Europe's most hated, the Romani's!

Europe, the home of the Eiffel tower, The Mona Lisa, the Sixteenth Chapel and  the Red Light district. We think of Europe as home to the French, the Spanish, and the Germans. What we tend to forget is that Europe also has minorities and the biggest one is the Romani, Roma or gypsies. 

The Romani people were originally from northern India and came to Europe sometime between the eight and tenth century C.E. The Romani’s are a nomadic people and today about 10 to 12 million Romani’s live in Europe. This makes the Romani people the largest ethnic minority in Europe. The Romani’s are found all over Europe but for the most part in Eastern and central regions.

The Romani’s have often been stereotyped as fortunetellers, horsemen and nomads with no respect for the law. In Europe they are yet again facing discrimination and growing prejudice after France’s latest deportation of the Romani’s.  Discrimination towards the Romani’s is nothing new in the history of Europe. Laws opposed the Romani’s can be traced all the way back to the 1400s and during World War II almost half a million Romani’s lost their lives in concentration camps. This part of World War II history is often forgotten and is rarely mentioned. It was not until 1979 that the Western German Federal Parliament identified the Nazi killings of the Roma and opened up for compensation for loss and suffering due to the War, most of whom however, had already died.

The Romani’s have kept their culture and their unique language over the years they have lived in Europe.  We can see traces of their dance traditions in other cultures around Europe. The flamenco today often associated with Spain but it was traditionally a Romani’s tradition. Even if the Romani’s have been part of the European culture for quite some time the majority of them never assimilated to the European culture. Marriage between a Romani’s and a European is been frowned upon. Mixed marriages between Romani’s and other ethnicity's are rare and therefore marital assimilation has not taken place to any great extent. It seems that the Romani’s themselves have discouraged marriages outside the group and this could be one of the reasons the Romani’s are not being assimilated with the dominant group of society. They are keeping their status as an minority group.

Assimilation in the eyes of the European nations has not taken place with in the Romani group. Norway is one of the European nations that have tried to forcefully assimilate the Romani’s by taking children away from they parents and placing them in foster care. Hoping that this way the children would be assimilated to the main culture in Norway. Guess what? It didn’t work.

Today many countries are part of The European Union (EU). The union is an economic and political union between 27 countries in Europe.  One of the benefits of this Union is that people within the Union can move freely, there are no borders. The Romani people are doing just that. They are moving around. Traditionally many of them were travelers and they moved around in Europe looking for work. Because of this, some of them don’t have citizenship and it’s also hard to know exactly how many people are Romani’s. They often don’t apply to census and children are rarely  a part of the school system. Some of the Romani’s have assimilated and are reluctant to even admit that they are Romani’s. The prejudice and racism against this group has been vast and is still going on. France just recently deported and ruined several Romani camps under the “excuse” that the Romani’s didn’t have work and could not support themselves. Therefore according to EU directives they were to be shipped back to their countries. Several other countries have done this the last year or so but France has taken this discrimination to a new level. Leaders in Europe have compared France to the Nazis and even the Pope has spoke out against this practice. But even so, the Romani’s are being deported back to Romania or Bulgaria where most of them originated.

On the other hand, one could see how France in the hard financial times doesn’t want to take responsibility for a minority like this. It seems hard to get the Romani’s to conform to society and they are often considered a drain on the welfare system. Spain is used as an example of how a nation can and should take care of the Romani’s. Today Spain has about one million Romani’s living within their borders. Almost 75 percent of them have some form of steady income. Spain has taken measures like adjusting social services and having inclusion programs to try to assimilate the Romani’s. Today the Roman’s have access to public housing and financial aid with the condition of sending their children to school and health care facilities. Spain now sees that almost every Romani child starts elementary school, but only 30 percent graduate. This is actually a high number for this ethnicity in Europe.

I highly doubt that any other minority group in Europe would receive the treatment the Romani’s are getting. The blame for this might not only be placed on the European countries. The Romani’s themselves have in many ways not conformed to the social rules and the structure they now are a part off. Thereby creating some of the problems themselves. It would make it easier for them if they conformed somewhat to the structure of the societies they find themselves in.

Even so, the prejudice and racism the Romani’s have and are experiencing will most likely not end any day soon. Because the truth is that people in Europe for most the part don’t care about this group. One would think that in 2010 we should know better, but then again the history of the hatred toward this ethnicity is so founded in people’s mentality that it will not change any time soon. Definitively not now with the hard financial times and the need for a scapegoat. Who better than the Romani’s?

Chris Mckinney book "The Tattoo"

Blue waters, miles of white sandy beaches, surfers, the Aloha spirit, sunny days and hula dancers are just a few things people think about when they hear about Hawaii. For many people, Hawaii is just a holiday destination, you come to paradise and leave all our worries behind most people think of Hawaii. It is easy to forget that for many, Hawaii is home. sWe tend to only see the good sides and the parts of Hawaii that are designed for money spending tourists. The well kept streets of Waikiki, the tourist friendly Luau, and the shopping Mecca of Ala Moana with its Gucci, Prada and Dior. So does everybody in Hawaii live a trouble free life, surfing the waves?

Chris Mckinney has written a book depicting the darker side of Oahu and has given the inmates of one of Hawaii’s prisons a voices. The characters of the book are from different parts of the Island, have different cultures and ethnicities. In many ways the characters represent the multicultural society Hawaii is and how different cultures have impact on the Island and its residents. The one thing the characters have in common is that they all are behind bars and now have to function together with each other as a small community.

Today about 1.3 million people call Hawaii home.  Whites make up 30 percent, Asians 39 percent and native Hawaiian 9 percent just to mention a few. Some have been on the Island for several generations, and some have just arrived in hope of a better life. This diversity makes for a unique mix of new and old cultures in Hawaii.

In Mckinney’s book we get to meet Cal a white long time prisoner with no voice but a mean tattooing skill, and Ken Hideyoshi or Keji the main character, a third generation Japanese on Oahu. Ken tells Cal his story, while getting a large tattoo on his back called “kanji” witch means the “The book of the Void.”  Every night Cal and Ken get to work on the tattoo with only the moon as light. Ken tells his story and we get to know his best friend Koa. Koa should have been a local Hawaiian prince if time hadn’t changed.

The first part of the book gives us an insight to Ken’s upbringing, his teen years with Koa, and his “run in” with the local police. Ken looses his mother at an early age and his father a Vietnam veteran has enough with himself. Ken Grandfather introduces Ken to the Japanese culture. Most importantly, the grandfather introduces Ken to the family heirloom. A sward the “katan” brought from Japan with Ken’s great-grand father. The History around the sword and why the family went to the US is important in understanding the beliefs and the attitudes the Hideyoshi family holds. The culture is highly important to Ken’s grandfather and he glorifies the “old country.” The grandfather tells Ken how son of Shogun Tokugawa Leyasu told the haoles to leave Japan and how this was the best Japan ever did, because according to the grand father; fifty years later Japan not only caught up to everybody but are now in one of the top four nations in the world.  We get to understand how early on Ken is thought to dislike the haoles, the white man.

Ken tells us about his “brodder” Koa. Koa is a local boy living on the Windward side of the Island. The two boys form a bond; they become brothers and the get into trouble together all the way to graduation. Both boys dislike and hate the haoles. Koa has a deep and profound hate towards the Haoles, and Ken mentions in the book that he thinks Koa was born a racist. The two boys are acting towards white people the way they are raised, with hate. It is in their culture shared norms to hate haoles.  They hunt out haoles around the island to start fights with or steal from. Kens father even agreed to their hatred towards white military and never corrected his son.

Chris Mckinney’s book “The Tattoo” is from 2000 but even so, the race and social class problem he is depicting in his book is evident to this day all over Oahu. Oahu is a tourist paradise with all its white beaches and massive Hilton Hotels, but as we get to understand in the book, the Island is also somebody’s home. Like another community it has it good districts and it bad districts, from the large house on Kahala Ave to the tent villages on West-side Oahu. White people came as the intruder to this island, even so they seem to have the economic power and higher-status of class. This has resulted in racism towards the white man. When you start to dig a little deeper underneath the social class and social powers on this Island you often find that “haoles” only seemingly have the power and are on top of the social structure.

As a white haole living in Hawaii I see the discrimination daily. I would actually go so far to call what I see and experience prejudice towards whites. This because the reason haoles get this negative treatment are so founded in emotions and prior history that the new generation can’t help following the old one’s attitude. As white I never have any problems as long as I stay in the “white” areas, like Waikiki or if I shop at expensive stores at Ala Moana. I’m treated like a tourist and get the same service and protection as the tourist. The minute I try to complain about something bought at Wal-Mart is it impossible for me to return the item. I take my dog to Waimanalo and get ordered to give my dog to some “local” boys. They want him and they see no reason for me not to hand him over to them to take home.  You could say that these incidents are just random events and that it has nothing to do with my blonde hair and blue eyes. But whenever I take my boyfriend to Wal-Mart to return items they always get accepted, whenever we take our dog out for a walk we never encounter any problems. So what is the difference? Well he is African American with a local “look.” Still you could say that the prejudice and racism I think I feel are just imagination. My best friend colored her hair from blonde to dark, and now she is receiving different treatment in the stores and the people of Oahu are friendlier. In her own words, "they are for the first time genuinely smiling at me."

Chris Mckinney’s book is showing people where and how the prejudice is coming from and what this kind of hatred can do. Believe it or not Hawaii has a hard side and the irony with the racism you might feel as a haole is created by the white man himself. But even so it is time to move out of the history that keeps this beautiful place locked in its old ways.