I absolutely think there’s a time and a place to talk about the differences between systematic oppression vs. discrimination vs. prejudice, I just don’t think that when someone is talking about the awful shit they have been through because of some facet of their identity or their life is that time or place.
When someone is discussing their own lived experiences, particularly when they’re bad experiences, and you respond with “lol okay but you’re not oppressed for ___”…what exactly does that accomplish?
Maybe they’re not oppressed for that, maybe what they’re facing is prejudice and discrimination from people because of that prejudice instead, but prejudice and discrimination are still shitty things! They’re still awful to experience! They’re still alienating and abrasive and even violent. And while prejudice against someone because of THIS thing might seem small in the grand scheme of things compared to the oppression someone else faces for THAT thing, to the individual facing that prejudice and facing that discrimination it is still a big fucking deal. It still has a significant impact on their life, it is still detrimental to their quality of life, and those things matter.
A lot of (if not most of) the people who like to pull the “well you’re not oppressed for blah blah blah” card out are doing that to say that those things don’t matter. The prejudice you experience doesn’t matter. The discrimination you experience doesn’t matter. The negative impact it has on you doesn’t matter. It’s all too small to matter and all these other things (the real oppression going on in the world) matter more so shut up about it and deal.
It’s oppression olympics 2.0, it says “other people have it worse than you do so you have no right to complain”, and it’s bullshit.
Also, it seems to me that there is like, some validity catalogue now when it comes to oppression, prejudice etc. As in, if you’re suffering from XYZ kind of prejudice/discrimination, that’s terrible and you’re valid, but if it’s ABC, then you’re just whining and should shut up. And EFG characteristics by default disqualify you from being ‘allowed’ to ever complain about being treated poorly.
Which is all kinds of destructive and does nothing to better society overall.
Arguing whether death by an angry mob is worse than death by a thousand cuts over a prolonged period of time is worse, misses the point that BOTH axis of abuse lead to death and suffering.
The Romani genocide/holocaust, also known as Porajmos, was the planned and attempted effort, during World War II by the government of Nazi Germany and its allies to exterminate the Romani people of Europe.
Roma were branded with hot irons, women had their ears cut off and they made us wear a brown inverted triangle to distinguish us from the others. We were persecuted, deported to concentration camps, tortured, murdered, used us as human subjects for perverted experiments, thrown in specific “Gypsy Ghettos” because the Germans wanted “.. to toss in the Ghetto everything that is characteristically dirty, shabby, bizarre, of which one ought to be frightened, and which anyway has to be destroyed.” and much more.
The Nazis even implemented an Eugenics research program, which had the purpose of “proving”that Romani people were an “inferior race” which was why Nazi scientists traveled within Nazi occupied Europe documenting the Romani communities. Roma were forced to undergo DNA tests and something similar to the “one drop rule” was applied – even if you only had a rather small insignificant % of Romani blood you were still seen as Romani and persecuted.
No one knows how many Roma actually survived this horror, since no one ever bothered to list the victims or survivors. A lot of historians were (and still are) very biased against Romani people so it’s especially hard to get clear numbers. Some historians estimate that the number of Romani victims lies between 220,000 to 500,000 and that is not true. The real death toll is as high as 1.5 million to +2 million. About 90% of Europe’s Romani population was exterminated by the Nazis.
The Romani Holocaust ended in 1945, yet it took until 1982 (37 years later) for it to be formally “recognized” that a genocide has been committed, and even then it was only recognized by Germany. An apology to the Romani has never been received. The German government paid war reparations to Jewish survivors of the Holocaust but not to the Romani. The Interior Ministry of Wuerttemberg argued that “Romanis were persecuted under the Nazis not for any racial reasons but because of an asocial and criminal record.” when that is clearly not true and there are countless of articles proving this statement wrong.
The Roma who survived the Holocaust were regularly accused of lying about their experience and were denied any help or recognition. It was not until the 1990s that Romani who had suffered the concentration camps were entitled to apply for proper compensation.
Roma have been killed because of the Nazi’s racism, traditional anti-Romani attitudes and a mixture of prejudice towards Romani people – we were defined “enemies of the race-based state”. Yet this is still continually erased from the history books or barely even worth a footnote.
European countries continue to make no or insufficient mention of the Roma victims in their official position regarding the Holocaust when they should put some effort on making the Roma genocide widely known and recognized to serve as a counter force to the increasingly violent rhetoric and action against Roma because of them and through them.
Please read, spread and remember this. This history should not be swept under the carpet or forgotten. Please also respect that this day is not about all Holocaust victims like 27th January. It’s specifically about the Romani Holocaust victims who continue to get excluded from the topic of the Holocaust/WWII even 72 years after this horror ended. The reason why 2nd August was picked as the date is also exclusively related to the Romani victims and has something to do with the Romani Day of Resistance.
Just a note for gadje that in some (not all) dialects “Porajmos” is considered a really offensive word to use so a lot of people use Samudaripen to mean the same thing.
Useful information, but I have to add: there is no way the Nazis were performing DNA testing of Romani. The fundamental mechanics of DNA were not figured out until three dudes stole Rosalind Franklin’s research in 1953.
DNA was known to be the vehicle of transmission of heredity since Griffith’s experiments in 1928, and Avery et al confirmed it ca 1944, but we knew nothing about the structure, replication, or function of DNA until 1953. Therefore, actual testing of DNA was impossible.
Situated near Reykjavik in Iceland, the Blue Lagoon is a unique geothermal spa that has been open to the public for bathing since 1992. The waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur, and have been known to cure skin irritations. The geothermal waters originate 2,000m below the surface of the lagoon.
The colour of the lake depends upon the mineral make up of the water. The blue appearance is the result of silica in the water, and they way the silica reflects in the sunlight. In summer, the lagoon can appear green, due to the algae’s reaction to the sun. But if you pour the water from the lagoon into a transparent cup, you will see that the water is actually milky white!
I love that one of the restrictions on name changes in the UK is that your name cannot “promote criminal activities” and fucking hell every name I can think of that violates that is just stellar honestly like fucking hello nice to meet you my name is Commit Arson, I’d like you to meet my daughter Dont Pay Taxes and my son Steal From Work
this is my son, rob
Bank teller: in order to confirm [beaurocratic bullshit] we need to know your full legal name.
The thing about Discworld, you see, is that it’s a very hopeful form of cynicism. It doesn’t just tell you that the world is crap, it says, well, yes, of course the world is crap, but that’s why you should be hopeful, and helpful, and kind, and why you have to be good, because maybe you can make it a little less crap.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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