It is largely because of these tropes that Romani people - who make up an estimated population of 1 million in the United States - have typically hidden from public view. “Racism toward Roma is the last acceptable form of racism,” wrote Melanie Covert in her book “American Roma.” Negative stereotypes about Romani people have become so commonplace that they appear in seemingly innocuous places - like at a Los Angeles bar, in a cocktail named “Gypsy Fever,” featuring something called “illegal mescal.” The word morphed into the word “gypped” - reducing an entire ethnic group to stealing. Historians say the word derives from when brown-skinned Romani people first migrated from India to Europe and predominately white Europeans mistakenly identified the newcomers as Egyptians. Many Romani people use the word “Gypsy,” but it is generally considered a slur when outsiders say it.
“Gypsies don’t earn money,” he sneers back. “I earned it!” responds Esmeralda, the Romani main character, defiantly. “All right, Gypsy, where’d you get that money?” demands Claude Frollo, the evil religious zealot in Disney’s animated film “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” In literature, art and film, Romani people are stereotyped as exotic wanderers, mysterious fortunetellers and swindlers. But once I started reporting this story, I couldn’t stop seeing tropes about Romani people everywhere. When we first met, I knew nothing about Romani culture.
“I didn’t feel like anyone around me understood what I was going through, mentally and emotionally, because they didn’t grow up in my community and obviously didn’t have my cultural background.” “I was entering a custody battle alone, so no family support,” Stevens said.
Stevens sneaked out of the psychic shop with her two daughters - leaving everything she once knew and turning to the outside world.Ī year later, she was telling me her story - and hoping publicity might help her keep her daughters in a nasty custody dispute. But on one warm summer night in 2018, she decided to break away.
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