What do you think of the Romani/Gypsy people?

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well, here you have gypsies (not) and Gens du voyage- traveling people

i don't know why one should have an 'opinion', that's such an 'american' thing, maybe?

There was a movie Nomadland

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9770150/

about people who wander around the country, living in trailers.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMAQwWJYQtI

So, I guess the hobos have come back--just not riding on freight trains.

Not really a separate ethnicity--just people who are poor or who want to travel around.

If I wanted, I could buy a trailer and join them. Which seems to be different from, for example, the Irish Travellers, where you have to have been born an Irish Traveller, as far as I can tell.

I guess that there are people of Romani descent who live in various cities, but I don't think that they continue to follow the lifestyles of their European ancestors.

There are Gypsy communities in the US.
https://smithsonianeducation.org/migrat ... start.html

There are Travellers in the US, but you don't hear much about them. Now that I think about it, at one point they were active in some sort of scam involving a technique for sealing asphalt driveways.

at a desperate time in my life, i resorted to seeing a gypsy fortune teller [just outside the army base in northern virginia i was stationed at in the 80s] who only made me poorer and no wiser. when i was a kid there was a local gypsy family who went from door to door selling hand-hewn picnic tables and benches.

An interesting video on the history of the gypsies



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RxMZBLeqRI

I've never met any and I don't know much about them unfortunately. But I love fortune telling with playing cards which is an art often credited with the Romani people.

I remember being quite shocked when I was in Bulgaria and Romania how much people hated the Romany population. Serious racism, really ugly stuff was just very normal.

I guess because they're isolated they are seen as not contributing in the same way as settled people. i.e. not paying local taxes (or any taxes) or investing anything in the local community, just moving through and taking what they want/need as they go.

I don't know anything about it, so I can't judge.

In the UK we used to have proper gypsies who were quite involved with the settled communities, they'd come through with fairs or offering services (blade sharpening for instance) or muster for trading horses. They were a tough bunch but they got on alright with everyone. I think that relationship is probably gone now and that's why in the UK at least, they're more isolated and we're more suspicious of each other and treat each other with less respect. The interactions I've had in my lifetime with 'travellers' have been almost universally unpleasant and threatening, the worst when I accidentally ran into a camp (it was in public woodland where I had every right to be) and was immediately set on by 5 dogs which bit me and then some people came out and told me to clear out sharpish.

Yes...we have em in the US.

Yes...I have encountered them.

Yes...I have opinions about them. Contradictory strong opinions...based upon a particular experience.

After this particular experience...I am gonna be honest...they became the ONLY ethnic/racial group that I am prejudiced against.

But ...I also find them fascinating...and have been reading up on them, and collecting CDs of their music ever since.

So I am big fan of Gypsies/Roma and their culture. But I wouldnt sign a contract with any of them ever again.

I worked as a party deejay for a deejay company for years. One time used the boss's equipment do my own gig on the side ...working for a particular gentlemen... to do a wedding.

Didnt know/care about his ethnic background.

All I knew was that when I got to the motel venue and started djing ... it became obvious that I was in the midst of one of the STRANGEST subcultures in America. Dont know WHAT tribe these folks are, but my anthropology professor would have proud if I had studies these folks for a term paper!

A ten year old boy was dressed up in black stripped suit like a mobster...other young men were dressed in silk suits green or red with fedoras.

The young men all looked liked Hollywood versions of gangsters so...I figured this "must be the local chapter of the Sicilian Mafia", and that I stepped into the Godfather or the Sopranos TV show.

And indeed there was evidence that the patrons were involved in illegal activities ... because some wielded huge wads of cash.

But as the night wore on...things got weirder. I became convinced that "these folks are way too weird to be the Sicilian Mob". Theyre sumpin else.

The children were all thieving monkeys...just brazening sticking their hands on my equipment ...flipping switches. AND stealing tapes and CDs. The adults did nothing to restrain them.

Their taste in music was distinctive too. The demanded "no rap" and "no country". Which I was cool with because I would get tired of those genres myself then. The young folks wanted techno, and the young and old all wanted classic soul, funk, and disco. Which I dig too. Classic Black music. But ...oddly...into that mix ...they wanted the occasional piece of "flamenco rock"(my term) from Europe like...Gypsy Kings, or Alabina. Which I like too, but it seemed like a nonsequitar.

When the party was over they all vanished ...leaving the place a mess. As I packed my own equipment the guys who ran the hotel told me that "they agreed to clean up the place as part of the contract...but they stiffed us".

Charming folks them.

The next day I told my family about the odd evening...we all deduced that this subculture I had witnessed "must have been Gypsies".

==============
Years later I was reading a Nat Geo article. The reporter talked about the ethnic rivalries in the Balkans. In the Transylvania province of Romania you have both Romanian speakers, and Magyar (Hungarian) speaker. And both groups hate each other. But they would tell the reporter that "both Magyars and Romanians hate Gypsies more than we hate each other". When asked why...a lady listed reasons that included "their children are thieving monkeys".

Much as I disaprove of all that petty hatred between Magyars, Romanians, and Gypsies...I gotta be honest. The Roma here in the US are also what that lady said-fail to restrain their kids. So I have some sympathy for that lady..

So ...now that I have made my honest confession about my own prejudice...I will move on to...talking about how interesting the Roma are...and about how yes...they have had tragic history of being persecuted.

And how I LOVE their taste in music. A big dose of old school funk mixed with a little Gypsy Kings makes a great playlist!

Ron Wood, guitar player in The Rolling Stones, is a gypsy. He comes from a family of Boat People and was the first in his family to be born on dry land. Other famous gypsies are Tracey Ullman, Yil Brynner and Richard Marcinko - the first commanding officer of SEAL Team Six. And as mentioned before Charlie Chaplin.