RatCreature (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ratcreature) wrote2009-01-22 03:25 pm
ratcreature) wrote2009-01-22 03:25 pm
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this week's Criminal Minds
I'm really pissed off that the whole episode was built around the bizarre idea that Romani, in some kind of insulated subculture thing, were stealing children and murdering their parents, (not to mention live on petty crime, but that prejudice is fairly omnipresent).
IMO it made no dent at all in their racist message that, iirc, in two instances it was described as "perversion of Romani culture", considering that the end revealed that it wasn't just a single family passing on serial killer traditions, but a whole group of people and going on for a long time. Considering that the "gypsies will steal your children" is the kind of traditional prejudice that was used to justify systematic oppression and violence against Romani over centuries, I can't believe they went there. The mind boggles. I mean, in present day that is rather "out there" on the ridiculousness-scale of racist urban legends (I guess kind of like "Jews sacrifice babies"), and I don't think it's that present anymore in this extreme form (unlike the idea that all Romani were thieves and generally criminals, uneducated and superstitious, all those are alive and well, at least here), but still. WTF?
Seriously, Romani activists are still fighting against systematic (and sometimes even today still legislated) discrimination, there have been laws aimed at destroying their culture for a long time, not just during the holocaust when they were murdered (and afterwards the survivors weren't even acknowledged as victims for a long time, but still painted as criminals), but also all the laws aimed against itinerant lifestyles and so on. The assimilation politics aimed at destroying Roma culture continued after WWII and sometimes still do, and pretty much the only ones stealing children were authorities taking children from Roma families to force them into these assimilation schemes, like when they put Roma children into institutions and separated them from their families. Roma were also victims of forced sterilization programs in some countries, some of these have continued into the 1970s, iirc. And the racist prejudice against Romani are still bad and widespread. And from this episode it doesn't seem that Romani in the US are much better off in their public image than in Europe.
IMO it made no dent at all in their racist message that, iirc, in two instances it was described as "perversion of Romani culture", considering that the end revealed that it wasn't just a single family passing on serial killer traditions, but a whole group of people and going on for a long time. Considering that the "gypsies will steal your children" is the kind of traditional prejudice that was used to justify systematic oppression and violence against Romani over centuries, I can't believe they went there. The mind boggles. I mean, in present day that is rather "out there" on the ridiculousness-scale of racist urban legends (I guess kind of like "Jews sacrifice babies"), and I don't think it's that present anymore in this extreme form (unlike the idea that all Romani were thieves and generally criminals, uneducated and superstitious, all those are alive and well, at least here), but still. WTF?
Seriously, Romani activists are still fighting against systematic (and sometimes even today still legislated) discrimination, there have been laws aimed at destroying their culture for a long time, not just during the holocaust when they were murdered (and afterwards the survivors weren't even acknowledged as victims for a long time, but still painted as criminals), but also all the laws aimed against itinerant lifestyles and so on. The assimilation politics aimed at destroying Roma culture continued after WWII and sometimes still do, and pretty much the only ones stealing children were authorities taking children from Roma families to force them into these assimilation schemes, like when they put Roma children into institutions and separated them from their families. Roma were also victims of forced sterilization programs in some countries, some of these have continued into the 1970s, iirc. And the racist prejudice against Romani are still bad and widespread. And from this episode it doesn't seem that Romani in the US are much better off in their public image than in Europe.
no subject
I would have loved if, rather than it just being the "Reid and Prentiss know everything" show - which is awesome, on occasion - they had to consult with someone who was Romani who could have looked at the unsub family and gone, "Wow, these people are crazy and have no idea what the hell they're doing, because that's not what we do at all, this is what we really do." And then I realized what I really wanted was some sort of Romani version of John Blackwolf. Because really - they do such a good job dealing with Native American culture, and then they just really fell down on the job here. Extremely disappointing, especially as it was a great episode in other ways.
no subject
It didn't even make any sense on a pure plot level. I mean, they never explained how this crazy subgroup managed to keep separate and secret from their own people and other relatives too over the long term (at some point, unless they were really trying to say Romani were okay with child stealing, the one who started this must have had sane relatives and a community after all), even if they managed to completely stay under the radar of the authorities despite a lifestyle based on criminal activities (which I find hard to believe in itself over such a long time with a large group). And what are they doing with their own girls? Nothing of this made sense if you looked a little deeper. So I found it stretched my suspension of disbelief a lot even disregarding the racist cliches.