Any Gypsies here? And if so, care to discuss?

[Sam Eskenazi]

Hi everyone,

I'm not quite sure if this topic of discussion is as relevant in the USA as it is in the UK, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

Upon watching a recent Channel 4 documentary about Gypsies, I wish to become further enlightened As far as wikipedia can tell me, there are several different kinds of Gypsies, with the kind that I'm most likely to see being the Irish Travellers, and then possibly the Romani people

In all honesty, I've never really even considered or heard of Gypsies before, except as the target for the work "pikey", so this is all new territory for me.

Is there anyone here who considers themselves a member of the Gypsies? And if so, care to explain your culture?

Thanks,

Sam

 

[mb16]

as my dad would put it: (he's in the police)
thieving Gypsie scum who steal from the vulnerable*, and somehow are exempt from the law

by exempt from the law i mean:
-even though all available evidence points towards then its never enough to convict
-you never get witnesses, and even if you do its normally 1 old guy and then they get their mates to back them saying they were watching tv
-randomly squatting on someone's land and then cant be forced off

* by vulnerable i mean old people, lead church roofs, shoddy building work for high costs.

my Favourite story. a UK council hired some Gypsies to plant some trees in a public park. They managed to get the job done very quickly, so the council paid them and they went on their way. a few days later the trees started to die and it was discovered that the Gypsies had just cut off the roots of the tree and then stabbed the trunk into the ground, saving them about an hours digging for each tree. The council never saw that money again.

btw this isn't traveling family so much but more the trailer trash types

 

[SimuLord]

One of my friends is the daughter of Eastern European immigrants---her dad's Hungarian, her mom's from Romania. When the subject of the Gypsies in Europe came up (she and I were in a World Cultures class together), her dad said "filthy motherfuckers" about them. Which is REALLY funny with Bela Lugosi's accent (the girl was nice about my good-natured "your dad is Count Dracula" ribbing).

 

[Bloodastral]

Gypsies help move Count Dracula's coffin around the world. I don't think Gypsies have good broadband so you won't get many posting here.

 

[Verlander]

I wouldn't put Irish Travellers in the Gypsy category - as far as I know, they're ethnically Irish, whereas Gypsies are derived from people from India, and retain a separate language. Still don't trust either set of them - I've had problems with both Gypsies and Travellers, though moreso with the Travellers.

The other kind are ethnically Romany.

Either way, they are traveler people who don't care much for anyone else. Especially in Britain it isn't that hard to live a non traveling and thieving life, yet there are still travelers around. If that is your lifestyle choice, regardless of your ethnicity, then you should expect suspicion and disrespect from others.

I've yet to meet many nice ones, but probably because mostly they stick to their own very small communities, and then meet up with other traveling families for events (like horse shows), which is when they generally meet other ones that they marry. Kind of poetic I guess, very much like animals in the wild.

 

[tobi the good boy]

I thought gypsies these days were just another name for theives.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Gypsies is a somewhat racist term for Romany and Irish Travellers, maybe one or two other groups, which have been stuck with the same label.

Apparently, Irish Travellers is the most maligned ethnicity in Britain, and the only one you're still allowed to insult as much as you want on TV.

 

[Sam Eskenazi]

Yeah, from what I hear it's all essentially hatred against them.

My girlfriend used to live in Epsom, and she used to always be able to see the Travellers come down the road for the Epsom Derby every year. It appears they're especially hatred around Epsom that time of year...

 

[MurderousToaster]

Gypsies is a somewhat racist term for Romany and Irish Travellers, maybe one or two other groups, which have been stuck with the same label.

Apparently, Irish Travellers is the most maligned ethnicity in Britain, and the only one you're still allowed to insult as much as you want on TV.

It's easy to forget that they're generally disliked for a reason - the town where I live has had several groups of them, and each and every one of those groups have started fights, broken into people's houses, vandalised things, mugged people and done all of it while setting up camp in an area where it would be considered illegal (i.e in a public park or football field). It's not just a "THERE'S FOREIGNERS IN OUR COUNTRY! GET THEM OUT!" sort of deal - in this age of travel and migration, we can deal with that. It's the fact that every single time they move in they start a metric fuckton of trouble.

 

[Woodsey]

They're a confusing bunch.

Not all are bad, I'd never be so ridiculous, but all you ever hear about them are when they threaten people, steal from them, or essentially invade their land.

For example, I read a bit about that show where one of the girls said an average weekend shopping would include Gucci, Chanel, Dior and Ed Hardy, and that her Dad gets all the money of it for her. It doesn't take a genius to work out how he affords all that.

Unfortunately, they contribute nothing to society and yet seem to have the opinion that everyone else owes them something. (Again, this is not absolutely every single one of them.)

There's a site near the yard where my step Dad rents his garage, as does another mechanic. The other mechanic was visited by one of them who asked if he could borrow his tow bar or something, so he said yes. A week or so later, they wanted to borrow it again, and he said no since he couldn't just keep handing it out and he needed to use it anyway. The guy leaves, and a few hours later two of his sons turn up saying the mechanic had upset their father, and referencing what a shame it'd be if his garage were to burn down. He gave them the tow bar.

I don't know if those guys were Romani, Irish, or whatever (they're in regular caravans too), but you hear stories like that about them all the time, as well as constant legal battles where they've set up shop on other people's land, or have simply moved on to land without planning permission.

It's very hard perhaps, if you're in another country (I don't know how big an issue it is in the US) to see how it's any different from racism, but it's reported on all over the country from huge numbers of different groups. All the hate they get has actual backing though, and they do themselves no favours, and that's certainly not the minority.

 

[Iwata]

I know everyones says "I'm not a racist, but", so...

I'm not a racist, but for a time I did volunteer social work in a nearby school, helping young kids with their homework, that kinda thing. One day, after leaving, I was robbed at knife-point by three gypsie guys, one of whom I recognized: he was the older brother of a girl that was my student. He recognized me as well, and there was an awkward moment of pause, before they continued what they were doing, despite my protests.

Gypsies get in all sorts of trouble here (Portugal), from drug trafficking to robberies, and they're a people that adamantly refuse to join the civilized world.

 

[WolfThomas]

I'm from Australia, I've never had to deal with "gypsies" but I do believe that regardless of how open minded and friendly I am, the minute you steal from me you're looking down the barrel of my pump action rifle (the fastest firing and largest mag capacity one can own one the most common license).

Edit: I've got to stop drunk-posting....

 

[megaraccoon]

don't now much about the romani people personally so can't comment as for the irish travellers well put it this way i never turn my back on them for fear of a knife in the back and suddenly realising my wallet trousers and shirt have been nicked but that could just be the group who live near me and arn't indicitive of the travellers as a whole

 

[Joepow]

Gypsies help move Count Dracula's coffin around the world. I don't think Gypsies have good broadband so you won't get many posting here.

Lies. Gypsies roam the lands between the mists. And no internet connection can (or will) enter the mists.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

Funnily enough, 1st thing I saw when I turned on the internets today:

http://uk.tv.yahoo.com/news-extra/article/109547/big-fat-gypsy-ratings-smashbut-critics-up-in-arms.html

and here's a topic at the top of board.

Anyway, yeah, unlikely you're going to get any on the internet. Never had any problems myself*, but then I've never met any, I live waaaaay down south where all the little villages are virtually their own little static family groups, you don't want to come down here and start the sterotypical (maybe well deserved, I don't know myself) traveller crap as too many people know too many other people and there's a very high likelihood you'll piss off the wrong person and then then next village you get to you'll wake up with a double barrel shotgun in the face asking to kindly get out of your vehicle while it is stripped for parts and you leave the area before you end up at the bottom of one of it's many mineshafts.

*Although now that I think about it a friend of mine in London had an incident with 3 of them and where I am now a friend of a friend also had a run in. Luckily the 1st one happened well away from home, just an attempted mugging so there was no way to trace him back to his house and the second guy was a sitey at the time and also part of one of the aforementioned family groups so after the 1st time he fought them off they didn't come back.

 

[FamoFunk]

I need to carch up with this on 4oD.

I've heard a lot of people saying they don't have to pay council tax, water rates etc. and live off the grid.
While others have said they do pay these things.

I wanna watch "My Big Fay Gypsie Wedding", too, hoe do they afford all that stuff?!

 

[BlueberryMUNCH]

I was shocked at 'Big Fat Gypsy Weddings'; they seem like such cultured people, and genuinely nice.
At the end of the day, they're thieves though. So...mmh, that's not good.

And I doubt many of them will be on a Gaming Forum ^_^ haha.

 

[Daystar Clarion]

Gypsies. Like Quarians, except gypsies are useless thieving bastards.