Articles, Discussions and Roma on Wikipedia



Romani presence on Wikipedia

As you probably know, Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, became in the last years one of the most popular websites and continues to grow exponentially. If one makes a Google search there are big chances to find among the first results the wiki article(s) about a certain thing. The project is developed in diverse languages, the English Wikipedia, with 1,850,000 articles and 146,000,000 edits (now), being by far the most comprehensive. The info is added and refined by the voluntary contribution of unregistered visitors and of registered users. Wikipedia may be viewed also as an on-line community of the established users who communicate for establishing consensuses on the presentation of the information.

Personally I became involved in editing in the Wikipedia environment from October 2005, under the username Desiphral, when it started the organization of the Romani Wikipedia, conceived as a Wikipedia for all the dialects of this language:

http://rmy.wikipedia.org/

Then, I began contributing in Wikipedias in other languages, mostly in the English one. Soon, I found out that such exposure of information tends also to bring to surface all the unsolved problems of the mankind, that many of such current problems tend to be reflected also in the Wikipedia's environment. Thus areas of knowledge concerning, let's say, Portugal or Norway, which in real life currently do not experience public image and identity issues, have a much more relaxed editing, while on the Romani issues, the racism and the "Gypsy Lore Society" style of interventionism strongly hinder the effort of Romani people's presentation.

It started even on the creation of Romani Wikipedia, when an user militated for the forbidding of the existence of this Wikipedia, under the pretext that in this way there would be endangered the existence of the various dialects of the Romani language. Even today this user supports this and uses every opportunity to disparage the achievements, trying to prove that it does not exist such a Romani language, just a collection of related languages and dialects deriving from the Romani language.

Until some weeks ago, when the user RomanyChaj registered at English Wikipedia, I was quite alone there as an ethnic Romani. I had the support of some non-Romani users in expanding the range of information about the Romani people, mostly Eastern Europeans or Westerners who spent some time in Eastern Europe. A special category is that of the South Asian/Desi users, mostly Indian and Nepali citizens or from diaspora in UK and USA, who actively contributed on a correct presentation on Romani issues and who remained supportive even in the worst situations. I had to confront racist attacks from users coming from various areas, mostly Europe, North America and New Zealand. There is also a group of users from the Anglosphere (mostly UK, USA, Canada) supporting the views of the non-Romani academics from the same area (like that user from above, supporting the non-existence of the Romani Wikipedia). Usually, they have also a disruptive pattern, they are " the non-Romani anthropologists, linguists, sociologists, folklorists and others who have taken upon themselves the role of ethnic police, interfering and presumptuous at best, and perpetuating paternalistic attitudes"  as described by Ian Hancock at:

http://www.radoc.net:8088/RADOC-9-IDENT-1.htm

They continue the "Gypsy Lore  Society" style of relation with the Romani people, declaring that they are interested about us only from an academic point of view. If it would have stick only to an interest, it did not have appeared this description about them, but the problem is that they use to actively enforce their opinions. They propose for deletion articles about Roma that do not fit their views, including the articles about Roma Virtual Network and its founder, Valery Novoselsky. Generally speaking, they support the creation of an exotic image, they are not interested who are really the Roma. Is this probably because they come from an area with less Romani presence? While from Eastern Europe come many of the most virulent anti-Romani users currently at Wikipedia, however, from the same geographical area come also users who were really helpful and respectful, not with such colonialistic views as the "Gypsylorists" (probably because they grew up in a society with a considerable Romani presence, for them the Roma are not just some exotic dolls to play with?).

Until now, as some achievements at English Wikipedia, probably there may be presented the categories:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Romani_people_by_country

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Romani_people_by_occupation

or the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_people_by_country

gathering all the sources I could find about the Romani presence worldwide.

However, the two sets of impediments presented above, the racists and the "Gypsylorists" from the Anglosphere, mar the correct presentation of the Romani people there.

For example the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Romani_settlements

was started by an user from Serbia with a series of poor Romani neighborhoods from that contry, with a stereotypical focus on poverty, lack of hygiene (suggesting that this is the usual lifestyle of the Romani people) without any further non-stereotypical information about who are the Roma there. A correct presentation should have included how many times the local authorities from Eastern Europe stop any systematization projects (like water, electricity etc.) where the non-Romani neighborhood ends and the Romani one begins and to present also examples or Romani neighborhoods that are normal or even look better than the surrounding non-Romani.

Or the article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margita_Bangov%C3%A1

about a beggar from Toronto targeted by the local sensationalistic press. Some days ago, I proposed for deletion that article for being considered the usual anti-Romani propaganda. There are so many locally known beggars and con-artists of other ethnicities presented in local newspapers, but they are not entitled to an wiki article. The biography itself is not entitled for a wiki article, has no encyclopedic value. There is no necessity to make a wiki article about a shaking beggar holding a sign reading "Please help me. I am poor. I will pray for you", belonging to a non-mainstream minority, usually subject for bashing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Margita_Bangov%C3%A1

However, the article was preserved, with the reason given: "don't be silly", while I received a 24h block for asking why that user who created it voted for the deletion of Valery Novoselsky's article.

In the meantime, Valery Novoselsky's article was deleted, after the proposal of one of the "Gypsylorists". In fact, this blatant discriminatory treatment, the deletion of the article of an Romani activist in the same time with the preservation of a common beggar's article, determined me to write this essay. As I'm writing now, the user who created Margita Bangova's article went further in asking the deletion even of Roma Virtual Netowork's article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Articles_for_deletion/Roma_Virtual_Network

in the same time, enjoying the boasting on the userpage of being accused of writing anti-Romani articles:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Psychonaut

Why are allowed such things to happen at English Wikipedia? The fact is that Wikipedia ultimately is an environment emulating the real life, is edited by people from real life and consequently imports the features available in real life. Thus the authorities, the users with administrative powers, do not care too much about what happens to the Romani presence there, even, after I received recently so easy a penalty after questioning that user's behaviour, I wonder whether some of them do have anti-Romani prejudices. The usual users, if they have racist views, can freely write articles about any mass-media hoax about "Romani criminality", about the smallest Romani neighborhood, if it fits the "Gypsy" stereotypes and so on. The same users can propose for deletion representative and notable Romani articles if they do not fit their views and can argue for them succesfully because of their bigger numbers. If one requests a fair and balanced presentation, too many times it is dismissed as "activism". What happened until now shows that we have to defend our rights the same as in real life.

That is why I am making an appeal to interested people to come at Wikipedia and contribute there to support and expand the database of Romani related articles. Their importance is growing together with the expansion of Wikipedia itself and they may be the chance of a correct and comprehensive presentation of the Romani people. Just see the way the Jews understood its importance. The articles about the Jewish people and Judaism are in depth and defended from the anti-Semit users that obviously Wikipedia does not lack. Also their activity is not branded as "activism" by others who do not like it.

A kind of "administrative center" of organizing the Romani presence at English Wikipedia is at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Romani_people

If you do not have yet an user account, you can make one (doesn't take more than 30 sec) and announce your presence there. Also the developement of the Wikipedia in the Romani language is an oportunity of asserting a modern Romani language and having together all the dialects (all the dialects and ortographies are allowed there). Probably there are Romani users already active in Wikipedias other than Romani or English. We should organize a collaboration between all the Wikipedias (at Romani Wikipedia or outside Wikipedia itself?). The non-English Wikipedias are smaller and depend highly on what people happen to be active users there. They may have a polite and friendly environment or they  may allow even worse cases of Romani bashing. For example, just see what picture has Sofi Marinova's article at Serbian Wikipedia:

http://sr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%BE%D1%84%D0%B8_%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B0

when there is available a normal photo at Romani and English Wikipedias.

Plus, such a collaboration between all the Wikipedias would allow to share all the available information that would otherwise be stuck just in a local language.

Te aven baxtale,
Desiphral



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