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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

See all MNHQ comments on this thread

Original poster

AIBU to find it disgusting that gypsies have taken over a school playground

808 replies

Adizzylass2014 · 04/04/2015 22:17

whilst attending my best friends wedding today in a little village I was horrified to see that gypsies had taken over the school playground. There was rubbish all over the floor, children and dogs running all over the place and scantily clad women puffing away.
why a school playground, these people have no morals. The poor caretaker is going to have his work cut out for him as there was at least 15 caravans! Angry

OP posts:
Coconutty · 07/04/2015 10:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Koalafications · 07/04/2015 11:07

I really don't get the love that MN has for travellers.

That's what you have got from this thread, Janice?! Really? That MN loves Travellers? The fact a nasty thread about an ethnic minority has been allowed to stand shows that's bollocks. The fact that lots of comments about Gypsies and Travellers on the thread are ignorant at best and racist at the worst.

I'd hate to see what you thought a thread about hating a race looked like if you think this is 'love'

Hmm Confused

OrlandoWoolf · 07/04/2015 11:11

The fact a nasty thread about an ethnic minority has been allowed to stand shows that's bollocks. The fact that lots of comments about Gypsies and Travellers on the thread are ignorant at best and racist at the worst

Is it nasty to point out that the majority of experiences people have had with travellers have been negative?

Is it nasty to point out that people fear what would happen if they were to confront a group of travellers who have pitched up?

Is it nasty that the expectation is that if a group of travellers pitched up, the expectation is that the place would be left a mess - and it would be a pleasant surprise if it was left tidy?

Koalafications · 07/04/2015 11:16

Change the references to Black/Chinese/Muslim/Hindu/Sikh and ask yourself those questions again.

OrlandoWoolf · 07/04/2015 11:18

Change the references to Black/Chinese/Muslim/Hindu/Sikh and ask yourself those questions again.

Yes - but most people do not have predominantly negative experiences with such groups.

As has been pointed out repeatedly on here, many people's only experience of travellers has been overwhelmingly negative.

JustJanice · 07/04/2015 11:21

Mumsnet is hilarious Grin

There's a thread about eating food before you get to the checkout - even when you intend to pay - and the general concensus is that it's the lowest of the low. People are FOAMING.

But point out that you've had problems with travellers ACTUALLY OPENLY STEALING stuff and all of a sudden that's glossed over. You're having a go at ethnic minorities!!

Bullshit.

I'm sure not all travellers are dodgy. In fact I'd bet money they're not all dodgy.

But I've NEVER known any occasions where their arrival hasn't meant trouble in one way or another. That isn't being racist, or anythingelse-ist. That's my experience, and the experience of loads of other people too.

Sallyingforth · 07/04/2015 11:34

And as has been pointed out repeatedly, you cannot lump all travellers together as an ethnic minority.
Some have a genuine ethnic background going back many generations - the real gypsies. Some are the Irish travellers who have houses back home. Some are recent European tradesmen doing honest work and living out of vans. Some are out-and-out crooks living by theft - pikeys. Any of us here could buy or steal a caravan and take to the road calling ourselves travellers.
What is entirely wrong is for all of the above to claim protection and privilege and free facilities under the legislation properly intended to protect the decent way of life of the real ethnic minority who need and deserve it.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 07/04/2015 11:36

Maybe it would be worth turning this round a bit? It seems most of us want to believe that troublemaking travellers are genuinely a minority; if that's so, there must be cases where the more visible ones (such as those who pitch up somewhere and stay a few days) have come and gone with no problems to the wider community

Surely someone - anyone - can tell us of a case where this has happened?

OrlandoWoolf · 07/04/2015 11:39

And I do find this thread slightly ironic - there is a group on MN who is repeatedly condemned, stereotyped and ridiculed - but few people leap to defend them. Yet most of the people in this groups are decent people just trying to live their lives. Yet there are some horrible threads and stereotypes thrown about on here about some groups of which the vast majority of people do not live up to the "expected stereotype".

But that's MN for you. Some groups are more deserving of support than others.

rebelfor · 07/04/2015 11:43

I live in a fairly large town in the North West. Pakistanis & Bangladeshis have lived here for decades now, and we have had a fair few Eastern European immigrants alongside Nigerians and others from Somalia settle here.
By and large, the people live alongside each other with little problems.
Travellers are the only group who cause a collective sigh when they arrive, causing mayhem.
I'd laugh in the face of anyone who called me a racist for saying that.

TheNewStatesman · 07/04/2015 11:55

"The thing is you probably have neighbours and work colleagues that are Romany, or teachers, doctors, whatever you wouldn't necessarily know."

You don't get it, do you?

Most people here (I hope) have no problem with Traveller/Romany ETHNICITY.

It is the traveling LIFESTYLE that is sometimes/often causing problems.

hazeyjane · 07/04/2015 12:15

I have worked with gypsies, travelled around with New Age travellers and really have no desire to paint anyone with some broad brush of resentment.

My family has also been in a (probably fairly unique to be fair!) position where we have had groups of travellers/gypsies park up in very close proximity to our family on 3 separate occasions and locations. At best my dh has had to clear up a lot of (very unpleasant and hazardous) mess after the camps have disbanded. At worst we have been physically threatened, had our mobile home attacked, had an attempted break in and finally had to leave work and our home.

These experiences were obviously pretty grim, and terrifying, the police seemed utterly powerless and unwilling on occasion to get involved, I don't know why.

Because of our experiences I don't think that all travellers/gypsies are scum and I don't think that any group of individuals is some homogenous mass. I do however, think there needs to be practical discussions about how to deal with incidences like the ones talked about on this thread, and ideas of solutions to how large groups of people can peacefully and lawfully travel and abide temporarily with settled peoples.

If we can discuss these things without one 'side' being demonised and the other 'side' being painted as racists, then we might all get somewhere.

JustJanice · 07/04/2015 12:15

Exactly, TNS.

Nail on the head.

samG76 · 07/04/2015 13:35

TNS - I don't accept this "lifestyle" argument, as that is a part of their culture. I could say that I have nothing against my Indian neighbours in terms of ethnicity, but why do they have to cook curries, live in a nuclear family and have people dropping in frequently. None of the above actually cause me any damage, and that's the difference, as hazeyjane correctly points out....

PeachyPants · 07/04/2015 13:45

It's not part of their culture to intimidate and abuse the settled community, flout the law and leave the places where they stay covered in shit and broken glass. That is the behaviour of some idiots within that community and that is what is being objected to in the stories on this thread.

candidkate · 07/04/2015 14:27

The OP sounded like it was generalizing travelers....its not just gypsies who dump shit everywhere.

imonkey · 07/04/2015 14:31

I think I'm a pretty liberal person and whenever DP would judge travellers I would always defend them. That was until a group of them arrived at my street at around 3am, used cutters to break through a chained gate and set up camp on a private business car park for 2 days. The noise from the generators kept DCs up all night and the mess they left when they went was appalling, a washing machine was one of the many things dumped behind. The police were brilliant in dealing with them but the travellers knew their rights and despite forcing their way on to private property they were allowed to stay for 48 hours. I don't know of anyone who has had travellers set up near them and not had any complaints of some kind of antisocial behavior.

JustJanice · 07/04/2015 14:34

It's just typical mumsnet.

The OP describes a clearly unreasonable and unpleasant situation.

Less than 20 posts later you get "YANBU at all to find it disgusting that travellers have very few places to pitch".

This is the equivalent of posting "AIBU to be disgusted that burglars have stripped my house of valuables and had a shit on my bed?" and getting a reply of "YANBU to be disgusted that some people are so poor that they have to resort to stealing".

Laughable.

PeachyPants · 07/04/2015 14:41

Of course it's not just Gypsies who dump shit everywhere but it was in the situation with the school playground that the OP was describing, how does the OP sound like she is generalising to all travellers? She didn't say that the entire and diverse Gypsy/Traveller community were all in that playground. Of course it's wrong to assume that behaviour is representative of an entire community but, with the exception of a few people whose posts have been deleted, I don't think that has been the case. It feels like as soon as there is a thread about the antisocial activities of one group of Travellers some people are falling over themselves to call 'racism' and label people as bigots for describing their own lived experience.

PrimalLass · 07/04/2015 15:09

The OP sounded like it was generalizing travelers....its not just gypsies who dump shit everywhere.

It didn't in any way.

OrlandoWoolf · 07/04/2015 15:21

If a whole load of caravans suddenly turned up in a school playground, the sad reality is that people would expect there to be a whole pile of crap to clean up afterwards.

Why is there this expectation? Personal experience and not many positive experiences when people pitch up in such places.

samG76 · 07/04/2015 15:41

Peachypants and Primallass - it was a pretty pointless AIBU in that case, but the gypsy part was unnecessary.

Compare

"Isn't it disgusting that my 80 year old mum was mugged last night" - pretty obvious, but not offensive, with

"Isn't it disgusting that my mum was mugged by some Somalis off the council estate" - pretty obvious, but clearly trying to make some point about immigration or the local estate.....

PrimalLass · 07/04/2015 15:49

Probably, but I do think it is useful to discuss things rather than sweep them under the carpet.

PeachyPants · 07/04/2015 15:59

I also think that there's a middle way between those two positions samG76, there is a problem with this type of antisocial behaviour amongst some sections of the traveller community and that is a legitimate point for discussion but is not the same as expressing racist sentiments or saying that all or a majority of travellers behave in this way.

Feminine · 07/04/2015 16:09

apple going back a few pages... But honestly?

"be more like the Amish"
What on earth are you basing that on?