Contrary to popular belief, Romani people don't actually originate from Romania. They are of Indian descent; first recordings of their existence was in India. They first migrated over to Mid-West Asia, then shortly after Europe then ways down the road to America. There are Romani people that inhabit Romania, but that's just because of the wide-spread migration that the Romanis did. They migrated so dispersed due to Muslim Raids upon their people back at India. Following their migration, various anti-Romani laws were passed in the nations in which they inhabited. Romani gave itself a bad name, people thought of gypsies as low-lives, thieves, violent, and slum-dwellers. They are one of the most hated groups of people today in Europe. I beg the question why, because they have such a seemingly pleasant culture in terms of tradition... why do people hate these people? I would have to say misconception, and lack of resources to fight back. Romani people have always been the victims-many people know of the Holocaust of the jews. What people don't usually know that around the same time there was a holocaust of Romani people, Nazis exterminated somewhere between 500,000 to 1.5 million gypsies. Places like Denmark and Spain made laws enforcing Romanis being killed if caught in their country's borders. Really just brutal stuff. Today, it's estimated that only 2 million to possibly as much as 12 million gypsies live today, the most currently in the United States. In an online article I read though it says that people are warned over in Europe about gypsies, and how people should stay clear of them. It's absurd, gypsies have never been an epicurean group, so they've never had the luxuries that a lot of people today face. They are not well-off, a HUGE majority of them are homeless, and a lot of them are hardly making ends meet. My sociology teacher would argue that because they don't come off as the most inviting people in terms of class, that they are discriminated because of it. People tend to see the handsome, pretty people as the more intelligent or pleasant people. The gypsies are apparently to SOL because they aren't as fortunate as most of the world, it's sad.
The kicker is how rich in culture the Romani people are. Sure, maybe they don't have money, but they have customs and traditions that are respectable and tasteful. For example, they are well known for their contributions to the contemporary art movement. They also had significant influence in jazz music in Europe, as well revolutionized wedding music by having popular Romani musicians perform at various ceremonies. They try to be as spiritually cleansed as possible, which means avoiding any and all impurities that the world provides. For example, a cat is considered impure because it licks itself, and the Romani find that to be a sexual thing. They have a concept called a "bride price," where basically the bride was to be bought by the husband's parents. Marriages amongst the Romanis was typically in the teens, and I know not all this is necessarily good stuff but I mean c'mon, it's interesting and I don't see anywhere in that information reasons to exterminate them. They just get a bad rep because they don't have money, but the Romani people have a rich history that shouldn't go by unknown.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people#Contemporary_art_and_culture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Romani_history
http://history1900s.about.com/od/holocaust/a/Gypsies-Timeline.htm
http://www.oocities.org/~patrin/timeline.htm
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