I'm just an average gypsy AMA

[GypsyAMA]

I've noticed a lot of hatred towards gypsies on here so I thought I'd answer any questions anyone may have that could help you to understand my culture more. You might still disagree with many aspects, but at least you'll be coming from facts and not stereotypes.

Why can't you reveal your husband's line of work?

What is a gorger?

Why does Tyson Fury call himself the Gypsy king , if as so many people on this thread have mentioned , there is such animosity between Irish travellers and gypsies? Is he not from an Irish traveller family? Is it just a showbiz thing?

I don't understand why any community would shun education.

The statistics relating to Gypsies/roma/travellers (GRT) are awful in a number of crucial areas such as health, infant mortality, children in youth detention, adults in jail, rates of domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug use and unemployment. GRT die, on average, 10-12 years earlier than the national average. That's shocking.

GRT are the most disadvantaged group in the UK. Why don't more GRT encourage their children to get educated so that they have more choices and chances in life?

They call us gorgers

Odd thing to focus when it's not a thing specific or unique to gypsies. Most anti-vaccers in Britain are from the middle-class wellbeing and new age communities.

@godmum56 apologies I @‘ed the wrong poster :)

@swimsong this is AMA and OP said she doesn’t agree with vaccinations, so poster is free to ask why

My grandad was a gypsy and was more or less ousted from them for lack of better explanation, when he married my gran (getting a non gypsy teenager in the family way was severely frowned upon) my gran refused to live that way that was her words!

Whilst I have some knowledge of his lifestyle before they married it sounds completely different to what you are describing, and if the stories he told us as kids are gospel then I doubt much within the community has changed from the brief information you have given.

I am glad he never returned and settled with my gran..my mum is one of the most intelligent women I know and she’d had suffered a terrible life not being educated and having her career.

I am the same, there is no way I would have my daughter taken out of education at 12, she deserves better than that.

@Pingtotheeastwoodly you see I don't believe any of that so it makes my comment valid.

Seems I am both as I’ve eaten half a packet of biscuits while reading this thread

I’m afraid this is my exact experience too. Taking over parks for weeks at a time and leaving the most horrendous mess including human excrement. On a recent occasion they threatened police with guns when they tried to move them on.

A permanent camp has been set up nearby on the edge of a small village. The camp is illegal because they have no planning permission but no one seems able to do anything about it. Ever since they arrived local crime rates are through the roof. Endless robberies from houses and gardens. Stolen goods almost always found in or near the Gypsy camp including vehicles. It really has been horrendous and people can’t sell their houses to move because no one wants to live next door to the camp.

I know people will say this isn’t the case for all gypsies but having lived near them for 50 years and having been at school with them, I can say this is consistently my experience and the experience of my neighbours.

OP, this is fascinating. Thank you so much for sharing your perspective.

On education - imagine that there was an online secondary school course with some week-long residentials a few times a year, where the young people are chaperoned, so that you would feel happy with the social mixing aspect. Imagine that this course would lead up to qualifications qualifying people for university entry. Would this be something you would see as acceptable?

What I'm trying to work out is whether it's the adolescent peer pressure element that is the only problem - or whether it is also the likelihood of people with qualifications being more likely to leave the community.

Would you be more likely to allow your children to attend secondary school if it was a single-sex school?

Can you understand the language spoken by the Eastern European Roma people?
Do your cultures still have much in common? Or have they all split off over time from what was presumably an original pan European Roma/Romany culture/language?

OP, thank you for this thread.

About 10% of the children in my daughter's primary school are Gypsies and this thread is really interesting. All understanding will help us build a more tolerant society. I was chatting to one of the teachers and she was saying the Gypsy mums are looked down on for coming to school in their pyjamas, but when they delve a little bit deeper it's because the caravans are cold in winter, so they're doing pretty well to get the kids into their school uniforms.

There isn't much mixing outside of school. I would love the school to do something with the gypsy community to increase understanding and awareness, in the same way they do with religious ceremonies.

The prejudice is awful. A potential new mum was asking me about the lack of diversity in the school. When I corrected her by saying there was heaps, replying about the number of gypsies and Poles I could see they weren't the type of diversity she had in mind....

I'm pleased my children are exposed to learning about different ways of life.

I would be very proud of my child if they became a doctor or something. I just wouldn't let them go to a secondary school setting.

But how would your children get educated? You couldn’t homeschool them as you didn’t have more than a basic education yourself.

Do you ever think you want more for your own children than you have yourself? Better education, better opportunities and broader horizons? I don’t want to offend, but I don’t know any woman that would be happy with such a ‘small’ life. Is it fulfilling?

Love this thread. Thanks OP

@GypsyAMA Apologies if this has been asked already. I was actually thinking recently ( before I saw your thread) that there are never any positive stories in the media about the gypsy or traveler communities.

Why do you think this is? Is it media bias? Do the communities have positive stories but don’t care what the rest of society thinks so don’t bother to publicise it? Or do you feel so marginalised that you would not want to, for example, get involved with things outside your own community?

Yep :)

that's sad 🙁

Thanks for this thread OP. Really interesting.

Can I ask a question about what line of work the men generally go into if they leave school before taking GCSEs? Or is it just the girls that leave education by secondary school (apologies if I’ve missed this upthread.) Do most go into a trade or into the family business?

Theres a horrific difference in life expectancy between Gypsy an gorjer. Even though so many Gypsies are settled now. Why do you think this is?

OP I think you have handled this extremely well considering some of the rough comments you’ve had. Some of the previous poster would do well to remember that non-gypsies also have a subset of the dregs of society too and the gypsies aren’t questioning us about them.

Anyway my question is quite light-where do you like to go on holiday? Do you go somewhere hot with all inclusive or do you go somewhere for culture? Do gypsies have a drinking culture like non gypsies?