Yesterday I sent out the acceptance emails to a wonderful group of academics around the world who are to take part in a colloquium about encounters with GRT (Gypsy, Romani, Traveller) people. The event is bringing together researchers from near and far to talk about their research fields and share conversations in a supportive, collaborative environment. Then I led two seminar groups in poetry at Kings College London where a wonderful, exciting, diverse group of young people shared poetry and supported each other in making each poem the best it could be. A wonderful day!
However, on my journey home I was sent a text by a family member telling me of his distress at a program aired on Netflix in which Jimmy Carr lauded the ‘positive‘ side of the Holocaust as the murder of Roma and Sinti men, women, and children. I was not only appalled but felt sick to my stomach. Carr’s audience laughed and applauded and the program was allowed to air without this racism being removed and Carr sanctioned. I thought there were laws about hate speech and racism in this country. Or perhaps GRT people don’t count?
Now I’ve watched the film ‘Snatch’ by Guy Ritchie and know how many instances of pikey / pikies it contains; I’ve had a teacher who spelt Gypsy with a lower case ‘g’ and marked me down for not following suit and for spelling Romani with i rather than ‘y’ at the end; I’ve even been told that being Romani or Gypsy isn’t an ethnic minority but a life choice… But this #JimmyCarr issue has to be outed and dealt with. I know the man is ignorant, perhaps watching the film Shoah might enlighten him about the realities of his ‘joke’. Yet to save being made as twisted by anger at his racist behaviour as he obviously is to have said such things, I will instead share a film of love, made by proud Roma, about proud Roma, and shared with love to the world. Enjoy!
Karen Downs-Barton 