I suppose this is what it must have felt like before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Where signs some 50 years ago read 'No Blacks', this year a sign at a Blackburn ice rink was put up stating 'No Travellers'.
I watched the first series of Channel 4's My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding. I found it fascinating, entertaining and shocking in equal measure. Shocking, because the travellers featured highlighted the inequality they experienced on a daily basis. It was heartbreaking to watch a newlywed woman worrying that the hotel she had booked her wedding reception with might turn her away if they realised she was a gypsy; apparently they had done it before.
I had, perhaps naively in hindsight, buoyed the first series' ratings figures because I believed we could learn something significant about a long-standing community which, until the 2011 census, had not been recognised as an ethnic group.
I won't be watching the new series, though. The advertising billboards, stating 'BIGGER, FATTER, GYPSIER' disgust me and have resulted in complaints to the Advertising Standards Agency. I wish I could take credit for the defaced poster I spotted on Chapeltown Road in Leeds, which has 'MORE RACIST' graffitied under the strapline. Indeed, it seems Channel 4 has sided with those racists - I don't use the term lightly - who watched the first series and responded with derogation.
Examples of the kind of language I've read and heard used openly abound in the comments section on the previous link regarding the 'No Travellers' sign - incidentally taken down because it was illegal under the Equality Act 2010 - including "scum bag", "sub-human garbage" and "lying, cheating, thieving bunch of scum who give sewer rats a bad name". Those commenters must be rubbing their hands with glee at these posters; using the word 'gypsier' has implications of racism just as 'Jewier' or 'blacker' do.
A Channel 4 spokesperson has said. "The word 'gypsier' refers to the fact that this series offers even greater access and insight to the communities featured, and the terms 'gypsy' or 'gypsier' are not being used in a negative context."
It's a nice line, but it stinks of exploitation. Channel 4 even leans on the David Brent defence - remember when he asks his black employee whether he is personally offended by a racist comment? "Everyone featured in the campaign has seen the posters and is happy with them," says Channel 4.
I hope that, sooner rather than later, society will accept that racism directed at anyone is ridiculous and unacceptable. If it was any other minority community which was being exploited and having new terms coined for the purpose, I'm sure more of us would be outraged. 'Bigger, Fatter, Gypsier, More Racist' indeed.
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1. We want to stare at things that are strange to us. Think of the uninhibited child being told not butyrate. Mostly we learn not to but at the core is a more fundamental behaviour to build a shared identity with our own community. We build our identities by identifying those that are different and saying, "We are us, they are different."
2. People generally try to reduce risk. I used to work in a hospital in Ireland where sometimes traveller groups would mob the canteen. They would move through it like a storm and some felt they did not pay for three quarters of what was taken. I don't know whether they stole or not but if you were a shop keeper and had a similar experience, you might think twice about letting a large group of travellers into your shop. The councils in that part of Dublin now build 1.5 foot high concrete walls around open green spaces to avoid travellers setting up camp because of the cost of the clean-up operations sometimes required after they leave. If parts of the traveller community leave rubbish strewn behind them and are considered to steal, then many people are going to avoid the risk of paying for the clean up or having their stuff stolen and not welcome any travellers. I'm not saying it's right but it is understandable.
Years later, after a decade-long struggle to be able to live on the land they had refurbished, the local council came and bulldozed the area, leaving it looking like WWI trenches. The council, which was already planning to build massively on greenbelt land, claimed they were kicking the people out because the former dump was "greenbelt".
That was Dale Farm. There are many things people never hear about, because they aren't talked about.
I do not fail to recognise gypsies as a group or community of our society, but I just call to question whether they are a race or ethnic group, which is a group of people of the same race.
I fail to recognise any clear genetically transmitted physical characteristics (what defines a race) that are different to a Caucasian European.
This is not a slight on your article it is well written and I agree with your points as a whole but I just feel the word racism is not right for this situation, as it wouldn't be if the programme was about a synagogue or a mosque. Race is not about religion, lifestyle, community beliefs, it is simply about physical characteristics which is passed on genetically.
Maybe there is a higher incidence of some gene or other. But so what? If they looked hard enough they could probably find some special gene in our family too - and we're a bunch of mongrels.
I strongly resent their dilution of the word "racist" by white trailer dwellers; racist means black or brown people being discriminated against because of their skin colour.
What really sets these groups apart is a separate, non mainstream culture. And THAT is the crux of the matter here, so debate their culture, not their genes.