Since my last three Roma effort posts have been heavy, I wanted to do an educational but lighthearted one for International Romani Day. This one is going to be a very basic opening to Roma culture, as I doubt many here know much about it.

DISCLAIMER: Roma may be all racially similar, but there are many ‘groups’ of Roma with rather unique cultures. This primarily focuses on my experiences within Balkan Roma groups and some more well known groups such as the Kalderash of Eastern Europe.

Anyways, backstory: Roma are a group that came from India originally and made its way through Central Asia, Middle East, North Africa, and sometimes East Africa, then Europe. We are everywhere, from America, to Europe, to Brazil, to Palestine, and even Japan and China. (And China is one of the very few countries who was very nice to those of us who went there in the 1900s).

Language:

Romani is a complex language. It stems from Hindi and has many similarities, but we have gathered many loan words throughout various countries. But I can hardly think of another language with such confusing grammar half the time. It also doesn’t help that there are like a hundred dialects. So, for example:

Gadze, Gadje, Guyshe, Godtra, Gaja, Gayja, Gosha.

All those are ways to spell the EXACT same word but in various dialects. So it’s obvious why the language can seem similar, but it’s not always easy to communicate with other dialects. It also is hardly ever taught in written form because so many of us are illiterate. Older generations are more and more often not teaching the younger generation how to speak it. It’s a dying language.

Religion:

There is no set religion for Roma. Some are Muslim, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. Even a few Jewish Roma exist. Islam is common in the Balkans and Protestant is very common in Northern/West Europe and America. A lot of Evangelicals specifically target Roma in North Europe actually to recruit.

In my experience, Roma are not THAT religious. Culture tends to always supersede religious rules or obligations for us. For example, almost everyone in my family who is Muslim drinks alcohol because that’s just the culture.

However, we practice many holidays. For example, many French Roma will go to Sara E Kali’s (A Romani saint) pilgrimage — submerging her statue into water. Many think of this is a tradition we brought from India as it resembles Durga Puja in Hinduism. Many Balkan Roma celebrate Ederlezi — Feast of Saint George.

As for witchcraft, well, it depends on the group. Some Roma do read fortune (via tarot cards, coffee fortunes, or tea leaves). I linked some articles about it here before.

Dancing/Singing:

Sometimes stereotypes are true, and the stereotype that Roma love to dance is true. We love to dance! We have various forms too. Kocek is very popular in Balkans, here is a more common dance among Eastern European Roma that some call shuffling, we invented Flamenco (NOT UP FOR DEBATE!), and here is a video discussing Roma dancing cultural traditions .

Djelem, Djelem is what some may say is our “anthem”. It’s a beautiful song. Esma Redzepova was a lovely, famous, and passionate singer. She recently passed away. She has a fantastic voice. Here is a more modern band, Mahala Rai Banda (I love their songs!). And here is a Romani rap group, Roma Sijam. And here is a new Roma girl group, Pretty Loud, who have been singing about Roma rights — especially for women. You should definitely support them.

Anyways, anytime you listen to Balkan music, it’s probably 99% inspired by us. European music would be nothing without us. We also brought the clarinet to Europe.

Clothing:

Another thing that will vary from country to country. Women tend to wear long skirts, married women tend to cover their hair, and hats are common among men. Our skirts can be very intricate , sometimes our attire resembles Indian lehengas, and we wear lots of gold jewelry even gold teeth.

Not sure what else to add, that's really a very basic start to it all. May do a part 2 sometime, but feel free to ask any questions if you have them.

CW FOR MENTIONS OF CHILD ABUSE [MENTAL, SEXUAL, AND PHYSICAL] AND CHILD DEATH

Wanted to make a post about the Troubled Teen Industry/#BreakingCodeSilence. The topic is gaining more discussion lately after celebrities like Paris Hilton spoke up, but many people still don’t know about it. American leftists must learn about this industry and advocate against it when possible.

I am not going to specify which one for internet safety reasons, but I have been sent to one of these so-called “therapeutic boarding schools” when I was younger. Therapeutic is a joke of a word to use here: there is hardly any therapy that isn’t just berating yourself and others around you. I'd be willing to explain more about my own situation if anyone is curious.

Who gets sent to places like these? It depends. Some of the girls there were suffering from drug addiction, misbehaviour at school, underage sex, being obviously Autistic, not obeying their parents rules 100%, or speaking out about being abused. Kids have been sent to these places for such miniscule things that I would hardly recommend a child see a therapist for let alone be sent away and locked up.

To start, I want to tell you how many children are kidnapped in the middle of the night. Parents hire escorts/transporters, and they come into the child’s room at 3am, and say, “We can do this the easy way or the hard way.” The hard way meaning restrained and handcuffed. They take you from your house and either drive you to the middle of nowhere or take you on a plane to the middle of nowhere. It’s a terrifying experience.

Most kids start out in wilderness programs. Advertised as a way for the child to detox from the outside world and reconnect with themselves and nature. You’re in the middle of nowhere as a child and that is scary enough regardless of how you are treated there. And most programs treat the kids badly. Kids are sleep deprived, barely given enough food, and sometimes only get to bathe once every week or so. There’s been quite a few kids who have died in these programs. I have not so much experience with wilderness, but it’s something I would never recommend.

And when kids think they’re going home once their wilderness program ends, they actually get sent to RTC/TBS (residential treatment centers/therapeutic boarding school). Hardly anyone just goes to wilderness. And this is where things get worse. Every program has its own unique horrors, but almost all of them have extremely cruel rules, forced child labour, allegations of sexual abuse, unsafe restraintment, solitary confinement, and untrained staff. Some programs have you sit and stare at a wall all day long. If you start to slouch, you have to stare for more hours. If you dare look away for even a second, you get points taken away. Points is the only way you can “advance” to the next levels to hopefully graduate the program eventually. Some programs make it so you are not allowed to talk to anyone for weeks on end. Some programs have solitary confinement. You have no privacy as you can never be alone. Not even while showering. If you act up (which can mean just looking out a window), you face the risk of being pinned down and restrained by adults twice your size. There have been many kids who died from these restraint practices which are known to be dangerous. Staff is hardly ever trained or licensed to be working in these types of places.

There are seminars that some programs do. This “therapy” tends to entirely revolve around making you believe everything in the world is your fault. Your parents aren’t at fault for anything. You are the problem. You have to take responsibility. You are a bad kid who is manipulative and will die once you leave the school. You have to write to your parents about how you are a horrible person and confess to everything bad you’ve ever done. You have to tell the girls around you how they are bad, manipulative, deserve to be raped, and will die once they leave this school too. That is no exaggeration. Those are things I have had to say to other girls around me. No child should hear that, and no person should carry the guilt for being forced to victim blame their peers.

Anyways, I could go on forever about the abuse in these programs. If you want to hear from more survivors, you can listen to the podcast Inside The Program. Or watch Paris Hilton’s documentary on Youtube. Or listen to TrueAnon’s 100th episode on the TTI, Brat Camp .

But you know what it all comes down to, in the end? Capitalism. These programs are expensive. It varies but usually like $3000-5000 per month, and you must stay for at least a year. One really popular program is $11,000 per month. I’ve known people whose parents went into debt to keep their kid locked up and abused because the programs are so good at brainwashing and convincing parents their kids will die if they leave. The staff isn’t always paid very well either, so most of the money ends up going to the people who own these schools. They rely on kids being punished so often that they keep you locked away to get your parents’ money. And they get you there in the first place by providing kickback money to Wilderness programs to convince the parents that you MUST go to one of these programs. And both of them give kickback money to therapists to recommend any of this shit in the first place.

Here’s some insight on the money aspect:

“A research brief from the University of Utah’s Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute estimated the industry pulled in $328 million in revenue in 2015 alone and accounted for 6,400 jobs. Alaska spent more than $31 million in Medicaid funding over six years sending 511 kids to Utah. Nevada spent even more — $35 million since 2014 — sending 761 youths here, according to its Medicaid data. The St. George school had received more than $13 million in government money from six states until it closed last year after a riot.”

Yeah, so not only is America’s health insurance system terrible in every other manner, but also your tax dollars are going towards sending kids to be abused instead of providing everyone universal healthcare and good mental health services.

Politics is involved too of course. The founder of WWASP schools donates thousands of dollars to the republican party each year. Utah has had politicians be involved in these facilities. Many of these facilities don’t get inspected as often as they are meant to. Police are often aware that they should return runaways back to facilities no matter what abuse the kids say is happening there. Doctors around the facilities know to not listen to abuse allegations — and that’s for rare instances when these places actually let the kids have medical care.

Many of these programs that get shut down just get reopened under different names and “different leadership.” Usually the exact same people are still involved just behind-the-scenes. For example, Arizona Boys Ranch had a kid die there. It was the second death there, but this one got huge media Attention. 5 former staff members were indicted on child abuse and manslaughter charges, and 17 staff were put on a child abuse registry. All that happened was they changed their name right after.

And another child died there in 2020.

Anyways there’s so much more to add about all the behind the scenes stuff that goes on in this industry, more on the history, and more of the people who are involved that you probably know (like Dr. Phil). Will make a part 2 eventually o7

"News server Dobrénoviny.sk reports 11-year-old chess player Agáta Berková is achieving unprecedented success in competition and has even played Russian chess grandmaster Anatoly Karpov to a draw after being trained by her father who, along with his chess team called "Hrochotskské jezdci" ("The Hippopotamus Riders"), has broken the stereotypical belief that Roma cannot play chess. Berková is a native of the Slovak town of Poltár, and her love of chess reportedly dates to the first time she sat behind a chessboard at the age of a year and a half.

In addition to being Romani, Agáta has to deal with the fact that she is a girl in the chess world, but thanks to her participation in tournaments, she has traveled all over Slovakia with her father. She did not go to Russia, but she did manage to meet Russian chess grandmaster Karpov twice to play with him.

During an exhibition performance, the chess master played her on multiple chessboards simultaneously - and ultimately, it was a draw. Agáta has also played champion Tomáš Krňan of Canada to a draw.

When Agáta was even younger, she frequently competed in tournaments with adult players. Berko remembers one adult competitor who, according to him, could have scored as high as 1800 on the Elo skill-rating system, but when the contestant realized he was losing to a girl - and a Romani girl at that - he angrily threw the pieces away after his loss.

For her part, Agáta has said she would like to attain a good education in addition to winning great chess results. "I would either like to become a divorce lawyer, or a scientist to invent a cure for my brothers who suffer from autism," the promising chess player, who also gets good grades at school, told the Dobrénoviny.sk server.

In the GPX competition, Agáta was the Slovak champion in the eight-year-old and younger category. She finished fifth at the European Championships."

Very cute and uplifting story :)