Hatcher 1

Elvis Hatcher

Mr. Brown

English II HG

23 November 2009

The Roma People: A Study in Discrimination

Anyone who has learned about American history has at least heard of the Jim Crow

Laws, and the overwhelming degree of racial discrimination that took place in America, even

through the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, almost anyone who has heard of these things will

agree that they are utterly appalling, and that they designate a shameful stain on our nation’s past.

Were such a situation ever to arise again, most Americans would be quite upset and rather

ashamed, and would work extremely hard to counter it. However, unbeknownst to many

Americans, there is a very similar situation going on in the world right now. This situation is

found in the profound discrimination that is being exercised towards the Roma people

throughout Eastern Europe. This discrimination is shown very prominently in the educational

policies exercised towards the Roma in multiple Eastern European countries. These measures of

educational segregation and discrimination are considered by many to be extremely unjust, for a

number of reasons. On this basis, many Roma and Roma supporters have tried tenaciously to

rectify the situation. At a first glance, it may seem like these efforts have been futile and

unsuccessful, but in reality, a good deal of progress has been made, and there is a clear trend of

improvement that can only continue.

The Roma people are a sad case, as they have been discriminated against for years. As

early as the 18th century, Roma were forced to leave Austria by the Empress Maria Theresa. Two
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centuries later, they became an often overlooked victim of the Holocaust. Nowadays, the Roma

people make up almost 10 percent of Slovakia’s population, yet almost all of them live in utmost

poverty, with unemployment rates reaching over 90 percent in many Roma settlements, and they

are often the objects of prejudice and race-related violence. Beyond this, most of the school’s in

many European countries, such as Slovakia, are segregated between Whites and Roma.

Furthermore, not only are the schools segregated, but Eastern European governments end up

sending a large number of mentally able Roma children to special needs schools; in some regions

of Slovakia, the Roma children make up almost 80 percent of the population of special schools.

Also, although Roma are recognized as a national minority in Slovakia, only four secondary

schools in the country offer classes in the Romani language. This violates Slovakia’s 1992

Constitution, which states that citizens of national minority groups have the right to be educated

in a minority language.

All of these facts apply to the situation in Slovakia, but the situation is also very

prominent in other countries, such as the Czech Republic. An example of this is an article from

Time Magazine, which tells of Nikol Pechova, a young girl from the Czech city Ostrava. When

she entered school, she was ostracized, and ridiculed by her classmates solely on the basis of her

race. Then, when she began to fall behind in school, as many people do at some point or another,

she was sent to a special needs school. Nikol’s story is actually very common, and many Roma

children face the same fate. Roma also live in poverty in Hungary, and there are cases of

discrimination in Bulgaria as well, such as a 2002 suit that was filed against a Bulgarian coffee

shop for refusing to serve Roma.

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With all of these facts, it is very clear why many Romani rights activists are deeply upset

by the situation, and are working very hard to fix it. These activists have many strong arguments

on their side. For instance, Slovakia is a member of the International Convention on the

Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which states “In compliance with the

fundamental obligations laid down in article 2 of this Convention, States Parties undertake to

prohibit and to eliminate racial discrimination in all its forms and to guarantee the right of

everyone, without distinction as to race, colour, or national or ethnic origin, to equality before the

law, notably in the enjoyment of the following rights: . . . (v) The right to education and

training.” Additionally, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Bulgaria are all members of

the European Union (EU), and the EU Race Equality Directive prohibits racial discrimination

regarding education and training. These are both strong legal backings to the arguments against

the discriminations.

Another, more recent argument that activists are adopting is one based on the U.S. case of

Brown v. Board of Education. This case ruled that racial segregation is of a discriminatory

nature, and that it therefore violates U.S. legislation prohibiting racial discrimination. Activists

working against Roma discrimination are using the same argument: that the segregation taking

place is discriminatory, and that it violates the legal backings previously described. The adoption

of this defense is a milestone development in activism against this discrimination, and may very

well prove to be a major contributor to the success of the movement.

At first glance, all of the arguments against the situation may appear to have been

unsuccessful; After all, the discrimination is still happening, and it is still very prominent.

However, things are slowly getting better, and that is a trend that can only continue. For instance,
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in 2007, the European Court of Human Rights formally recognized that the Czech Republic had,

in fact, discriminated against the Roma people. Additionally, an international initiative called the

Decade of Roma Inclusion, involving nine Central and Eastern European governments aims to

integrate Roma and desegregate education during the timeframe of 2005-2015. Yet another

initiative, the Roma Education Fund, provides funding to desegregation efforts, and provides

advocates to the cause. In a more personal context, some Roma students are now managing to

overcome the hardships working against them. For instance, an article from the Christian Science

Monitor tells of Romani student Elvis Hajdar, who managed to overcome discrimination, and is

now studying computer programming at Macedonia’s state university. With all of this progress

being made, and the arguments against segregation becoming increasingly strong and well-

formulated, things can only continue to get better, and the situation may soon become much

better than it is now.

To conclude, it is clear that horrible discrimination is being exercised against the Roma

people in Eastern Europe, especially in the context of education. However, an increasingly large

number of initiatives are attempting to counter this cruel practice, and progress is definitely

being made. Such reform proved successful in twentieth-century America, and we must hope, for

the sake of the Roma people, that it will prove successful in this case as well.
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