User blog comment:Samwysesr/Ethnic Identity/@comment-5454132-20170106122502

Well Garfzilla, they taught me the word 'Indian' in second grade with regards to Indigenous Americans—that doesn't make it any less offensive, racist or insensitive. Sorry, but the bottom line is that unless you are a member of the race/ethnicity in question, you have no say in what we find offensive or consider a slur. The word 'G*psy' doesn't mean some whimsical, romantic, free thing—the word doesn’t stand for that, no matter what you might read in any dictionary or what you might have been taught in second grade. Those very definitions are based on racist stereotypes—they are an attempt to appropriate and reshape a racial slur that is rooted in centuries of slavery and oppression. The Ottomans enslaved the Romani and sold them to nations across the continent; the Greeks gave these slaves the name “Tsigganoi” meaning “untouchable”, and soon derivations were popping up all across Europe—Zigeuner, Cigano… and G*psy. 'G*psy' slaves worked right alongside African slaves on plantations across the south—so when WE say it is a word rooted in centuries of blood and hatred and oppression just like the 'N'word and people like you chime in, attempting to over speak us and invalidate what we say, it's offensive. Even worse, it's an act of passive racism in and of itself—you are clearly implying that your right to use a slur is more important than how that slur makes the oppressed group it targets feel. Google Mitko/Roma are equal and read about the 17 year old boy who was violently beaten by a racist who hurled the slur at him throughout the beating—or google Natalka Kudrikova, the 3 yr old Romani girl who lost 80% of her skin when racists threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of her family's home. Then go to this link ( http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/warning-graphic-roma-boy-beaten-paris-article-1.1835957 ) and read about Darius, the 16 yr old Roma boy who was drug from his home, beaten and left in a shopping cart because local Whites thought he was a 'thieving G*psy'. Still need more? Do a search on the forced sterilization of Romani women in Slovakia, Czech Republic and a slew of other European countries. Look up the segregated schools in Romania, where Roma children are forced into 'special ed' classes because 'everyone knows they are too stupid to learn'. Research the walled ghettos they are forced to live in without electricity or running water. Perhaps after reading all those things you will begin to understand what the SLUR 'G*psy' means to my people—or maybe you just won't care, because after all, they taught it to you in second grade, so that automatically negates the centuries of oppressive, blood soaked history behind it, right?