New 'politically correct' term.
Sep. 11th, 2007 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sister_luckWhile reading the local paper I spotted a new word for the travelling people formerly known as Zigeuner and then later as Sinti or Roma. Those three terms are disliked by various groups though the the last two are regarded as politically correct and are widely used by the press.
This was a story about a scam involving rugs and shipping containers where people were promised a huge profit in exchange for lending money to the con artists. Well, if it's too good to be true....
Nevermind, the writer of the piece obviously thought it was important to report that the con artists were gypsies but didn't quite know how to put it, so she called them "members of a mobile ethnic minority". It's the first time I've encountered this phrase. Oh, and it's also important to mention that the defendants are functionally illiterate and spent most of their youth in a caravan.
I don't know what to make of it. Is this just the perpetration of stereotypes?
Incidentally, in the last couple of months a group of beggars has turned up in the main shopping street of our neighbourhood. I think they're targetting good muslims - most of the women wear headscarves. They've all got some disability and they seem to belong together though they're strategically placed about 20 metres apart. They look like they might be part of that ethnic minority, too.
Then there was a whole family group of Sinti in the lobby of the hospital where we visited the boyfriend's father. Of course, his family calls them Zigeuner and was terribly scandalised by their behaviour. (It must have been worse on Saturday, but on Sunday all the adults and kids were spruced up and reasonably well-behaved). I think they were visiting a pregnant girl - I saw her when they were in the cafeteria and she was very very young.
This was a story about a scam involving rugs and shipping containers where people were promised a huge profit in exchange for lending money to the con artists. Well, if it's too good to be true....
Nevermind, the writer of the piece obviously thought it was important to report that the con artists were gypsies but didn't quite know how to put it, so she called them "members of a mobile ethnic minority". It's the first time I've encountered this phrase. Oh, and it's also important to mention that the defendants are functionally illiterate and spent most of their youth in a caravan.
I don't know what to make of it. Is this just the perpetration of stereotypes?
Incidentally, in the last couple of months a group of beggars has turned up in the main shopping street of our neighbourhood. I think they're targetting good muslims - most of the women wear headscarves. They've all got some disability and they seem to belong together though they're strategically placed about 20 metres apart. They look like they might be part of that ethnic minority, too.
Then there was a whole family group of Sinti in the lobby of the hospital where we visited the boyfriend's father. Of course, his family calls them Zigeuner and was terribly scandalised by their behaviour. (It must have been worse on Saturday, but on Sunday all the adults and kids were spruced up and reasonably well-behaved). I think they were visiting a pregnant girl - I saw her when they were in the cafeteria and she was very very young.
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Date: 2007-09-11 07:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-12 05:28 am (UTC)Hmm. I think they turned up sometime during the summer. Ramadan probably means that they're getting more money - and while charity is part of the requirements of a good Christian, in Islam it's probably even more important and as there are a lot of Muslims in my neighbourhood the headscarves don't hurt.
The Muslim shopowners don't seem to mind the beggars though I don't know what's going on behind the scenes.