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News server Romea.cz. Everything about Roma in one place

Opinion

Commentary: Czech MP blogs up an antigypsyist storm over minor incident

22 March 2014
3 minute read

The Czech media know what it is they are all selling us here. Money, sex, violence and xenophobia.

This is why we all know how much the young lover of an elderly duke costs, what kind of underwear is worn by the sister of the lover of the former husband of a TV moderator, and how two drunk guys in Strýčkovice threw a cobblestone at their neighbor’s window.  

The Czech Republic seems to be heaven on earth –  besides extramarital affairs and squabbles between neighbors, nothing else is happening that is worth reporting on the evening news. Just those puppies born in Horní Dolní, who definitely deserve five minutes of prime time. 

Since there decidedly are matters going on that deserve much more of a citizen’s attention, how does it come to pass that a news item about some problems between neighbors has caused such a media uproar? All it takes is for the alleged rioters to be Romani and an "adroit" reporter can do what he likes with such information. 

Two drunken men who broke their neighbor’s window have suddenly become a "Romani clan terrorizing the village, whose citizens need and also have police protection." While the fact must not be denied that these alleged perpetrators are probably truly socially dangerous and coexistence with them is problematic, it really is not appropriate to reference their ethnicity.  

This is nothing less than adding fuel to the fire of Czech antigypsyism, to say nothing of the fact that Romani people cannot and do not bear collective responsibility for all of the members of their community. Are alcohol, bad relations between neighbors, and unemployment such foreign concepts in the average Czech village?

The news has now been taken up by Czech MP Tomio Okamura, who is well aware of what people want to hear, and he has responded to it with a piece on his blog called "STOP ROMANISTAN", in which he intentionally exaggerates this incident into monstrous dimensions. These Roma are basically terrorizing not just one village, but the entire country, as he writes:  "The number of Romani people in society is growing, but their participation in the creation of our shared wealth is not increasing proportionally. On the contrary." 

This is followed by one racist and xenophobic idea after another, accompanied by the statement that they are not meant to be racist or xenophobic. He’s not a racist, but… he then stops writing about Roma and casually uses the term "Gypsies".  

Okamura adds a few references to Roma history in order to give the impression that he is someone who understands the issue before blaming the Roma themselves as being responsible for the racist stance of the majority society towards them and exhorting the Roma to do something about it. While throwing yet another few shovelfuls of dirt on the grave of Czech-Roma coexistence, the senator does not also advise the Roma as to exactly how they are supposed to go about finding their place in the sun in Czech society. 

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