Everyone who isn’t a racist knows a few decent gypsies – at least, that’s what I read in internet discussions and that’s what I hear from friends and strangers alike: "I’m not a racist, I even know a couple of decent gypsies…" I hear and read this so often that it has led me to reflect on who this mythical "couple of gypsies" really are, these people who are mentioned by anyone and everyone who is just about to pronounce some more racist nonsense.
In the Czech Republic, only the celebrity singing couple Eva and Vašek have achieved as much popularity as this mythical "decent couple of gypsies" – I’m not sure about Eva and Vašek’s ethnicity, but they do have the same passion for dance and music that Romani children in Hradec Králové have been so criticized for. Given their commercial success, though, I should probably look them up on [infamous anti-Semite] Adam Bartoš’s list.
If everyone here really knew a different "couple of decent gypsies", then the numbers of such people would have risen exponentially by now, which of course would be hard to reconcile with the claim that most gypsies, apparently, are simply not decent. We should probably ask every "I-am-not-a-racist" for the names of those two specific, decent Roma to make sure there is no overlap.
The truth, of course, is different. No such "couple of decent gypsies" exists – but dozens and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Romani people do live here whom these "I-am-not-a-racists" do not know and do not want to know, merely and only because they are Roma.
The Czech "I-am-not-a-racists" are not interested in how these people live, what they do, or why. They don’t know their names, and they don’t know their children.
When Romani people move into an apartment building, the "I-am-not-a-racists" don’t go say hello to them with a bit of cake – instead, they make sure to bring the shoes they usually leave out on the doormat inside for safekeeping. When they encounter Romani people on the street, they don’t great them with a quiet smile and a nod of the head, but avert their gaze and check that their wallet is still in their pocket.
When a Romani child gets underfoot, the "I-am-not-a-racists" imagine they smell something awful. So who are these "decent gypsies" even supposed to be?
Let’s take someone we’ll call Franta Vomáčka, who gets drunk as a sailor watching his football team every Sunday and sometimes yells at his wife and kids to discipline them. It’s all clear to him, he doesn’t have to prove his decency to anyone – he’s a normal Czech, with all his little faults.
That’s our Franta. He knows Jozef Lakatoš, a decent gypsy, who during the 30 years he and Franta have been working in the factory together never went to the doctor once, who takes Franta’s shifts when needed, and who is sometimes even hurt when Franta packs up a half hour before the shift is over.
Basically, for Jozef to prove his decency, he must have supernatural abilities at a minimum. And why does Jozef have to prove he is decent at all?
Because his ethnicity is a priori not a credit to our society. Simply put, even if Jozef had a halo, he would still have to constantly prove he didn’t steal it.
Our "I-am-not-a-racist" loves to loudly confirm his anti-racist status, for example, by saying that the "gooks" don’t bother him either – after all, he can pop round to their shops to buy a beer as late as midnight, on credit. Black guys don’t bother him either – during happy hour at the "nigger’s" place he always gets an extra portion of French fries.
I live next door to Romani people and always have, I live with Romani people and always have, and I have never had any problem with them (except for Štefan, when we were 16 we beat each other up over a girl). I am tired of the perpetual arguments made by the "I-am-not-a-racists" that they have had "bad experiences" with Roma.
Am I responsible for the Czech monsters who tortured a 16-year-old girl to death? Am I responsible for the Czech woman who suffocated her newborn children?
Am I responsible for all these corruption scandals? Was it me who cooked up a kilo of pervitin like the Czech guy in a nearby housing estate they arrested last year?
Does what any other Czech person has ever done, is doing, or will do say anything about me? Why should anyone Roma have to face the anger of an "I-am-not-a-racist" over a wallet stolen from him by some other Romani guy years ago?
For three years I have watched Láďa, a 16-year-old Romani guy with the face of a hero in a South American soap opera, teach children how to dance every day after school. He teaches them black style, with all that shaking of their butts and standing on their heads.
Sometimes Láďa finds a club for them to practice in, but most of the time they’re at the mall or in the park. He lives to dance – he doesn’t drink or smoke, which is a rarity among his Czech peers today.
With the money he saves from his allowance and the little he makes from his dance group’s performances here and there, he buys CDs. Both Czech and Romani children dance with him.
The Czech children only get to dance until their parents realize what they’re doing and forbid them to hang out with the gypsies. After all, the "I-am-not-a-racists" may know their own "couple of decent gypsies", but God only knows what their children might learn from Láďa….
First published on http://zelenafretka.com/ . Reprinted with the consent of the author.
