The picture displays two Romani women demonstrating the Romanian government’s proposal to change the official name of the Romani people from “Romani”/”Roma”, which means “man” and is a word from the official language of the Romani people, to “Tigan”, which is a racist slur meaning the same as the slur “Gypsy”.
The government says the name change is necessary because of the possible confusion among the international community between the words “Romani”/”Roma”, which refers to the Romani ethnic minority and Romanian, which refers to the people from the European country Romania.
The Roma women display signs that read, in Romani chib and Romanian, “I am a Roma”.
Bucharest, Romania. November, 2010.
This is fucking awful.
Also, I think it’s important to note that “Tigan” doesn’t mean the same thing as “gypsy”.
They’re certainly racist slurs, but I think it’s commonly held opinion among Roma that “tigan”, “cigan”, “tzigan”, “zigeuner”, “zingari”, “chingene” and all other variants is a far worse slur. If someone calls me a gypsy, I’m certainly not happy, especially coming from gadje, but if someone calls me tzigan, that’s fighting words and Del knows that we’ll be taking it out into the street.
All of these words are derived from the Greek, “athinganoi”. This word basically means slave, untouchable, anti-social. It is a deeply vile slur, and honestly just reducing it to “gypsy” is wrong. Gypsy is obviously based on Egyptian which like… is frustrating, and inaccurate, and it’s certainly been used to single us out and used as a slur, but NOT in the same way as tzigan has been.
Otherwise, thanks for sharing. The Romanian government’s bullshit excuse of “it sounds too similar to Romanian” even though they didn’t call themselves that until the 19th century honestly gets my blood boiling. Also, our “R” sound is different than their “R” sound, me te merav.
the Hogwarts teachers were my favourite part of the books remember in CoS when they were so sick of Lockhart that they chased him out of the staffroom by reminding him he’d said he could kill Slytherin’s monster in seconds, remember in OotP when they couldn’t tell Harry they approved of his interview so they did wildly extravagant favours for him, like giving him twenty house points for passing a watering can, or bursting into tears and announcing that he’d live a long and happy life? on that note remember how much McGonagall disliked Trelawney and all her little digs, and remember how she ran forward to brace Trelawney as she was being kicked out by Umbridge? remember how McGonagall ran out to defend Hagrid from trained Aurors with nothing but her words and took four Stunning Spells to the chest? remember when she told Peeves how to unscrew the chandelier? i could go on about McGonagall especially for days but i love all of them so much
HARRIET TUBMAN ESCAPED FROM SLAVERY AND THEN WENT BACK TO GET OTHERS. LIKE, I KNOW YOU KNOW WHO HARRIET TUBMAN IS AND THAT SHE DID THAT, BUT I JUST WANT YOU TO TAKE THAT IN FOR A SECOND.
HARRIET TUBMAN WAS HELD CAPTIVE AND BOUND TO UNPAID, BACK-BREAKING LABOR SINCE BIRTH UNDER PENALTY OF TORTURE OR DEATH. SHE MANAGED TO ESCAPE THAT LIFE, AND SHE TURNED THE FUCK AROUND AND WENT THE FUCK BACK TO GET EVERYONE ELSE WHO WAS STILL TRAPPED IN IT. AND THEN SHE DID IT AGAIN EIGHTEEN MORE TIMES.
WHEN ABRAHAM LINCOLN WAS UNSURE WHETHER OR NOT HE WAS PREPARED TO MAKE A STAND AGAINST SLAVERY, HARRIET TUBMAN BASICALLY SAID HE SHOULD STOP BEING SUCH A DIAPER BABY AND THAT GUYS WHO ARE TOO SCARED TO END SLAVERY DON’T DESERVE TO WIN WARS.
NOT ONLY DID SHE SECRET OVER 300 SLAVES TO FREEDOM ON THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, BUT SHE ACTED AS A SPY FOR THE UNION ARMY DURING THE CIVIL WAR, AND BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN TO LEAD AN ARMED ASSAULT IN THE CIVIL WAR. THAT RAID BROUGHT FREEDOM TO OVER 700 SLAVES IN ONE GO.
SO I JUST WANT YOU TO STEW ON THAT FOR LIKE A MINUTE. ACTING IN THE SHADOWS, SHE WALKED INTO HELL ON EARTH 19 TIMES TO SAVE HER FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS FROM THE TORMENT SHE ENDURED, AND THE SECOND SHE WAS GIVEN EVEN A MODICUM OF POWER, SHE MANAGED TO FREE SEVEN HUNDRED SLAVES IN ONE DAY.
I GUARANTEE, HOWEVER IMPRESSED YOU ALREADY ARE WITH HARRIET TUBMAN, YOU ARE FALLING LIKE AT LEAST 40% SHORT OF HOW IMPRESSED YOU SHOULD BE WITH HARRIET TUBMAN. SHE IS ONE OF THE BEST EXAMPLES OF BADASSERY IN THE ENTIRETY OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
I just feel like it should be noted that she navigated her way across the Underground Railroad (through thicket and swamp and forest and every risk of wildlife you could imagine) with her own knowledge of the natural world. Some call her “the first Eco-womanist” because it was that understanding of the plant and animal life around her as well as knowledge of the stars that allowed her to bring people with her. Her prowess for dealing with immense problems and obstacles on the spot was nothing short of genius.
She didn’t stop there, either. Harriet Tubman also worked with the Union army during the Civil War as a cook, nurse, scout, and spy. She organized black men in the area as scouts, and often led missions herself with the task of gathering information and to persuade slaves to leave; most of whom joined the regiments of black soldiers for the Union.
She also got ripped off by the government, who wasn’t paying her what she deserved (and wouldn’t even give her her pension after the war for her service- but instead eventually granted her pension as the widow of a veteran), so she supported herself by making and selling root beer.
She used her earnings to support free black women, she worked to support two schools for freed men in the south, she provided food and care to the black people that came to her home, and she fought for women’s suffrage. When she died, she was buried with military honors.
Oh, and when she had brain surgery, she denied anesthesia and instead bit down on a bullet.
THESE ARE EVEN MORE AWESOME THINGS ABOUT HARRIET TUBMAN, GOOD ADDITIONS, YOU GUYS!!
Also worth noting that she did all this while living with the results of a traumatic head injury sustained in her childhood, which included pain, bouts of dizziness, and episodes of hypersomnia (sudden passing out)
she was not just a badass, she was a disabled badass
That head injury was from when she was trying to save someone else, too. A boy was in trouble with their slave master and the master threw a weight at him, but she jumped in front of him and took the blow. She then suffered from narcolepsy the rest of her life. Also, a cool story about her: One time she was riding on a train, lightly disguised so as to hopefully not be recognized, and there was a ‘WANTED’ poster of her on the train wall. Some guys were looking at it and she overheard them saying they thought she looked like the woman on the poster. Because the poster described that she was illiterate, she grabbed a book and pretended to read it. The men then said it couldn’t be her, and she got off the train safely. She was literally such a smart, quick thinker. I can’t wait to have her on American money!
so if in the soulmate au the very first words your soulmate ever says to you are tattooed somewhere on your body since the day you are born imagine having something like ‘man I cant believe dumbledore died’ tattooed on you. imagine being spoiled for a book series that doesnt even exist yet. imagine worrying about this dumbledore guy your whole childhood while not knowing who he is. imagine knowing dumbledore dies before jk rowling even thinks about it.
Everybody go home, this is my favorite soulmate au
So you finally find your soulmate. After years of knowing that dumbledore dies and the entire franchise being ruined, you find him. You’re in the theatre, dumbledore is dead and you hear it. ‘Man I can’t believe dumbledore died’ by a guy walking right by you and in you’re rage you shout ‘You! You’re the one!’ The guy stops, looks at you, his own arm to read the words, then back at you and he says, “That’s not really how I imagined that being said”
I’m going to wait until 2 pm (14:00) and if they don’t call, I’ll send them an email asking about the previous one then go about my day. I’m beginning to think my first one got lost.
I am really nervous. I still haven’t heard back from the company who asked for the phone screen, but I offered to speak with them at 1 pm today, which is in half an hour. I don’t know if they never got my email or they’re just going to call.
I really hate not knowing whether or not this is happening and I need to feed and walk my dog.
The Paradox Machine 