My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding – Racists’ last frontier?

Originally a one-off documentary on Channel Four, My Big fat Gypsy Wedding was brought back this year as a fully-fledged series looking at the marriage traditions of the Gypsy Traveller community living in Britain. The show has sparked vicious reactions from right-wing tabloids, eager to find a new ethnic group to blame for economic problems. The Sun even ran a story headlined “My big fat gypsy council house” , carrying on a general right-wing tabloid theme against migrant “scroungers”.

‘Gypsy Traveller’ is an umbrella term for people of European Romany descent, and is considered an ethnic group. Throughout history to the modern day, people from these communities have been subjected to horrendous discrimination. Roma, Travellers, or Gypsies descend from groups travelling from India from the tenth century onwards, where they began to mix with peoples from European descent.

Persecuted across Europe for centuries, they have been the target of pogroms (semi-legal racist attacks) and excluded from mainstream society. The 20th century was a terrible period for these peoples. The development of fascism in Europe often sidelines the awful discrimination and violence that Roma people were subjected to, much like Jews. However whereas anti-Semitism is no longer accepted in “civilized” society, racism against Gypsy Travellers is very common. (Just think about the amount of time you’ve heard the term “gyppo” used to call someone a thief or ‘cheap’.) But why is it that gypsies are the subject of such a sustained campaign of racism and demonization in the media and wider society?

The clearest difference in Gypsy Traveller culture is that they are nomadic. However there are several other important aspects which must be taken in to account. They do not necessarily recognize private property relations, they do not settle, and they do ‘work’ in the sense of selling their labour for a wage. Finally, they do not necessarily go to school, although in fact, children from these communities will attend school for a majority time, but the community does not expect them to stay there till 16.  In short, their very way of life is a total nightmare for modern capitalism.

The inability of capitalism to integrate these peoples into capitalist property relations (wage-labour, profit, private ownership), means that people from these communities are very easy to scapegoat because they are the “other” in Western society.  Gypsy Travellers are often stereotyped as thieving, thuggish and violent, which is ironic considering that they are constantly subjected to violent attacks and having their sites barred. One of the most shocking attacks on Roma people in recent history took place in France last summer; Sarkozy, President of France, ordered Bulgarian Roma to be forcibly removed from their settlements and kicked out of the country. This is in direct conflict with European Union freedom of movement legislation, and repeats the methods of 20^th Century fascism.  This is discrimination in one of its worst manifestations and shows what world leaders like Sarkozy think about Roma: that they don’t even deserve to be treated like EU citizens. The EU itself seemed to agree – France got a slap on the wrist, and stepped up its deportations.

But the discrimination is much more day-to-day than that.

My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, and right-wing tabloid backlash surrounding it has reminded us that discrimination exists in abundance.

The Daily Mail had a recent article reporting on the “darker side”, which involved men in the community settling an argument with a well-organized physical fight. The Daily Mail reported in shock, as though this would never happen in the civilized world. Anyone who has been outside a pub on a Saturday night might have a different opinion. In this time of severe economic crisis, the government will need all the scapegoats they can get – this show must be a blessing to them.

Cher Lloyd, who took part in last year’s X-Factor, was very open about her Romany upbringing during her time on the reality T.V show. But since the latest backlash she has reported abuse on the street, because people have taken offense to the practices shown on the programme.

We ought to defend communities who suffer systematic discrimination, not judge them against our Western standards. It is not up to middle-class liberals or casual racists to impose their values on these people. Throughout history they have suffered at the hands of the far-right and the state. It is up to us to stand shoulder to shoulder with Roma people across Europe and defend them from prejudice and violence.