Roma hip hop is a big hit in the Czech Republic

A young vanguard of Roma gipsies in the Czech Republic is proving that their community can be successful. However, it says little about the integration of Roma in the Czech Republic. "But if the Roma demonstrates he is capable of doing something, he won’t be looked down on any longer."

"Hey gipsy, here’s our song!", yells singer/rapper Radoslav ‘Gipsy’ Banga in the video of the song ‘Romano Hip Hop (in da house)’. A group of Roma remove their blue overalls and the work floor of the factory where they work on the assembly line, turns into a seething dance floor.

The song in question, a danceable mix of rap and gipsy music, is the Czech summer hit of 2007, and the band Gipsy.cz receives favourable reviews at home and abroad.

Communism
The video also touches on the backward position of many Roma in the Czech Republic, something communism is mainly to blame for, says band member and violinist Vojta Lavicka. "Back then, Roma were looked upon as a cheap labour force, that actually didn’t need any education, but could rather start working in a factory straight away."

Lavicka (35) fared much better himself. "My mother realised that a good education is key to a decent social position. The family aimed at raising me as a real Czech. I only heard bad things about Roma – I even felt guilty for being a Roma."

Idols
It was only after he was twenty years old that Lavicka became conscious of his Roma identity. The same goes for Vlasta Horvath: "My parents are of humble origin and wanted the best for their children. So I went to a white school", says the thirty-year-old singer and musician.

"In fact, I’m only a Roma on the outside." Horvath is the only Roma in the village he lives in. But the most famous one, too, ever since he won the Czech edition of Idols. "It was only then that I realised I was a Roma and that my victory was of great symbolic value to the Roma community."

Of course, his victory in the Idols talent shows on television also raised the question of who had voted for him during the programmes. "It has been suggested that the Czech aren’t racist anymore because a Roma could win Idols." But Horvath is not so sure about that himself. "I do meet less open discrimination, but that’s because I am a star."

Vlasta Horvath
Could his ‘success’ be a cover for the increasing intolerance to hide behind? According to Horvath, the anti-discrimination laws the Czech Republic had to introduce in order to comply with the EU membership requirements, only improved the relations on paper. "Today, discrimination is being done more on the sly."

The success of people like Vlasta Horvath and the band Gipsy.cz comes at a time that the integration of Roma into the Czech society seems to come to a halt. The Czech society has gone through a difficult period of economical reforms, where most Czech had to work hard to get by. Many Roma were fired.

"At the same time Czechs see that Roma withdraw from society and live on the dole," says Ivan Gabal. "Czech find that hard to swallow." According to the sociologist and expert on minorities, one third of the roughly 250,000 Roma in the Czech Republic are living in a Roma ‘ghetto’, which represents an explosive increase when compared to the situation in 1989.

Portacabins
The problems not only have a racist background, but also, and predominantly, a social one. "It does make society more susceptible to the kind of cheap populism you see in Czech politics," says Gabal. By this he refers to the Roma-hostile statements of vice-premier Jiri Cunek, among others.

Some people claim that Cunek owes his meteoric rise to his unorthodox approach of the Roma issue. In the town where he used to be mayor, he dispelled some Roma families that were late with the rent, to a ‘new suburb’ that consisted of upgraded portacabins.

Vojta Lavicka isn’t particularly keen on polarising voices from politics, but if Roma feel the need to emancipate, they have to take fate into their own hands."Discrimination is often being used as an excuse to sit still and do nothing. But if the Roma demonstrates he is capable of doing something, he won’t be looked down on any longer." According to Lavicka there are many examples of ‘successful’ Roma in the Czech Republic. Gipsy.cz, too, is proving that there are opportunities for Roma, and is willing to spread that message.

According to Lavicka, who has been a social worker for a long time and who knows ‘the street’ quite well, singer Radoslaw Banga contributes more to the confidence of Roma youngsters. "He is being imitated a lot and, in that sense, he serves as an important role model."

Maybe Lavicka’s own past and upbringing are less representative for the Roma social environment, but the modern era is offering more opportunities:

"The communists stole our guitar and our violin and gave us a pickaxe, but this time has taken away the pickaxe and returned the guitar and the violin."