed and heteronormative, as national minorities like the Travellers and the Roma were proportionally more targeted than majority Swedes, and as 90 percent were women, mostly belonging to the lower- and working-classes, and many deemed to be sexual transgressors of the patriarchal order of the day. (Hübinette & Lundström 2014, 428)

So, in conclusion, these eugenic practices had profound consequences for several groups of marginalised people in Sweden during this time. These “scientific” practices were state sanctioned and supported by officials from The Swedish Church.

Now, lets get back to His Dark Materials and Lyra’s world. I want to start by pointing out some more “obvious” parallels between people and custom’s in Lyra’s world and the Sami people and culture, and then move on to some more theme-based comparisons. Firstly, if one compares a map of Sápmi with the map of the Witches’ land in Lyra’s world, there are striking similarities:

(Nordiska museet n.d.)

(His Dark Materials Wiki n.d.)

So, geographically there seems to be similarities between the Witches’ lands and Sápmi. But it’s not exactly the same, just as the Witches obviously aren’t exactly Sami people. However, they do also seem to have partly the same religion. The Witches (at least Serafina Pekkala’s clan) have a death goddess that they call Yambe-Akka (Pullman 2007, 305). This figure also exists in Sami religion (Oxford Reference n.d.). Her name can also be spelled Jábbmeáhkko (Samer n.d. e). Furthermore, the Witches in general seem to be very close to nature, and not as focused on material wealth etc as other humans (Pullman 2007, 299). This seems quite similar to a sort of stereotypical view of Sami people and indigenous people in general. On multiple occasions the books also describe how the Witches live close to the veil between worlds and can hear the undead whispers from beyond it (ibid, 174). This seems similar to the Sami beliefs in how a nåjden/noajdde (a shaman) could communicate with the spiritual world, including communing with Jábbmeáhkko (Samer n.d. e). However, there is no mention of actual Sami people in His Dark Materials. This seems somewhat odd, considering how other peoples from our world are called out, such as the Samoyed and the Tartars. Nevertheless, their culture does seem to have inspired Pullman’s depiction of the Witches.

I now want to look at some more comparisons between the North in Lyra’s world and Nordic/Swedish history in our world. In the story Lyra travels north to free children who have been kidnapped by The General Oblation Board (GOB) and taking to the station Bolvangar (Pullman 2007, 169). At Bolvangar the children are subjected to different medical studies and experiments. The children who are kidnapped seems to mainly come from lower classes and/or ethnic minorities (such as the gyptians). This is sadly very similar to the groups of people targeted by The State’s Institute for Racial Biology in Sweden. In both cases it was easier to experiment on people who had less power in society. As I outlined before as well, many Sami children were studied at schools and in collaboration with church officials. This seems very similar to a religious government agency taking of children to The North to experiment on them. Another thing I want to highlight is the comparison between the severing of children and dæmons, and sterilisation. In the books, children’s bond to their dæmons (their soul) are severed by the GOB in order to prevent “Dust” settling on the children (Pullman 2007, 275). Dust is considered dangerous and sinful, something that according to the church started infecting humans after their fall from the garden of Eden. Sterilisation in our world, on the other hand, took place in order to make the population “cleaner” and of “better” stock. Groups who were in different ways considered degenerate were targeted, including women who were perceived as promiscuous/sexual transgressors. In Lyra’s world a spiritual connection is severed by the Church in order to curb sinfulness. In our world a biological connection is severed by “scientists” (in collaboration with the Church at times) to control sexuality and reproduction. There is a definite similarity here.

Quite a lot more could probably be written about the similarities between the North in Lyra’s world and ours, but I have to stop somewhere. What I have tried to show here is how Pullman seems to have been inspired both by Sami history/culture, and Nordic history in general when describing the North of Lyra’s world. He also seems to have pulled quite a lot of the racism targeted against ethnic minorities in this area. However, neither of these influences are as explicit as they could have been. In the case of the Sami culture I feel like this is a shame, especially since he chooses to call a country/state Lapland. One would think that since he seems to have done some research on the Sami people, he could have chosen to call it Sápmi instead, or even just include mention of the Sami, as he does with other ethnic groups. However, many of the parallels between the experiments that takes place in the North in Lyra’s world and the experiments that have been taking place in our world are interesting, as well as horrible. I want to end this text by being clear that the sort of discrimination, exploitation and racism that I have described here is not just a product of history. Similar things still happen throughout our world. In the United States latinx children are kept in terrible conditions in concentration camps by the border (see for example Sacchetti 2019). In Chechnya there have been reports about concentrations camps for LGBTQ+ people (see for example Steinmetz 2019). In China reports state that Muslims are being kept and tortured in concentration camps (see for example Ioanes 2019). And in Sweden Sami people are still being denied rights to their land (Torp 2016; Jonsson 2018; TT 2019). We need to stay vigilante and keep fighting.

EDIT: Since Girls Gone Canon mentioned this in their excellent episode about episode 4 in the TV-show I felt compelled to make this small edit. In Trollesund we also meet the character of the sysselman. This post seems to be based on the office of “sysselmann” that exists in parts of Norway and the Faroe Islands, which is sort of like a sherrif. I didn’t consider this until after the last episode because when I re-read The Golden Compass I did so in Swedish, and the word didn’t stand out as non-Swedish. I also confused it with the Swedish word “syssloman” (which is more similar to an attorney). After realising that it wasn’t translated in the English version of the story I looked it up and realised that the word was actually Norweigan, but with a slightly more Swedish spelling (sysselMAN instead of sysselMANN). This seems to be in line with my other analysis that Trollesund has both Swedish and Norweigan influences, while Lapland as a whole also has Finnish influences. So basically Lapland seems to be a mix of Scandinavia and Sápmi... 

EDIT 2: I recently realised that in Nothern Lights/The Golden Compass they mention that the “Norroway” government has influence in Trollesund (Pullman 2011, 170). Once again, this hints at the fact that Trollesund is in what in our world is Norway, as well as makes me even more confused about which states exist in the North. But I still think that Lapland is some sort of mix of Sápmi and other parts of Scandinavia. 

References

Cremona, Patrick. 2019. “Where was His Dark Materials filmed?”. Radio Times. https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2019-11-18/his-dark-materials-filmed-location/

Girls Gone Canon. 2019. His Dark Materials S1E4: “Armor”. https://girlsgonecanon.podbean.com/e/his-dark-materials-s1e4-armor/

*Hagerman, Maja. 2016. ”Svenska kyrkan och rasbiologin”[The Swedish Church and the eugenics]. In De historiska relationerna mellan Svenska Kyrkan och samerna: en vetenskaplig antologi [The Historical relationships between the Swedish Church and the Sami people: a scientific anthology], eds. Lindmark, Daniel & Olle Sundström. Skellefteå: Artos och Norma bokförlag [accessible online here: https://www.svenskakyrkan.se/filer/770f2627-57e5-4e06-b880-4ca6c4f94799.pdf ]

His Dark Materials Wiki. n.d. “Lake Enara” Accessed November 22, 2019. https://hisdarkmaterials.fandom.com/wiki/Lake_Enara

Hübinette, Tobias & Catrin Lundström. 2014. ”Three phases of hegemonic whiteness: understanding racial temporalities in Sweden”, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture 20 (6): 423-37. [accessible online here: http://www.tobiashubinette.se/swedish_whiteness_2.pdf ]

Ioanes, Ellen. 2019. “Rape, medical experiments, and forced abortions: One woman describes horrors of Xinjiang concentration camps.” Business Insider. October 22, 2019. https://www.businessinsider.com/muslim-woman-describes-horrors-of-chinese-concentration-camp-2019-10?r=US&IR=T

Jonsson, Berno. 2018. ”Stor oro bland samer när kommunen säljer mark.” [Large concerns among Sami people when the municipality sells land] SVT. October 8, 2018. https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/vasterbotten/stark-oro-bland-samer-nar-kommunen-saljer-mark

Nordiska museet. n.d. “Vem är same? Vem är svensk? Varför vill du veta?” [Who is Sami? Who is Swedish? Why do you want to know?] Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.nordiskamuseet.se/utstallningar/sapmi

Oxford Reference. n.d. “Yambe-akka”. Accessed November 22, 2019. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803125245136

Pullman, Phillip. 2007. Guldkompassen. Stockholm: Bokförlaget Natur och Kultur [this is the Swedish translation of The Golden compass]

Pullman, Philip. 2011. Northern Lights. London: Scholastic

Pullman, Phillip. 2017. La Belle Sauvage. New York: Knopf

Sacchetti, Maria. 2019. “1,500 more migrant children separated from parents at US border than previously admitted, ACLU says” Independent. October 25, 2019. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-us-mexico-border-family-separation-migrant-children-aclu-a9170636.html

Samer. n.d. a “Sápmi.” Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1002

Samer. n.d. b “Drömmen om outtömliga rikedomar i norr.” [The dream of inexhaustible riches in the North] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1229

Samer. n.d. c “I Guds tjänst” [In the service of God] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/4441

Samer. n.d. d “Samepolitik i rasismens tidevarv” [Sami politics in the time of racism] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1042

Samer. n.d. e “Kontakt med andarna” [Contact with the spirits] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/1139

Steinmetz, Katy. 2019. “A Victim of the Anti-Gay Purge in Chechnya Speaks Out: 'The Truth Exists'” TIME. July 26, 2019. https://time.com/5633588/anti-gay-purge-chechnya-victim/

Torp, Eivind. 2016. “Girjasmålet – rättsprocessen” [The Girjas case- the trial proceedings] Accessed November 22, 2019. http://www.samer.se/4997

TT. 2019. ”Tvist mellan sameby och staten avgörs i HD” [Dispute between Sami village and the state to be determined in the Supreme Court] Aftonbladet. September 2, 2019. https://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/a/e8XrOl/tvist-mellan-sameby-och-staten-avgors-i-hd

*this is a chapter from The Swedish Church’s white paper about its treatment of Sami people.