It is the slavery issue that begins the African American-Roma association and molds many of the cultural similarities that follow. The Gypsy slaves – like the African slaves a few years later – were sold on the block to the highest bidder. He brought back nearly 12,000 Gypsy slaves from campaigns in Bulgaria during his reign in the 15th century. But even Dracula, called the Impaler, who usually chose staking his prisoners, preferred Gypsies with their heads on. ![]() In the East European country of Romania, land of iron-fisted ruler Prince Vlad Tepes, aka Dracula, the “undesirable” Gypsies were being systematically rounded up and enslaved. Gypsy history is a series of expulsions, beginning with an exodus out of India, across Persia, into the Balkans ‘til they were swept to the edge of the European continent, over gangplanks, onto ships sending them to the Americas. ((“The Roots of Anti Gypsyism: to the Holocaust and After,” Center of Romani Archives and Documentation, 1997)) Serbia, tsingani in Greece, tsigani in Bulgaria, tsyganski in Russia and cygan in Poland.)), the East-European equivalent of Gypsy, “which was a synonym for ‘slave’ during the five and a half centuries of Gypsy slavery in that country (Romania), is as offensive for Romas as the word ‘nigger’ is for African Americans,” writes Roma scholar Ian Hancock. Tsigan ((East European terms for Gypsy – all following the tsigan root – include tsigan in Romania, cigany in Hungary, cigani in ((Alan Parker,ĭirector, “The Commitments,” 1991)) But the real “niggers” of Europe aren’t the Irish that mark belongs to the detested Gypsies. ![]() I’m Black an’ I’m proud,” echoes a memorable quote of ‘90s cinema. ![]() “The Irish are the niggers of Europe … Say it loud.
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