Apparently I seriously offended ljorna with my entry yesterday. She didn’t much like my reference to gypsies. Areavoices gives me the opportunity to approve or disapprove every comment that comes in before it’s posted, and I seriously thought about trashing this comment. Then I gave it a second thought and decided to let it post and to respond to it.
“ljorna says:
“We lived like gypsies.â€
You don’t know very much about “Gypsies†at all. How insulting and racist.”
Now before you go getting your undies in a bundle (obvioulsy it’s too late for that), ljorna, let me explain a thing or two. No, I am definitely not an authority on Gypsies, nor do I even pretend to be. Webster’s Dictionary defines the word GYPSY as “One inclined to a nomadic, unconventional way of life. A person who moves from place to place as required for employment.” If you have an issue with that I would suggest you take it up with Webster!
If you will go back and reread my previous entry and pay attention to it this time, you will find that we DID move from place to place – frequently. It was a very nomadic, unconventional way of life and it was related to my father’s employment. In no way was it, nor was it meant to be insulting or racist. If you couldn’t see that from the entry then I think you’re being a bit on the overly sensitive side.  If you care to, I would invite you to educate all of us on Gypsies. If you write a response I will gladly copy and paste it into this blog.
My blog is entitled The Adventures of Ole and Lena. In reality Ole and Lena are two fictitious Scandinavian-Americans that have the ability to laugh at themselves. There are tons of books written full of Ole and Lena jokes. No one is certain when and where Ole and Lena jokes began, but they may have come from self-deprecating Scandinavian-Americans making fun of themselves and each other. Some of the jokes get quite derrogatory, but they are all in fun and are taken that way. I don’t know of one single person of Scandinavian heritage that takes offense at being the butt of some story that depicts the Norwegians and Swedes as being dumb and stupid. Scandinavians may be stoic, but they are known for their sense of humor. I suggest you acquire one.Â
Remember the song by Cher – Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves? Here’s my version of that:
Hoboes, Tramps, but No Thieves
When I was a kid growing up we lived alongside the railroad tracks.  At that time there were still steam locomotives going by pulling the long trains of boxcars going from place to place across the United States. The trains would stop on a regular basis to take on a load of water or grain or whatever was available that needed hauling.    Behind our house was a rather large grove of trees that was known in the local area as Bum’s Jungle.  When the train stopped the hoboes that were riding the trains would hop on and off the boxcars, spend the night in the hobo camp and then move on. Fortunately, we never had any come to the door asking for food or money.
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My mother spent her younger years growing up in southern Minnesota on a farm, where it was not uncommon for men to come walking up to the farmhouse looking for a handout. Some of them would offer to fix things in return for some food, others just wanted to be fed. She said her mother always managed to find something to feed them regardless of the time of day, just to make sure that there would be no trouble. She would make them fresh coffee, sit them down on the back porch and give them a plate of food. My Mom always remembers them as being polite and saying thank you for whatever they were given. Occasionally there would be one or two that her father would hire to help with the field work if needed. They would sleep in the barn in the hay and considered it to be pretty comfy and warm compared to sleeping in the boxcars on trains.
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Apparently, they had their own sign language and would leave “marks” in conspicuous places for the hobos that followed to let them know what the conditions of the area were – where you could always get a good handout or where you might be met with a shotgun. Note the markings on this fence rail.Â
My parents were married in the early 30′s, during the Great Depression. My father tried to farm in central North Dakota where things were pretty dry. He said he put seed in the ground for seven years before he finally got any kind of a crop, and there were times when his cows had to eat thistles because there was no grass.
Because of these conditions there were a lot of men moving about the country looking for work, using any method of transportation they could – the railroads being the most common. My Mom was always a shutterbug and I think must have carried her Brownie Box Camera with her wherever she went. I found these pictures in one of her scrapbooks.
She said it was taken in the spring of the year and the top of the train was full of young men headed west. She and her mother had gone to town to sell some chickens to get some cash to buy groceries and managed to snap this picture as the train went through town.
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So – How High’s the Water Today, Mama? If I was Johnny Cash I would say, “Six feet high and risin’.” But I’m not and it’s not. It’s still on a slow and steady drop – and our forecast couldn’t be more ideal. Warm temps during the day and freezing at night. I have to take these days and thoroughly enjoy them as who knows what Mother Nature will drop on us before we get the ole’ Buffalo River back in her banks and tamed down again. So being there’s nothing too exciting happening with the river right now I have to find something else to entertain you with. Hope you enjoy my stories -
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Love, Lena
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Goodness, sounds like someone didn’t have their cup of coffee that morning! Ljourna, honey, if you’re having a bad day, go take it out on someone else. Hiding behind an anonymous name is pretty cowardly.
Gypsies have been depicted as transients all my life. On TV, in the movies, anywhere you saw them, they were shown this way. I remember an episode of Bonanza where the gypsies came to the area and all the havoc they wreaked. They were on the Beverly Hillbillies and I Love Lucy. Always the same. Has Ljourna lived without benefit of TV?
As for Hoboes, when I was a kid, we lived across the highway from the railroad track. I well remember my mother feeding them on the porch. I don’t remember her ever turning anyone away. Course, in this day, that could mean the end of your life, but not back then when even poor people were honorable. They were always polite and probably had tired ears when they left, because I’m sure I talked their ears nearly off.
I have seen Gypsies in Scandinavia and Europe. The Webster definition is accurate. Maybe a cup of good Scandinavia coffee in the morning would mellow one before over- reacting.
They used to call blacks niggers too. Indians were savages. Spics, degos, pollacks, etc. Yes “Gypsies” have been depicted as transients. How were blacks depicted? See how that has changed (a little) over time too? “Gypsy” is slowly changing as well. It is another stereotype anti-racists are working hard to eliminate.
As for Webster:
1: a member of a traditionally itinerant people who originated in northern India and now live chiefly in south and southwest Asia, Europe, and North America
2: romany 2
3 not capitalized : one that resembles a Gypsy; especially : wanderer
Do you resemble a “Gypsy” that is forced to be nomadic because no one will accept you and your family? Had your family really been “Gypsies” they would have been most unwelcome in many towns, yes, even in America. Some were lynched along with the blacks. Maybe your family were holocaust victims…. 70% of Europe’s Roma were exterminated under the Nazi regime. Is that a past with which you want to ascribe?
The problem with American TV is that it has historically depicted a stereotype. Not all Roma are nomadic. Not all Roma wear hoop earrings, long skirts and tell fortunes. Americans have a tendency to romanticize that which they don’t understand.
If you want to know Roma through video, try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvJv61xlXTE or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmLUp2_h50c&NR=1
Is this how you live? Is this how you want to live? Why would you identify yourself as “Gypsy”, but not help them? This is how it is for Roma all around the world. You call yourself a “Gypsy” because no one will come burn you out of your home for saying so (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1VcTHz_Boc). No one will deport you. The skinheads won’t beat you. If you go to the doctor he won’t sterilize you without telling you. Because you are not really a “Gypsy” – you just pretend to be because you move around a lot. Perhaps, you and your family were just nomads.
The first basic step in separating myths and stereotypes from facts and authenticity is in the use of our terminology. Rom means a human being, person or man in the Romani language. The Roma do not call themselves Gypsies. Historically, the term “Gypsy” came from the mistaken assumption on the part of Anglo-Europeans that Roma originated in Egypt. In fact, the Roma are a distinct ethnic minority, distinguished at least by Rom blood and the Romani, or Romanes, language, whose origins began in the Punjab region of India. Their migration began in the 2th Century, when they traveled through the Persian Gulf, Egypt, Turkey, eventually spreading all over Europe. While Roma are Europe’s largest ethnic minority, they remain the least integrated and the most persecuted people of Europe today.
Using the word “Gypsy” is not only inaccurate but perpetuates the continuation of stereotypes that portray Roma as beggars, swindlers, and thieves; thus the phrase: “I’ve been gypped”. The romanticized image of the “Gypsy” is alive and well in song lyrics, novels, costume parties, musical groups, and other forms of cultural imagery: “They are exotic women in colorful skirts, dancing in sensual swirls. They are dark en with smoldering eyes. They are carefree spirits playing the tambourine.” They dance by campfires, travel in caravans, tell fortunes with crystal balls or Tarot cards. (VoiceofRoma)
http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/writings/files/plrom.html
Hazel, in Scandinavia you probably saw travelers, maybe Sinti. I don’t know what you saw in Europe and you may not either. There are many different Roma.
i hope my words and links are food for thought and that it explains why my “undies” were in a bundle (read some of the comments against Roma on the links, you’ll see, I hope). Perhaps it will lead you, and your readers, to learn who the “Gypsies” are and why the exogenous term is derogatory.
Lena, don’t let this ljorna bother you. Some people just have nothing better to do then make mountains out of mole hills. You were not romanticizing your “gypsy like†childhood, merely making a correlation. So far your blog hasn’t offended any Norwegians, Swedes, Finns, poop truck drivers or condom wearers. Ljorna, I suggest you find someone else’s blog to read, people with no sense of humor shouldn’t go to comedies.
Thanks for the comment, Becky. You are so correct.
Holy crap with condoms in the trees!! Seriously? Ljourna you must have too much time on your hands. Perhaps you could apply that time to helping sandbag?
Oh my goodness. Please note that I am publishing both my first AND last names, to forestall any accusations of hiding behind anonymity. Ladies… everything that “Ljorna” wrote happens to be true. Just as it’s true that the word “Gypsy” (usually with an incorrect small “g”) is in our vernacular. Just as other terms that we know recognize as hurtful and politically incorrect. I understand Ljorna’s vehemence – many might find it well-founded. But I really don’t understand the group insistence that she is to be censored, shut up, no attention paid to the very real and intensely important points she made. Did anyone actually bother to check out the links she provided? I’m sure that “Lena” isn’t a bad person, and I’m sure no one here is. But what if the term had been “jewed down”? Plenty of people use/used that terminology too and I don’t think anyone would defend it (at least, I hope not). We rarely get an opportunity to learn and improve. You may not agree with the messenger’s style, but it doesn’t hurt to check out the message… and learn a little. Peace and hope for a better world for us all.
Yes, Elizabeth, I did check out all the links that Ljorna left in her comments. But before she hangs me by the neck she needs to understand that when I used the word Gypsy I only meant that we were a very transient people and moved frequently because that’s what my father’s employment required. I certainly did not appreciate being called insulting and racist. I have no control over what the others that have posted to this blog think. I can only tell you and Ljorna what I meant. And I feel that being called racist and insulting just because of the entry I made was in very poor taste. If I had wanted to censor Ljorna I wouldn’t have allowed her comment to post. But in all fairness to her I did even though I thought HER comment was insulting to me.
So to be absolutely sure that I’m not stepping on toes in the future, should I avoid using the word “slave?”
There becomes a point where things get OVERLY P.C. I believe this is one of those times. I don’t think that Lena was out to insult anybody, rather was using a word out of the dictionary to describe a part of her transient life in the 50′s. Oh wait, can I use transient? Might I be offending homeless or transients??
Also using first and last name (and Ljorna is one of my students who was told specifically not to use real contact information on forums). Ljorna’s first post did come across harsh, but her second is on target. Slavery and transient do not refer to an ethnic group of people, therefore is not a valid comparison at all. We should all try to avoid using ethnic slurs. It isn’t easy. Many people don’t know “gypped” is ethnic. Just look at the Wiki list of slurs (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ethnic_slurs). I believe we are all guilty of using at least one. BUT, we can learn not to and, more importantly, we can work for change. Some dictionaries, often a bit behind in modern vocabulary, have not yet caught up with that slur.
I am saddened at the responses here. It is always my hope that at least one person will respond, when informed, with a thank you and they didn’t know about the word and will, in the future, not use it. After all, it begins with changing the mind of just one person.
Ljorna, Ms. Schwartz, there is still such a long way to go. Maybe someone else who has read this post will have been touched by it and he or she is out there googling away, opening the mind and will be one to speak out in the future.
By the way, Lena, the group of students with whom I am working this semester are required to “monitor” websites that use ethnic words inappropriately and that is how she found your blog. I assure you Ljorna’s post was well intended as was my assignment to her. It serves two purposes, the first to inform others, like you, of discrimination and stereotyping; the other, to put students in a forum where they may have to practice temperance and take abuse. The latter is certainly much more the case. I have, therefore, asked her not to make any more posts here.
Peace,
Melissa Hughes
Wow, monitor sites for inappropriately used ethnic words, jump in to post inflammatory material, and use false names is the assignment you gave a class of students? Then you get upset about students having to “take abuse” after you set them up for it? Putting students in positions where they are in over their heads and blaming others who don’t see the world as you think they should is not good educational practice.
I understand fighting racism and stereotypes but your methods are poorly thought out and unfair to your students. This whole blog is a racial stereotype. The people who read this and enjoy it are not going to respond favorably to a post from a student sent out to make everyone think the way their professor has told them it the “right and only way to think”.
To pull out one inappropriately used word and expect posters to apologize for offending that particular ethnic group, on a blog that uses derogatory slurs toward multiple ethnic groups regularly as humor, shows an incredible amount of self-importance and self-centeredness usually only displayed by the youth and the truly self-centered. This sort of display only firms the resolve of those you are trying to change. Please reconsider your practices or at least quit hiding your hubris behind students.
By the way Lena, unlike our offended friends, I get your humor and I enjoy it. I am an Irish girl married to a Norwegian. I often take time off from writing angry letters to Notre Dame about their culturally insensitive mascot to yell at my stubborn husband for his Scandinavian ways.
Cheers!
Wow, Shannon. You really came through and have my back! I appreciate that very much. In today’s world everyone seems to be afraid to be anything but politically correct and it’s going WAY TO FAR. Few people even have a sense of humor anymore. Thanks so much for your comments. Because your comment is in an older post, I may pull it forward and write about it in my current entries if you don’t mind. Please let me know.
Thanks again.
Lena
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Lena,
If you think it is still relevant feel free to pull it forward. I just found your blog yesterday and have been reading my way through. Good stuff! I did not realize how far behind I was until after I posted. I have to say, I do like your day to day take on life posts better than this PC junk, but I love that you are not backing down. This being offended on behalf of every random group you can come up with has really gone to far. It is unfortunate that students are being used by this professor in this way.
Best Regards!