Hi Jesse
Recently I met someone else here who has Romani heritage and I was thrilled that he was so willing to tell me about their ways of life and culture as the people have always fascinated me. Where did I get this fascination from? Television. That was my first introduction as a child. You can probably imagine the stereotypes TV gave me about gypsies. (Is it now acceptable to say gypsy or is that considered bad? I don't know.) Beautiful dancing women with coins all over their skirts, old ladies with wise knowledge and curses, families who travel and dance and sing out in their camps. And of course the bad stuff we often hear. While I may have succumbed to the romance of the people and their life, I never thought of them as "bad" people or thieves or any of the negative stuff that gets attributed to them. In my searching on the Web, I find much positive information on the Rom. I find stereotypes disspelled and it seems to me that peopel are coming around and realizing that gypsies are not the stuff we used to see on TV, are not bad people. Maybe a few bad apples here and there but you get those with any people, anywhere.
I agree with you that it's time to stop maligning these people and attributing negative typecasting to them. Why not start your own thread about them, giving people the facts? That would be cool! It would end up being my favorite thread too.
I'm so glad you posted this!