POL SCI 12W/3012W Damaris Solis

FINAL PAPER: Spring Semester 2011 Issues of Inequality: Romá/Gypsy Peoples

Identifying Issues of Inequality: Policy Action Plan

The Romá and Discrimination in the U.S.

What is the immediate image that comes to mind when the word ‘Gypsy’ is mentioned?

A thief, a scam artist or fortune teller? It seems that the Romá/Romani people groups (also

referred to as Gypsies) are an obscure minority existing at the outskirts of acceptable society

within the United States. The Romá have lived in the U.S. since 1640, where entire families of

English Gypsies called Romanichals were kept as indentured servants along with African slaves

within Virginia Plantations in the South. (Griggs, 2000) The Romá themselves a diverse group

and have lived alongside the multitude of ethnicities within America, the harbor of

disenfranchised peoples. By highlighting the history of the Romá /Gypsy peoples in the U.S.,

the hope is to foster an interest and a dialogue, and further to offer policy suggestions to

discourage discrimination of the Romá.

The origin of the Romá is itself a controversial topic. A plethora of scholarly research

exists, often theoretical, all attempting to pinpoint the country of origin of a nomadic people

group. According to America.gov Archive, the Romá trace their origin to Eastern and Central

Europe. (Aranaga, 2009). In fact, their history is far more ancient, and it wasn’t until the 18th

century that it was realized that many words within the Romani language were of Indian Punjabi

origin. When the Muslim general Mahmud of Ghazni attacked India in the 11th century, Indian

rulers of Aryan origin began to amass an army from the people groups who had been living on

Indian soil for centuries, granting them entry into the warrior Kshattriya caste: Lohars, Rajput,

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Gujjar and Tandas to name a few. They fought as mercenaries for the Muslims and the Hindus,

following a path through the Indian mountains into Persia, which words have also found entry

into the Romani language. As Islam was introduced into India and Western Europe up until the

year 1300, the historical basis of the journey of the Romá troops is more clearly understood

(Hancock).

Three distinct groups have been identified: the Domari of the Middle East/Eastern

Europe, the Lomarvren of Central Europe and the Romani of Western Europe. (The Patrin Web

Journal, 1999). This is by no means an exhaustive classification – it has been found that the

Romá peoples originated in Syria prior to their emigration in large numbers to India. (Carmen,

2003). As stated previously, the Romani groups found in the United States have come from

Western and Eastern Europe, and some of the subgroups are listed here: Kalderash, Boyash,

Machavaya, Churari, and the Lovari, amongst others. Ibid. It is their descendants that

Americans have come to know as the ‘Gypsies’.

Professor Keith Maynard, a Rom (male Gypsy) of Gitano-Morescu and descent born in

England, is a distinguished jazz musician and formerly a Professor of Music Production

Technology within the City University of New York educational system. Professor Maynard has

been a victim of racial and employment discrimination a number of times, as a result of his

ethnicity. For the sake of clarity, Professor Maynard is bald and fair-skinned, armed with a

proper British accent. He relates the following incident:

“In the mid-1980’s, I was a tenured Professor of Music Technology at Berklee

College in Boston, Massachusetts. The chairman of the department was an

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Italian-American and a well-connected CBS Records producer from the

Bensonhurst section in Brooklyn, New York. I already stood out because I was
married to a black woman. At a faculty picnic, comments were made against me
once they saw my wife and that I showed a familiarity with the African-American
faculty members during the event. Afterwards, I was sent to the chairman’s office
and questioned. Let me point out --I grew up in a Gypsy Camp at Brixton, in
London, next to the East Indian, Caribbean, Turkish, Maltese and Greek
neighborhoods.

At the chairman’s office, I was asked if I had any bias against the white students.
I replied, ‘where I come from, a world is not defined by color. Our world is
defined by cultural rules, laws, and language’. The chairman said to me ‘Don’t
you understand the low standard of morality amongst those people? Your
marriage (to an African-American woman) is not going to last’. The chairman
continued, ‘Why would a distinguished man from a military background – an
Englishman – come to Boston, the bastion of Anglo-Saxonhood, and choose to
associate with ‘those people’? I replied, ‘I’m not black – I AM A GYPSY – and
not in white society’. He then said ‘May I have the keys to the recording studio?’

I worked there for two more years, but was ostracized and humiliated in a
multitude of way, and on a daily basis. The students knew I no longer had the
keys, and that every time I had to open the studio, I had to get one of the security
guards to come and open it” (Interview, March 13, 2011)

Professor Maynard has taken a hiatus from teaching and, accompanied by Norma, his

wife, is pursuing a course of activism, dedicated to eradicating racial discrimination against the

Romá.

Another form of racial discrimination is the usual stereotyping of the Romá in America as

career criminals, incapable of occupying any redemptive role in society. In the article Gypsy

Mafia, Romani Saints: The Racial Profiling of Romani Americans by Dr. Ian Hancock, himself

of Hungarian-Romani descent, the sociological issues of identity and negativity of perception

were raised. He highlighted a comment made by a so-called ‘Gypsy expert’ who appeared on

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the Geraldo Rivera Show in April 1990 that it is necessary for the Romá to maintain a distance

from being viewed by society as the stereotypical ‘Gypsy’ criminal and more favorably be

viewed as a ‘Romani’ in order to raise the quality of life for all Romani-Americans. Consider

the following rationale Dr. Hancock recounts:

“Eventually the Rom are going to be forced to do what the Sicilians did
many years ago, i.e. terminologically distinguish between the broader
population (Sicilians) and the smaller, criminal element (the Mafia).
Using the ancient term ‘Rom’ for all those descendants of the exodus from
India, and the much more recent term ‘Gypsy’ for the criminal element,
makes sense and would permit the honest Rom to take pride in their
ethnicity and their achievements by distancing themselves from the
Gypsies.’2

The focus of this paper is not to dwell on the societal view of Gypsies or Romá as

criminals, but to expose the fact that Romani-Americans are continuously discriminated against

in more than one realm of society.

The Romá face severe persecution and discrimination in countries outside of the U.S.,

and have emigrated here in hopes of establishing a better quality of life, in the same manner as

every other group who passed through Ellis Island. There are numerous legal cases of the Romá

applying for asylum before the Immigration and Naturalization Service. Many of the court cases

contained testimony of the horrendous manner in which the Romá were beaten, harassed,

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Hancock, Dr. Ian, Gypsy Mafia, Romani Saints: The Racial Profiling of Romani Americans. The Romani
Archives and Documentation Center, University of Texas. Hyperlink:
http://www.radoc.net/radoc.php?doc=art_f_bias_profiling&lang=en&articles=true

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dragged out of their homes, even to the watching of family members being murdered in front of

them. It is a well-documented fact that the Romá died alongside Jews in the Holocaust.

In Donchev v. Mukasey, presented before the United States Court of Appeals, Ninth

Circuit of Seattle, Washington and decided on in 2009, Petitioner Donchev was arrested in his

sister’s home (a U.S. citizen) where agents found falsified immigration documents and about

$40,000 in cash. Donchev subsequently filed a petition for asylum under the Convention

Against Torture as a result of being a member of the Romá people group. He originally fled to

the U.S. from his native Bulgaria as a result of being raped by police forces there. The

following is an excerpt from his testimony: “All the mistreatments occurred several times in the

past few years. I was harmed by people who are against gypsies and authority. Some incidents

consisted of being beaten and raped. I have been held at police stations and have been

mistreated and harmed because of my participation in the organizations for the rights of the

gypsies. Although the Immigration Judge found Donchev “generally truthful”, his petition was

nevertheless denied because of his illegal status and the fact that he was found with falsified

documentation.

Communication is a powerful tool for policy creation and societal change in the hands of

the right individual. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a Southern Baptist Minister, was one of the

most prominent voices of the civil rights movement. The church pulpit thus became a way for

Dr. King to equip his listeners with the some of tools necessary to effect social change. In

Speech by Martin Luther King Jr., at Holt Street Baptist Church given on December 5, 1955, he

is quoted as saying, “The only weapon that we have on our hands this evening is the weapon of

protest”. (King, 1991) Coincidentally, the churches are the same places where Romani

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Americans can express their political views without fear of repercussion or judgment. I

interviewed Pastor Wally Davido, who is a Romani-American and the Senior Pastor of The God

is Love Church in Edison, New Jersey. He confirmed that the Romá in New Jersey and New

York are still distrustful of the Gadjé, the Romani term for “white man” or foreigner. Consider

the following:

“In the early 2000’s there existed a non-profit organization called the Roma
Federation which was comprised of attorneys who were of Roma origin, led by
Joe Cosmo, but when he passed, the organization ended. There is no
organization at this moment in time, locally, that is involved to the extent as they
were in litigating Romani civil rights.

Roma in the U.S. act very much like they do in Europe. They are extremely
mistrustful of authority. Some families in NY do not send their children to school
and I have even organized tutors to go to the homes of many of my congregants.
The Roma community in New Jersey is more educated, more civilized, sad to say
than the ones in New York. I go to court for them and stand as a witness in trials
– teaching them to show up for court, etc. As a Pastor, I am very much interested
in organizing and educating the Roma Community, mainly through mobilizing the
church community.”(Interview, April 3, 2011)

Does the fact that the Romá still resist assimilation into American society contribute to

the alienation of this unique ethnic group? What led to the hatred and mistrust of Romá in the

United States? Considering the way in which they were introduced in this country, the result is

the same societal phenomenon that plagued the African-African and which ignited the struggle

for equality. Lack of the correct information about the Romá people as well as their innate

tendency to isolate themselves from society at large has led to the issue at hand. Perhaps the

Romá community within the churches can employ similar strategies for societal change as were

pioneered within the civil rights movement.

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In order to formulate the proper policy to address issues of inequality against the Romá, a

description of what those inequalities are is necessary to bring further clarification. In light of

the testimonies of Professor Keith Maynard and Pastor Wally Davido, it is evident that education

is one of the important platforms for change. Professor Maynard in academia dealt with the

stereotype that his identity equaled an individual who could not be trusted, in spite of his

professional accomplishments. Pastor Wally Davido encountered the stereotype of identity that

stood for criminality, by virtue of the fact he had to appear on behalf of his congregants who

were profiled by the law enforcement community for being “Gypsy”. As a Pastor, he seeks to

educate the Romá community to trust in the local government and school systems.

The educational policy platform consists of two ramps: a) education of the general public

about the Romá community to de-stigmatize negative stereotypes; and b) educational outreach to

the Romá to build a bridge of trust towards the non-Romá. These programs require funding at

the university and public educational level, as well as local activism and outreach within the

school and community where Romá are part of the population.

Dr. Ian Hancock is a professor of English and Asian Studies, as well as the director of the

Romani Archives and Documentation Center at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an

example of an individual in academia who has assisted in creating a scholarly based program at

college level for anyone wishing to become better acquainted with Romá history and issues. Dr.

Hancock has been a life-long activist: He serves as the official ambassador to the United Nations

and UNICEF for the world’s 15 million Romá, and the only ethnic Rom appointed to the U.S.

Holocaust Memorial Council. (Friends of NRADO, 2009).

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The next policy proposal looks at the legal and legislative platform. In the legal case

featured within this paper, the Rom who sought asylum in the U.S. was rejected due to the

possession of an illegal passport – a technicality that caused him to be scheduled for deportation.

The abuse suffered by ethnic Romá worldwide is quite real and happens every day. Immigration

reform with regards to asylum requires a broader rather narrow definition, thus activism at this

level by attorneys is expedient.

In the March 29, 1998 edition of The Dallas Morning News, approximately 20,000 Romá

lived in New York City without documentation, and subsequently were not included in the

government census. Attorney George Kaslov had approached the New York City Council to

conduct hearings that would endow the Romá community the same self-government as the

American Indian. He was the leader of the Lawyers Committee for Roma Rights and

Recognition (LCRRR) which was based in New York City. This move was inspired by the

repeal of a then 80-year old law regarding the official discrimination against the Romá in New

Jersey. The language of the statute is astounding, where municipalities had the right to license

“the movements and commercial activity of roving bands of nomads, commonly called Gypsies.”

(Hutson, 1998) Mr. Kaslov has since passed away, and the LCRRR disbanded upon his death.

According to New Jersey-based attorney Joseph Nicola, there is no one in the Tri-State

area litigating on behalf of the Romá. He has been in talks with Dr. Ian Hancock to perhaps join

in the current class action for recovery of funds belonging to the Jewish people who died during

the Holocaust, to facilitate the recovery of Romá funds. He contacted those attorneys and never

heard from them. Mr. Nicola’s response to the silence was, “Once again, we’re still considered

less than human, not even worthy of a response”. (Nicola, 2011) Many Romá died alongside the

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Jewish people in the Holocaust. Thus, activism at this level is on a case-by-case basis.

Attorney-based activism needs funding, as they can only do so much pro bono representation, in

light of the current economy.

Activism remains as a means of moving forward for the Romá community in the realms

of education and law. Although it is difficult to rally the Romá in America to activism, both

Pastor Wally Davido’s congregation in New Jersey and Dr. Ian Hancock’s position in academia

are examples of what one individual can do to further the cause. The fight against inequality

requires patient persistence and organization.

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Bibliography
Aranaga, C. (2009, April 7). Roma In America. Retrieved April 12, 2011, from America.gov
Archive: http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-
english/2009/April/200904071021352ecaganara0.5367657.html

Carmen. (2003). Mujer Gitana: Transmitora de Cultura (Gypsy Woman, Transmittor of Culture).
Retrieved April 13, 2011, from Imninalu: http://www.imninalu.net/Carmen.htm

Griggs, L. (2000, April 4). The Black Dutch, German Gypsies or Chicanere and their relation to
the Melungeons. Retrieved April 3, 2011, from Wayfaring Stranger:
http://sciway3.net/clark/freemoors/Patrin1.htm

Hancock, Dr. I. (n.d.). The Patrin Web Journal. Retrieved April 13, 2011, from A Brief History
of the Roma: http://www.reocities.com/~patrin/history.htm

Hutson, J. A. (1998, March 29). NY Gypsies Struggle Over Joining Mainstream Society. The
Dallas Morning News , p. P. 6A.

King, Jr. Dr. M. (1991). In C. Carson, D. Garrow, G. Gill, V. Harding, & D. Hine, Eyes on the
Prize Civil Rights Reader (pp. 48-51). New York: Penguin Books.

Nicola, J. (2011, May 23). Attorney . (D. Solis, Interviewer)

NRADO: Dr. Ian Hancock, Head Council Member. (2009). Friends of NRADO. Retrieved May
2011, from NRADO: National Romani Anti-Discrimination Organization:
http://www.nrado.com/Friends_of_NRADO.html

The Patrin Web Journal. (1999, April 17). Retrieved April 13, 2011, from A Brief History of the
Roma: http://www.reocities.com/~patrin/history.htm

Copyrighted by Damaris Solis 2011

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