We’ve seen the last couple of years this tendency of identifying some races, ethnic groups and categories of people by new different names. Black Americans became Afro-Americans, North American Indians (the few left) became First Nations, Romanian Gypsies or Tziganes became Roma… Did this solve the problem of their discrimination against? Is people looking now in a really different way at these groups?

Some of these name changes have been requested by the groups themselves, and the society and political class - in most cases - have been very glad to ascend to their demand. Why? It was the easiest way to “do something” for these groups with no cost at all. But as long as the general perception, people’s mentality and discriminatory attitude toward these groups didn’t actually change too much, the name switch is even worse for these categories than before. Why? Because they allowed the other categories to show and prove their “generosity”, when they in fact did nothing at all.

In particular, many black people are even more proud than before of their race and insist to be called Black People rather than Afro-Americans, a misleading term that suggests a better integration in the American society and more respect. In some regards, the respect and recognition came indeed, but not necessarily because of the new label.

What’s really disgusting - and that’s my topic here - is the way some well-educated people from “the high society”, especially from the political and rich class, deal with the issue. The way they educate others about the new terminology and get so offended when they hear the old terms. When in a vast majority of cases you clearly see they are just hypocrites, that nothing actually changed in their own perception of those groups. So many times, when someone talks about “black” people, has indeed, in his mind and soul, way more respect for “the black”. When the guy who carefully educates you about the fact “we should call them now Afro-Americans” and looks so offended that “you are a racist“, will call them “negro” behind your back or on a public occasion, when he cannot restrain his temper…

That’s also a tendency in rich countries to try to no longer differentiate people by race, origin and ethnicity. Well, at least at some level, when people talk about their social status and where they come from. For instance, when you are newly arrived in North America, most natives tell you “We are all here immigrants, all equal“. You feel good, but wait till the first economic recession, because exactly the same natives will start shamelessly and publicly complaining that “The new immigrants steal our jobs“. And this is how you learn that natives are in fact “more equal” than new immigrants. The term of equality, in the democratic sense, is still only on paper, as long as people’s mentalities shift, when they see their own interests touched in a slightly negative way.

I was severely criticized on a blog by a guy from France that I should no longer think in terms of races. And let’s make it clear in which context: I explained him Romanians and Romanian Gypsies are not just different ethnicities (have different origins, ancestors, languages, lifestyle), but also races. His article was starting with (translation from French) “Is there any Romanian from Romania around? In France, there are [Romanians] in the streets …”

Well, the largest acceptance of the “Romanian (from Romania)” sends you directly to the 90% white-colored Caucasian Romanian habitants, with Romans as their ancestors. It’s not about nationality, because when you see a distinct group of exclusively black people from a former French colony, who live now in France, nobody can possibly identify them with just a “French people from France“. And this has nothing to do with their skin color, it’s just that otherwise anyone in the world would immediately rather get the wrong image in their minds of some white people, from the large majority of this country’s habitants.

The same way, when you say about “Romanians from Romania [...] in the streets“, there is nothing here to tell you that, in fact, most people known everywhere in the world with this lifestyle or poor display are in fact … Gypsies! Name them Roma if you like (it’s obvious I didn’t use the term Gypsy with a negative connotation). Yes, they may be also Romanian citizens, born in Romania, with a Romanian nationality. But in this case any person with some common sense would rather say “Romanian Gypsies“, not just “Romanians”. Otherwise, this is how you propagate a ridiculous, degrading and humiliating myth about the whole Romanian people, who generally, in their vast majority, would be horrified and ashamed to live this way, to beg, to steal, to look like in the picture portrayed by our French friend. For who wants to know more, read Romanians and Gypsies - Two Worlds Apart or how other ignorant people or so-called charities try to propagate the same insulting image.

What I had really found as hypocrite in those replies was exactly the kind of “indignation” and educational discourse described before, that you get from people so full of scratching terms at their surface and teaching you the “democratic” way “people think in France”. Great defenders (in theory) of their own Gypsies, Moroccan or Maghrebian communities, they call you “racist” if you dare talking about races or ethnicities, pronouncing this word only, in a specific context and with no intended negative connotation. But on the other hand they rarely want to really know if same communities face racism in their own country, when time comes to find a job.

You’re labeled as racist if you point out Romanians and Romanian Gypsies are not the same thing, but on the other hand my friend here points out that even in France they have a different name for their own Gypsies. They obviously don’t say “Look at some French guys, like us” when they see a caravan passing…

Honestly now, I’m really afraid of this tendency and discourse of “we’re all in the same basket“, when rich countries try to make new immigrants welcomed, to feel better. “We’re all French people now, we’re all American people, all immigrants like you“. Because they are never consistent with what they claimed before. And even if they will not later point to your race, color, ethnicity, when time comes to find a job, to get a more appropriate salary or position, everybody knows that many of these decisions are strongly influenced by those criteria. But catch them if you can.

We’re actually forced to no longer talk in term of races not because it is always negative and we would prove we are racist, but rather because THEY don’t want us to talk about it, to go further and show where the racism is in their own countries, mentalities and attitudes.

From what I know, for most black people it really doesn’t matter if you call them Afro-Americans or Blacks. As long as they feel respect in your mind and soul - and people can feel it - this is what really matters! And more I get the message “You should no longer think in terms of races” and detect that people are inconsistent with what they say, more I’ll get proud of and stick to my Romanian roots. Is there any other way around?

• Romanians and Gypsies - Two Worlds Apart (9)
• Romanian Gypsies and Charitable Hypocrisies (5)