Why have some people got such a big problem with Travellers (Romany Gypsies)?

Question

Hi,

i'm a Traveller (Romany Gypsy) living in the UK.

Before jumping to answer this question and including all the bad experiences you have had with members of my community, please hear me out.

I went through school from recption to year 11, passed all my GCSE's and hardly had a day off, despite being bullied most of the time.

I now have a good job in an office as an administrator and have recently got married to a hard working traveller, who has a legitimate business. We both pay taxes and neither of us have ever touched anything that doesnt belong to us. Everything we have, we have worked very hard to get. My parents are the same, very hard working and decent people. People who know us, no matter what culture, colour, religion etc. they are, only have nice things to say about us.

Maybe people have had bad experiences with some Travellers but does this mean that they can tar us all with the same brush?

Thank you everyone who has answered, i'm so glad i haven't had any stupid answers!

Thank you to everyone who wishes me well and i hope that any of you who are suffering because of your ethnic background sorts it out soon.

I understand the bad experiences some of you have had, i would never try and say that none of these things have happened because i have seen it happening with my own eyes, but there is bad and good in all cultures.

To the people who asked about me not living the 'gypsy lifestyle', i do travel and i do temping quite alot, my parents have their own ground so this where we pull if i have a jb that is going to last more than a few weeks.

It seems that most people believe that decent travellers are the minority, i hope that you all get to meet others like me who will change your mind , most of the travellers i mix with are decent, just like me.

Wishing you all well,

x

P.S. there were so many good answers, it was hard to choose just one!!

Answer 1

Unfortunately it is the same as what's happening to the Muslims today. A small minority do taint the good name of the majority. Another similarity is the fact that both communities tend to keep themselves to themselves and as a consequence the wider society view them with distrust.
The fact is that most people, in most communities are decent and hardworking.Be proud of who you are. People who pass judgement on those they don't know are the ones who are lacking in values.

Answer 2

Wow, it's a while since I met a true Romany!

The problem you have is with the emergence of "new age" traveller types, who have no ethnic traditions, morals or respect for anyone else. They are basically mobile criminals, who cause trouble and nuisance wherever they go. Many of them are involved in drugs dealing at high levels and have access to some pretty serious weaponry, so tend not to be easily dealt with.

This is many people's experience of the travelling fraternity - and couple that with the fact that Romanys have never been welcomed with open arms by the majority of communities - one can see why people have certain misguided preconceptions about travellers on the whole.

Romanies, however, are a good people as far as I have ever encountered and from what little of their history I have read. Unfortunately the romantic image of the Romany Gypsy has dwindled over the last 30 or 40 years and the new age traveller is at the forefront of both the trashy media and the average man on the street's mind.

People should not judge you by their preconcieved prejudices, gleened from the Sun and Daily Mail, but unfortunately that is the level of intelligence you are dealing with here. People have lost their ability to communicate effectively and make judgements for themselves and the world is a poorer place for it.

I remember when the travelling fair came to town when I was a kid - it was a Romany one - and it was the best time of the year. There was no trouble, no violence, the entertainment was fantastic and you looked forward to seeing old friends from previous years.

The world has changed. Although many decent people of all races and religions remain, there is a proliferation of idots who make all the noise and grab all the attention, giving a bad press to all with whom they associate themselves.

It is a pity, but it is the way of the world. For what it is worth you have my sympathy and my respect.

Answer 3

You may be from (Traveller) Romany Gypsy stock but you seem to have turned your back on the lifestyle, administrator, office work, you cant do that and do the usual Romany things going around the horse fairs etc.
Basically it is the Traveller lifestyle that upsets folk, Human excrement in residential gardens and roadside verges is a major annoyance at Stow Gypsy Horsefair held twice per year, the piles of scrap and abandoned cars left by travellers, not Gypsies but bona fide peripatetic criminals, some of whom destroyed Site of Special Scientific interest near here with their scrap and excrement. It is not racism. If Romany Gypsies or travellers move into a house, ditch, the caravan get a life which does not involve littering the area with dismembered motors, provided that is you find a decent white area to live and and you will fit right in,

Answer 4

I can appreciate your reason. As a black woman I am aware of racism can feel like.

I watched a documentary on BBC4 a few months back about the horible treatment a load of gypsy's got being forced to move (Corin Redgrave spoke on theri behalf, and was rushed to hospital as so ill but insisted on doing it,and during the filming one of the families tragically died in a fire).

Ignorant people class 1 person from a group as the same. My friends and i have arguied that if they did that about balc people e.g. 1 bad experince and spoke about black people like they do gyupsies they would be taken to court.Unfortunatley society still seems to validate it si ok to slag off gypsys's and travellers. They might as well call all women nuns or prostitutes (but some are, som aren't, we are not all the same, and this is the same with any ethnic group).

I have also known travellers and work with people who do community development with them, and I am aware of the terrible situations they face, in some cases young boys being killed.It is a disgrace.

You hold your head up high, and ignore them, safe in the knowledge that you are not ignorant, and they are.

All the best to you and yours

Answer 5

Personally, the only "bad" stories I've heard about the Traveller's were told "against" the Travellers. What I mean about this is that the Traveller's were the VICTIMS in the stories.

So, while I understand as you said that their long history has "tainted them." This is totally unfair to them. I think that alot of the jealousy and mistrust comes from the fact that they are clannish (which we are too in this area of america, and maybe that's why we don't feel so mistrusting towards them, we understand the concept of Family First). So, the idea of intermarriage between two families is not unheard of here for either political or monetary reasons and although we don't "promise" our children off at a young age, we understand that a "promise" is not a marriage.

Your people are ancient and I respect them. They too were subject to Hitler's extermination plan, along with the Jews, Jehovah's Witness, Gays and other "undesirables." As far as I'm concerned this is something to be proud of in itself!

Answer 6

You are a genuine gypsy. This is quite different to the 'travellers' featured in earlier questions on this site. Most people can't distinguish between a Romany such as yourself and the trash that despite being called 'travellers' rarely travel anywhere. Sorry for any offence that may have been caused.

Answer 7

I think you've hit the nail on the head with you're last paragraph.

My dad works for the forestry commision and has had alot of dealings with travellers who used forestry commision car parks as sites.

He likes most of the travellers he has met through his work, I think he's a bit of an old hippy at heart. He did mention two things that I remember though. The first was that though most travellers were likeable, there were a minority who were not. The second was that travellers always end up moving on, and in the majority of cases sites were not left as found. People would have to put (in some cases alot of) work in to restoring these sites to their previous states. Sometimes this would involve only litter picking, but others left human waste and used signage for fires.

In what's said above I'm only relaying someone elses point of view here.

In my own personal opinion people should have the right to live their lifestyle of choice, and I think it's a shame that a minority have ruined the repuation of the majority.

Answer 8

People shouldn't tar all travellers with the same brush, but they do, much like they do with single mothers, etc.

Bad experiences tend to stick out in peoples minds more than good experiences.

There is a large family of travellers currently in my town, on more than one occasion I've stood and watched a couple of the girls stealing clothes from a shop. Does this make all travellers thieves? No, but it will always stick out in my mind!

I tend not to pre judge, mainly because, I know how it feels.

I was a young mother = first eyebrow raised and am covered in tattoos = second eyebrow raised.

Don't take any notice of people too small minded to think for themselves, and to follow on with preconceptions instilled into them by their parents.

You know your a good person, contribute to society and don't fall into the small minority of travellers that are rightly tarred with the traveller brush!

Answer 9

Most people's experience of travellers is the filth, destruction and theft that follows them around. You sound as though you have given up 'travelling' and settled down so can you still call yourself a traveller? There's almost a dialectic here whereby some travellers settle and adopt a mainstream lifestyle whilst some from mainstream families become new age travellers.

Answer 10

It's just an old prejudice I think, from continental Europe, wher epeople distrusted those people , your people I should say, the "gypsies" , as always being thieves, and cons, etc etc. It's a nasty stereotype just like any other, basically they almost had , in Europe, the kind of "stigma" that another generally disliked group, the Jews, bore.