Discrimination in Verona
There was a story in yesterday’s paper about discrimination against Roma Gypsies. The gist is that an appeal court in Italy said that all Gypsies are thieves.
Flavio Tosi, Verona’s mayor, was quoted as having said, “The Gypsies must be ordered out because, wherever they arrive, there are robberies.” In response to that, the court decided:
…this did not show Mr Tosi was a racist, but that he had “a deep aversion [to Roma] that was not determined by the Gypsy nature of the people discriminated against, but by the fact that all the Gypsies were thieves”.
His dislike of them was “not therefore based on a notion of superiority or racial hatred, but on racial prejudice”.
Hmmm… Where to start? First of all, I’m not planning on visiting Verona any time soon if it’s okay to have ‘a deep aversion’ to certain types of people there. If all Gypsies are thieves, what are all black people? (That was a rhetorical question by the way, so feel free to NOT answer it) We can just as easily come up with stereotypes about women, Travellers, people from Cork or any other group.
I don’t like stereotypes. They rob people of their right to be judged on the basis of their own character and actions. Worse, once you put a bunch of people in a box, discrimination is almost inevitable. And once it is acceptable to discriminate against certain groups, it is easier to tolerate people who act out that discrimination.
It’s not right.
