Gypsies Essay -- essays research papers

Gypsies: The last nomads, the free-spirited, passionate bohemians with their mysterious rituals and powers. This romanticism is nearly as unfair as the fear and hate distracting us from recognizing the hardships and persecution these â€Å"carefree† people have undergone for centuries. In Europe, the Roma (as they wish to be call) have been cast out, burned at the stake, sterilized, ghettoized, forced to give up their traditional way of life, caught in other people’s wars, and more than half a million were slaughtered in the Holocaust. Roma misfortune can be attributed to the vicious cycle of poverty that paralyzes so many minorities situated in an unforgiving society. This cycle of poverty began and still exists today due to the discrimination that the Roma face because of, among other things, their skin color and unorthodox ways of making a living. Through out history the largest complaint about the Roma, however, has been their wandering lifestyle. What is interesting though, is that the Rom are no longer nomads. The few that do move from place to place are migrant and are forced across boarders by the very authorities that complain about their way of life. While some sources speculate that gypsies originally migrated from Egypt, it is usually agreed upon by most scholars that the gypsies came from India to Eastern Europe about a thousand years ago. The true reason for this move remains a mystery but many theories exist that they my have moved as a result of changes in the government, the economic situation or perhaps they have always been wonderers. Whatever the reason for their move, we will probably never know the truth. One gypsy lady learned during her childhood that â€Å"We were being punished for stealing the fourth nail that was needed in Christ’s crucifixion. That’s why his feet are crossed and nailed together. We were forced into wondering for taking this nail.† Whether gypsies were responsible for Christ’s missing nail one thing is certain: the gypsy’s dark Indian skin has made them the subject of ridicule for centuries; for it has been a European tradition to detest the non-ayrean. The Persian poet Firdausi is said to have written, â€Å"No washing ever whitens the black gypsy.† Even within religion the gypsies are not free from contempt. In his writings a German monk described gypsies as having â€Å"the most ugly faces, black like those of Tartars.† A... ... in the making,† most of the Roma feel that to exist in a ghetto is preferable to expulsion. As with non-European citizens in Italy, Roma have been given the label of extraexcommunitari, meaning they come from outside of the European Union, although most Roma have lived within the Union all their lives. The reason for this title is because the government still considers them nomadic. â€Å"Not even my grandfather was part of the traveling culture,† say Luigi Lusi a Rom. â€Å"It is obvious that we no longer harness up the horse and move from place to place daily,† he continued. Forcing gypsies to integrate has always failed because it is impossible to force a group of people who have spent their entire lives on the fringes of society to adapt to new educational and social environments, especially when they are very poor. Aside from their dark skin, the gypsy life that many Europeans find distasteful stems almost completely from the poverty that they have forced the gypsies into. The government will never receive their desired results from education programs and housing projects unless the deeply rooted discrimination against the Roma stops—something that will be very difficult to undo.