Patrik Banga: We Roma must not lower ourselves to the racists' level! Racism and threats are what we criticize

Journalist Patrik Banga has posted to the Facebook page of the ROMEA organization calling on his fellow Romani comunity members not to lower themselves to the level of racists and to stop writing their own racist posts and calling for revenge in connection with the death of a Romani man in the town of Žatec last week. "Romale ... I am reading your posts on all of the discussion forums and on Facebook and I am sad. Many of us are calling for revenge, but you must remember that violence just breeds more violence. All of us want the same thing, and that is for there to be a proper investigation of what happened in Žatec. However, if we insult people, if we make threats, if we say racist things, if we use vulgar language, then we are just doing what we criticize others for doing. Please, let's not lower ourselves to the level of the racists," his message says.
Banga is responding to the calls for revenge and other posts that have appeared on Facebook and that were also heard at last Thursday's spontaneous event in honor of the deceased Romani man. After getting into a scuffle with customers in a restaurant to which local police were called and in which they intervened, the young man died on 18 October 2016 shortly after 19:00.
Among Romani people, the case has sparked an enormous wave of solidarity, but at the same time a feeling of having been wronged, as police have not yet charged anybody in connection with those events and subsequently announced, according to the initial autopsy results, that the man died without any third party being to blame. News server iDNES.cz reports that in various online discussion forums some people are accusing an employee of the pizzeria, Petr Provazník, of "murdering" the man.
However, at the time the unfortunate incident happened, Provazník was apparently not even at work. "His shift was the next day," Pizzeria Panamera operations manager Milan Bočkai confirmed to the news server.
"I was at home. I didn't learn that anything had happened that evening until around 22:00. They are accusing me of something that I did not do, in a place where I was not at the time. If this was just about me, I could cope, but threats are being made against my entire family," Provazník said.
Romani people are planning several assemblies to mourn the deceased over the next few days. The biggest one should take place in Žatec.
"Thousands of us should gather in Žatec so that those in charge will know we care about this, and so they will do all they can to actually find out what basically happened in that pizzeria. However, we must show them that we are not the band of primitives that many majority-society people take us for. Let's demonstrate that we are human beings who are on their same level, that nobody gets to walk all over us just because we are Romani, but let's do it in a cultivated, decent way, because that is exactly what the racists do not want. We will not support their prejudices!" Banga has emotionally posted to Facebook.
Don't miss:
- Patrik Banga: Dear Czech Police, 27-year-olds do not just up and die
- Patrik Banga: Inclusion? Definitely yes!
- Patrik Banga: How can Romani families influence the sewer on Přednádraží street?
- Romani activist Miroslav Kováč comments on Patrik Banga's "Hyde Park" appearance
- Patrik Banga harshly criticizes Romani people on Czech Television's "Hyde Park"
- Patrik Banga: Romani people will actively defend themselves against racist attacks in Czech Republic
- Patrik Banga: How easy it is to influence the nation
- Commentary by Patrik Banga: Sneering at a funeral is deplorable
- Patrik Banga: Report from Rumburk
- Commentary by Patrik Banga: How and why police detained me in Rumburk
- Patrik Banga: Attacks by deranged people not a Roma problem
- Roma commentator Patrik Banga on the Nový Bydžov demonstrations
- Patrik Banga files charges against racist online contributor
Related articles:
- Romani singer Věra Gondolánová has passed away
- Volunteer civil society members of Czech Govt Roma Council: ombudsman intentionally undermining the dignity of Romani people
- Czech ombudsman criticizes draft Roma Strategy, rejects idea of updating information about compensation for forced sterilizations
- Czech Police assess incident where man pointed a gun at a seven-year-old Romani boy as a misdemeanor
- Slovakia closes Romani settlement because of COVID-19, police and soldiers deployed
- Czech racists hated Vodafone Christmas ad featuring non-white children, the company objects to their online comments
- Scandalous fourth acquittal by Czech court of racist football fans accused of assaulting Black man on tram
- Czech court gives suspended sentence to adults who assaulted young Romani children physically and verbally in a park last year
- German court sentences terrorist who attacked Halle synagogue last year to life in prison
- Racists in Czech capital assault non-white family, call the father "Cikán", give the Nazi salute, try to take their baby
- Older Romani woman recounts how security guards in Czech shop saved her from violent racist thug
- Bulgarian COVID-19 pandemic measures have closed Romani neighborhoods, causing job losses and food shortages
Tags:
Police, Racism, Smrt Roma v Žatci, úmrtí, vyšetřováníHEADLINE NEWS
