As a European, this is very true. Anti-romani sentiment is very widespread and often overlooked when talking about xenophobia.
Another European, I encounter very little anti Romani sentiments in my daily life. There are travelers here and there are prejudices, but active hate is much more directed at refugees.
Generally their music is doing a lot of heavy lifting for the general opinion.
I remember my grandfather in the 90s warning me not to go to close to the “wagon” (a trailer) of “the gypsies” because they “steal children”. I actually wound up over there when I adventured out alone from the camping place. The woman was cutting her husband’s hair and it was the first time I had seen a man with pretty, long, shiny black hair, I was fascinated. They were friendly but “talked weird” (they had an accent). I never understood the hate… because obviously, they didn’t steal me away… but my grandfathers generation left that narrative behind for my parents and my generation to pick up and continue. I whish it could have died with him.
I’m American, but my grandma was a 1st generation immigrant. She always threatened to “sell [me] to the gypsies” if I didn’t behave. I didn’t have any idea what a “gypsy” was! There was no context for a 4 year old in the States. Hell, I didn’t even know it was a slur until I was in my twenties. That was pretty gross, Gram. Boomers gonna Boom, though, I guess.
I was 30 years old before I learned that word’s a slur
ITT: americans circlejerking and thinking europe is a country and that the gypsy situation in for example portugal is the same as in bulgaria
European countries aren’t all the same
When it comes to general opinions of Romani/gypsies I think all European countries are pretty united.
Netherlands may be an outlier but nobody cares about Roma/Sinti/travellers/gypsies. Here people are racist against Maroccans, Turks and Muslims generally
cmon man, compare the percentage of gipsies in holland and romania/slovakia/hungary
All you need to know about European racism is that Prince Andrew is the second least popular Royal ahead of the black lady.
America has always had racism baked in at the state level (read on the appeasement of slave states, massive fundamental mistake). In modern day this manifests in strong internalized and institutional racism that affects everyone, hence why there’s so much discussion about it.
However, I think the USA is one of the better countries in terms of interpersonal racism. The diversity of the US means that nearly everyone interacts with multiple races/cultures on a daily basis. The country is steadily becoming more diverse (the USA will be flipped to a minority-majority by 2045) so there’s just no practical way to avoid it.
Contrast this with most other countries who don’t necessarily have foundational racism but have had a homogeneous identity nearly forever. For some, broad discussion on diversity and demographics is completely novel in the last few decades; there’s a hypersensitivity at the individual level that hasn’t adapted yet.
Anecdotally, I’ve seen some of the most shocking unacknowledged prejudice outside of the US (some EU and strongly in Asia). Like “This waiter is too brown” and “[Turks, Romani, Indians] aren’t real people” said in total earnest. I’m sure I could hear similar things in obscure parts of Northern Idaho, but I didn’t expect it in major cities in developed countries.
Europeans love how fascist the US is right now, makes their professional fascism much more palletable.
