Racism. It’s so prevalent in our society. Yet no one seems to want to admit it, even though some of the most recent and tragic events have largely been fueled by racism.
The Ferguson riots were inspired by racial discrimination. Even before that, George Zimmerman managed to weave his way through the justice system. In the fashion of a serpent, Zimmerman avoided being charged for the death of Trayvon Martin, which many believe was murder. Only after Martin’s unjustifiable death did the law start to unravel and show its flaws.
However, if the person shot turns out to be black and wearing a hoodie, then the shooter is just an innocent victim devoid of any criminal intent. After that then its case closed. Nothing to see here, just another dead black kid. Only in America.
Now racism has become an issue yet again, but not in the United States. This time it’s dealing with a community that often gets ignored in Europe, the Romanis, otherwise known as the gypsies. The Romanis are being booted out of Hungary because according to the government they’re living below the poverty line. It’s a way of getting rid of the impoverished families without incurring the wrath of any of the majority, plus if it helps win more elections then they don’t have a problem with it. The way they see it, they just killed two birds with a boulder. Not only do you gain the popular nationalist vote in the election from Jobbik, the nationalist party, but you also manage to gain some good real estate.
Who cares about the Romanis? They’ve had to endure slavery and a full scale genocide in the last couple of centuries, so surely they can put up with being kicked out of their homes and being relocated? At least the Romanis aren’t going to go down without a fight even though they were ambushed by their own government. Of course they can’t fight back conventionally with missiles, guns, and grenades, because that would result in their annihilation.
So, are the Romanis getting kicked out of their homes because of race or votes? It’s both. Let’s face it, not a whole lot of people seem to like the Romanis. They’re like the Africans in America during the reign of plantations in the Deep South, and to a way smaller extent kind of like today.
That’s what’s been happening since the beginning of time. At least we’re a little more tolerant of different races today. I’d like to think that America is better than Europe in terms of how we deal with people different from us, but we’re not. In fact, we’re probably worse at it because of our track record. We killed off the Indians and moved the survivors to reservations via a death march. As if that somehow wasn’t enough for us, we decided to get slaves from Africa.
The Africans and Indians were killed off and enslaved because of these following words: religion, money, resources and land. That’s it. That’s the reason we dehumanized these people and proved our superiority to them. Sounds pathetic doesn’t it? I find it hilarious, because I’m sure Americans could have gotten the exact same results if we hadn’t done what they did to those people. They could’ve hired some translators to figure out the Indian’s language as well as the Africans. They could have asked these people to share the land. But no, they wanted to flex our muscles and prove that they were the best. Pride. It’s a crazy thing isn’t it? A little bit of it is ok to have, but when you have too much, you become some egomaniacal maniac set on destroying or changing everything that isn’t what you want it to be.
It does seem like the Hungarian government is going for a double play. All of the signs are present, from kicking out everyone who doesn’t pay to everyone who does. There’s always been bad blood whenever the Romanis are involved.
The government’s trying to keep the majority happy by kicking out the Romanis, thus getting rid of potential opposition from the nationalist parties, and they also get real estate out of it. In the end, the Romanis can put up a fight if they want to, but the odds are stacked against them. It’s basically the movie, 300, but with politics being used as a weapon instead of swords and spears.
Wesley is a sophomore majoring in criminology. He can be reached at wesleyelstun@mail.usf.edu.
