Hi, not sure if someone has posted about Travellers/ Gypsies. I have long debated this in my mind growing up, however I came across an article which I quite enjoyed that described the experiences and coping mechanisms of Travelling children within schools/education. It was called ‘Fight, Flight or Playing White’ Now as a Travelling little girl in primary school I survived by ‘playing white’ I would put on the English accent at school, would not refer to myself as a Traveller. When I moved into secondary school I must say I survived mostly by fighting (physically and verbally) against others pupils and teachers who had something to say about my ethnicity group- far too many incidents to even talk about, it was a daily/weekly occurrence. Many of my family/ cousins simply left school (flight) I can most definitely assure you other Travellers experience severe discrimination on a daily basis and I would go as far as saying it is much more socially acceptable to have these discriminatory views on Travellers than any other ethnicity group/religion.
Similarly to those of black ethnic groups, Travellers also have some of the worst educational outcomes, lower life expectancies, high infant mortality rate and disproportionately represented in the prison system. My uncle was killed whilst in police custody (he had not committed any crime apart from singing too loud on the way home from the pub)
However we do sometimes have the option to play white and deny our identity, not speak our language and forget our history. This is of course in England where we are not so Identifiable (in Ireland they can sniff out a Traveller from a mile away)
What are your thoughts on this?