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.

@shearwater2

There have been many specific questions asking OP if she could tell us the difference between Irish travel and Roma Gypsies.

She really hasn't done a great job on that. I actually think that is one of the biggest realisations of this thread that people are treating them as 1 homogeneous group.

If anyone could answer this question, I think we would all be better educated.

OP is not a traveller, she is Roma, so how would she know?

What a silly post. Working class people also benefit from doctors, solucitors, engineers etc, yet their children have very limited opportunities to enter these professions. It's pure hypocrisy to pretend that enduring a few years of getting beaten up in the local shitty comp somehow opens up the same opportunities as those enjoyed by the middle class who have access to private schools and tutoring, and who don't have to worry about university costs. I think the OP is very clear sighted about the utility or otherwise of secondary education, and she hasn't ruled out home education if her DC want to pursue qualifications.

I can help with this

Irish Travellers and Romany Gypsies are distinct ethnic groups, each is a race of people with unique origins and different customs.

Gypsies are part of the wider Romani peoples who left India around the 11th century and are believed to have first arrived in UK during the 1500s.

Irish Travellers for a long time were thought to have emerged as a distinct group from Ireland in the 19th century, however a recent & seminal DNA study showed that they emerged from Ireland in the 16th century. This study also reinforced that they were an ethnic group distinct from both the rest of the Irish population and the Romani.

As to the cultural differences between the two races, I don’t know and not qualified to say. I could look it up, though, and the op has already pointed out that grabbing is an Irish Traveller custom and not something practised by Gypsies.

But this is the opposite of the post on the previous page about Gypsy ethnic origins. She said that research showed that Gypsies are not a distinct ethnic group. They might have originated in South Asia but they have mixed so much with other groups as they’ve moved through Europe that they are now as much a mixed bag as other white Europeans.

You talked about being identifiable by how you dress. How do you dress? Do you where some kind of traditional clothing?

In law Gypsies are recognised as a distinct ethnic group.

In reality it may be that they've mixed to such an extent as the OP says, I don't know, but it's possible to accept both as fact.

Gypsies today still have a unique cultural and DNA heritage that is distinct from other populations.

@GypsyAMA if you're still answering questions, can you explain more about the differences in customs between Gypsies and Travellers please?
(If you know, of course, I recognise there's an assumption here that you do!)

Well that encouraging little intro is going to draw her out to share.

What I find a bit alarming in this thread is all the prejudice and closed-mindedness about the freedoms of others to pursue different lifestyles in a context where those same posters are condescendingly lauding the benefits of “education” and freedom of the individual ( ie women should be allowed to live as they choose). It seems however what is really meant is a ratification ( and replication) of their own values and an education up to and including, say, GCSE maths - or even A levels or a first degree; but leaving them unable to comprehend learning about the world in a way that might tilt their mind open more broadly still.

In my case, I went to university as it was the only way I could become a doctor, howvere I also enjoyed reading and learning about things, and there was a lot more of that (and especially in depth discussion of interesting topics from a high level of knowledge) at university than I could have got being a SAHM, even if I had been mixing with others who wanted to discuss such things.

I'm an introvert and teetotal so the social aspect of uni wasn't terribly appealing to me.

Come on OP, hurry up … lest you be deemed as not knowing much about yourself.

Honestly, the condescension on this thread.

Hi Op. Thank you for this thread and your answers. I too would like to understand more on this point.

It’s hardly ‘prejudice’ to point out that any ethnic group routinely taking their girls out of school after primary is depriving those girls of any variety of free choice of future. That’s not a charming cultural quirk, it’s a human rights issue.

It’s not silly at all, it’s a great question actually. Higher education is not for everyone, but everyone should have a choice. Higher education is not available to most gypsies or travellers. And home education is not much of an education when the ”teacher” is not educated as a teacher or educated at all.

Yes, I would call that a resistance group.

I find it interesting that you think the stereotypes would “die off”. It’s up to the rest of us to educate ourselves and stop tarring while communities with the same brush.
It’s up to us to educate ourselves.

And I don’t disagree about the benefits of education. But I do believe that education is something going far beyond the potted summaries provided by school qualifications and that having got those ultimately fairly humdrum credentials does not justifiy the sort of hasty denigration showing up on this thread. True education is about trying to grasp a broader picture about what makes the world tick.

@Brexile but giving WC children an education does give those children a chance to enter those professions.

Universities give contextual offers to children who go to shitty comps, although there should be no such thing as a shitty comp.

Not sending children to school and not being educated enough to homeschool them, gives them almost zero chance of entering these professions.

Not that it's really my business, as long as it's done somewhere safe and not likely to spread... but I wonder if the setting fire to the caravan of somebody who has died might not be a tradition that's carried forward so well to the modern day.

Leaving aside my own feelings that it's a waste of good resources and a shame to lose all of the history and memories of your loved one that were bound up with their home and passing down through the generations... I can see how traditional wooden caravans would have burned easily and without much fuss, with the few metal parts - axles etc. - surviving the fire and being able to be disposed of/re-used. However, now that most Gypsies seem to favour modern caravans, made with abundant plastic, fibreglass and other non-burn-friendly materials, I can imagine it must leave quite a lot of acrid, polluting smoke behind that lingers for some time.

Also, this is probably a very niche question, but is Danny Sebastian (from Bargain Hunt, Junk Rescue and other shows of that kind of genre) a Gypsy (or of Gypsy heritage)? He always comes across as a very kind, honest, caring, knowledgeable man and I really like him and his programmes.

Having said that, I notice that the list of famous people who are Gypsies mentioned upthread only included men. Are there no female Gypsy celebrities - or is this maybe related to the tradition of women staying at home and their job being to look after the family, rather than breaking out into wider society and fame, as more of the men might do?

Such an interesting thread. I agree that the whole of the gypsy community cannot be bad people but I do think the most frightening thing is that there is a school of thought that the men are quite happy to resolve things with violence.

So if they do a job, you are not happy, they don’t really fear the police at all (seems to be the other way around) you have no comebacks against them at all!

I was away a few weekends ago and not sure if it was travellers/romany but they were going around London on their horses. I think it was a special event or something.

Theres no point people judging you personally as they don’t know you and it’s live and let live.

I do find it slightly restrictive that girls and women are expected to be sahm but I saw on Tyson Fury’s documentary that his teen daughter was totally ready for her path - to leave education and come what may.

I think there are charities now aswell who help women escape DV but specialist ones as I think the men do try to track them down with vigour!

I wonder what other men think about women getting battered by their husbands (I know it’s not them all) but am I right I’m thinking that the man rules the roost!

Also is it right that yous don’t use the toilet in the caravan? (Think that might be Irish) because of the germs?

I do have some first hand experience it’s too outing but what I will say is that even the police said it was not worth making a complaint about this particular thing as the person would be very very vulnerable to reprisals!

Wow a lot of questions overnight. Quite a few have already been covered. I noticed a few people unhappy with my answers, yes some are short but there have been an awful lot of questions to get through and if you read my replies I have answers a lot of follow up questions. There are also certain posters I'm ignoring because they can't be civil.

Thanks so much for all of the lovely comments.

I will try to cover to most common topics.

Mystic/superstition
I don't know anyone these days who considers themselves to be mystic or psychic in any way. Fully enough though most of us have grandparents who are remembered this way. In all honesty I'm not sure I believe in it all so maybe I'm not the best to comment on that.
We are known to be very superstitious and there are so many things that you can/can't do and say because they are considered bad luck. Again, I'm not a great believer in all of that (see I don't just blindly follow like a cult!).

Difference between gypsies and travellers
My understanding is that Romany gypsy is an ethnic group that originated in India. I was under the impression that it could be traced back like any other ethnicity but posts on here suggest otherwise. Irish travellers are no different ethnically from any other Irish by any Irish person, it's more a way of life I think although I'm no expert.

Education
Firstly, I really resent all of the people calling me stupid and stuff simply because I didn't go to school. But a person who had finished school, done poorly and wasn't very intelligent would somehow be more able to make decisions than me? In all honesty this view says a lot more about you than it does about me and it's a shame that in all your years of schooling you didn't learn how to be a decent person. My inability to perform a science experiment has funnily enough never held me back yet.
I've answered a lot of education questions and I really don't know what else to say, there are plenty of gypsies who get an education and some have even posted/been mentioned on this thread.

Healthcare
Our use of healthcare is the same as anyone else's although a lot of the time men won't get medical attention when they probably should.

Children with additional needs
We love and care for all of our children and I know so many people with SEN children who they do so much for. We also wouldn't have a termination due to downs syndrome etc but that could be more of a religious belief.

Wow, someone swallowed a dictionary for breakfast. No idea what you’re wittering on about, I’ve never once mentioned the education system.

I am “wittering on about” your quite frankly derogatory description of the gypsy wedding. Of course you are entitled to your views; I’ve got mine too. But prefacing your “ interest” in gypsy weddings by conveying your opinions that they are “shocking” affairs with “ girls who look “miserable “ and “very young” is not an open-minded discursive attitude.

Shocking amount of ignorance and racism on this thread- asking one woman to explain poor behaviour of others just because they might be the same race.

There is poor behaviour in all races and cultures, school stabbing on the news this morning, high rates of domestic violence in the UK, drug and alcohol addiction etc- do you feel like you have to explain/justify the bad behaviour in your culture/race? I don’t. There will always be good and bad, why is racism against gypsies and travellers so acceptable to you? Presumably you’re also passing this vile hatred onto your children too? Shameful and embarrassing.

I don’t know what statistics you’re talking about or where you got them. I only know my community and I can think a couple separations. I do know some that don’t write gypsy on official things because they worry about prejudice. Maybe the data you’re looking at is not correct because of this?
again to your point of the high separation is odd. I really don’t know that many separations. I went to school with gorjas and most their parents were separated. That’s just where I am though.
it’s unfair what you’ve said about being a cop out. I’ve said what I’ve said. My children can choose. There’s so much hatred towards us though that the minute people find out you’re a gypsy school becomes very hard from peers and teachers. My cousin went to university and became a children’s nurse and her dad is very proud of her.

I agree. The OP has offered up an opportunity to learn about a different lifestyle and way of approaching the world. It may not be for all of us; but since we are all so big on education, it would seem, how about embracing the opportunity of learning how things might look from the inside of another tradition. Or does passing a few GCSEs slam that learning door shut?