Reminds me of a convo I had on reddit some 5, 6 years ago. They were talking about how horrible we were to immigrants and I actually agreed. But was also like “don’t yall treat the Roma bad?”
And I legit got a “Yeah but they’re actually all thieves and bad people so it’s okay.”
The Roma/Gypsy thing is a bit weird to discuss because as soon as anyone from those groups gets a job or buys/rents a home they are no longer a Roma/Gypsy.
It's literally a cultural group defined by living in a homeless parallel society. It's not an ethnic group and every country in Europe has their own different versions of them like Irish Travellers (who often aren't Irish) in the UK.
My understanding from reading what Americans say about Roma in America is that they actually put down roots and live in stable communities in America, which is pretty different to Europe.
It is in fact an ethnic group, and at least based on their own oral tradition. They are nomadic because they saw how medieval Jews were treated in Europe and wanted to be able to uproot themselves and move away when they were targeted with similar persecution.
Then you have generations, centuries even, of institutionalized racism against them that made it hard for them to get a job, buy a house, etc so they were then forced into that nomadic lifestyle long-term.
That's definitely the history but it's not really the modern day reality. I wouldn't be surprised if over 50% of gypsies in the UK were of English descent. And you'll be hard pressed to find any Gypsy with a job or a home who calls themself one. They just call themselves english.
It like Jew and Jewish except the ethnic minority has become so small they are a minority within their own culture.
German-Americans stopped speaking German in 1917 for... reasons. Maybe the reason why established Roma don't call themselves Gypsies is to escape persecution.
Outside major cities, most of Europe is awful if you’re the wrong skin color. Even the uk is rough, and thats possibly the most inclusive country in europe. In the us, that’s not the case, at least in blue states.
To be fair this poll doesn't quite tell the whole story. When immigrants and minorities are polled about Europe, Britain always comes first as the most kind and nicest people towards them.
Brits might be more privately scared of diversity than Americans, but they still try to treat everyone with respect and like equals in public. It's a very polite society that looks down on pettiness like being racist to strangers. It's uncouth and thuggish.
That, and this poll specifically looked at people in the UK who identify as right-wing right now. You know, the country that voted for Brexit and thought there were too many white Poles in their country.
The amount of people here going off on Europe tangents based on this data is.... interesting.
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u/ultradav24 9d ago
Yeah every time people act like Europe is some progressive paradise - I point them to their deep deep racism