internet: Anti-Romani sentiment

Evidence: 100 • authority: 72

Anti-Romani sentiment (also called antigypsyism, anti-Romanyism, antiziganism, ziganophobia, or Romaphobia) consists of hostility, prejudice, discrimination, nativism, racism, and xenophobia which is specifically directed at Romani people. The Romani, who are believed to have migrated from India to Europe during the Middle Ages, have faced a long history of discrimination and persecution. Arriving Romanis were seen as suspect, in part due to their nomadic nature. Romanis were suspected of theft and fraud, pickpocketing, black magic, prostitution, and stealing children. Many countries passed laws restricting Romanis' ability to work and live. For centuries, Romani people in Europe were perse…

Evidence: 86 • authority: 72

The Romani, also spelled Romany or Rromani ( ROH-mə-nee or ROM-ə-nee), colloquially known as the Roma (sing.: Rom), are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group who traditionally led a nomadic, itinerant lifestyle. Linguistic and genetic evidence suggests that the Romani originated in northwestern regions of the Indian subcontinent. Their subsequent westward migration, possibly in waves, is now believed by historians to have occurred around 1000 CE. Their original name, derived from the Sanskrit डोम (doma), may refer to the Doma, a Dalit caste traditionally associated with musicians and dancers. The Romani population moved west into the Ghaznavid Empire and later into the Byzantine Empire. The Romani arr…

Evidence: 55 • authority: 72

The Romani flag (Romani: O styago le romengo or O romanko flako) is the international ethnic flag of the Romani people, historically known as Gypsies. They constitute a stateless minority concentrated in Europe, but are also dispersed across parts of other continents. The flag was approved by the representatives of various Romani communities at the first and second World Romani Congresses (WRC), in 1971 and 1978. It consists of a background of blue and green, representing the heavens and earth, respectively; it also contains a 16-spoke red dharmachakra, or cartwheel, in the center. The latter element stands for the itinerant tradition of the Romani people and is also an homage to the flag o…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Romani Holocaust, also known as the Porajmos, was the genocide of European Roma and Sinti people during World War II. Beginning in 1933, Nazi Germany systematically persecuted the European Roma, Sinti and other peoples through forcible internment and compulsory sterilization. German authorities summarily and arbitrarily subjected Romani people to incarceration, forced labor, deportation and mass murder in concentration and extermination camps. Under Adolf Hitler, a supplementary decree to the Nuremberg Laws was issued on 26 November 1935, classifying the Romani people (or Roma) as "enemies of the race-based state", thereby placing them in the same category as the Jews. Thus, the fate of…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

The Great Gypsy Round-up (Spanish: Gran Redada de Gitanos), also known as the general imprisonment of the Gypsies (prisión general de gitanos), was a raid authorized and organized by the Spanish Monarchy that led to the arrest of most Roma in the region and the genocide of 9,000–12,000 Romani people. Although a majority were released after a few months, many others spent several years imprisoned and subject to forced labor. The raid was approved by the King Ferdinand VI of Spain, and organized by the Marquis of Ensenada, and set in motion simultaneously across Spain on 30 July 1749. Since a royal edict by Charles II in 1695, Spanish Romani had been restricted to certain towns. An official e…

Evidence: — • authority: 72

Pikey (; also spelled pikie, pykie) is a derogatory slang term referring to Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people. It is used mainly in the United Kingdom and in Ireland to refer to people who belong to groups which had a traditional travelling lifestyle. Groups referred to with this term include Irish Travellers, Romanichal, Welsh Kale, Scottish Lowland Travellers, Scottish Highland Travellers, and Funfair Travellers. These groups consider the term to be highly derogatory. It is used by extension as a classist insult against marginalised working class communities, similar to the term chav.