Who's Roma?

The number of historians, sociologists and anthropologists that make the Romas an important point in their study agenda is becoming bigger, even so, there are certain aspects, some that may seem insignificant details at a first analysis, and I’m referring here to the way in which a Roma’s physical traits may actually influence the way in which he/she will ethnically indentify. To make it even more simple, it’s something almost identical to colorism, term originally used to define the self imposed borders that were and still are in the African-American community based on the shade of one’s skin tone. Things are quite the same within the Roma community, the “borders” that I mentioned earlier are sustained by an exterior influence.

Basically, those Romas that have a more European complexion tend to be more accepted by non-Romas, even within the community itself, some more light skinned Romas tend to regard themselves as superior in comparison to the more “Indian looking” Romas. The connection between looks and ethnic belonging can be quite a controversial subject, this mainly do the fact that Roma history was to a certain extent marked by intermixing with the groups that they came in contact with, in many other cases, intermixing resulted from rape which was quite common back in the days of slavery.  Even in the case of Romania, where the Romas are one of the oldest ethnic minorities, there are many members of this ethnicity, some of them that are even public figures, that could easily pass as Romanians.

To make things more hard to understand then they already are, there are certain segments and groups of the present-day Roma community that were assimilated, or rather labeled as Romas, in the Middle Ages where the Romanian term “tigan” (gypsy) was originally attributed to the poorest segment of the population of that time, basically it didn’t define an ethnic group to begin with.  In time, the term became narrower, thus incorporating even those segments that had no ethnic or cultural connection with the Romas, but rather that shared the same low social status back in the day. A good example on this topic is that of the Rudari, a group that is traditionally assimilated to the Romas, even so, there are certain characteristics that make many Romas to believe that association between them and the Rudari is a historical mistake.

 First of all, as an argument, we should mention that the Rudari never spoke Romani, even thou they lived in quite homogeneous communities, they don’t have many traditions that are shared by the majority of Roma groups, and they don’t have the traditional judicial system like the rest of the Roma world. In fact many Romas are clearly denying the Romaness, some Rudari claim to be “old Romanians”, the Romanians label them as Romas but they make a distinction between them and other Roma groups.  A other point of confusion is that with Yenish people, which are also called “white gypsies”, this groups has not actual link with the Roma world, the only common point is that both groups traditionally have a nomadic lifestyle, the Yenish never spoke Romani, they don’t have Roma costumes and their origins are clearly not Indian, but even so, their exact origins are still an enigma.  To extend the list of unclear ethnical borders, in the Balkans, the Muslim Roma community, which is to a certain extent Turkish-speaking, identifies as Turkish, this identification being favorable in the context of discrimination and social exclusion.

Going back to colorism, as mentioned in the lines above, this split within the community was favored to a certain extent by the possibility of the more light skinned Roma to be accepted in society, this being in many cases the first step to their ethnic assimilation.  A more European look gave an individual more trust in the front of others, not being regarded as a “foreigner” or “misfit” as in the case of the ones with the more Indian traits.  This also was fueled by an European-centric perspective on beauty, with many Roma becoming self conscious of their impossibility to fit the “norm”.  

Another thing that needs to be mentioned is that the more light skinned Roma, in the case of Romania at least, tend to be categorized as “ţigani românizaţi” ( Romanianized Gypsies), even thou many light skin Roma may be actively practicing the traditional costumes of their group.  When saying “Romanianized” many from the majority get a feeling that a Roma individual was “cleansed” from the undesirable taste that Roma traditionalism leaves in their mouth.

With this being said, I hope that both Romanian and Roma people will beautifully evolve their own path, but it would be even more beautiful if this path will be walked together, thus leading to a brighter future that is marked by love and mutual acceptance!