Is this like blackface?
I'm Lovara, which I don't talk about a lot because there are so many misconceptions about what it is to be "Gypsy" and it gets kind of tiring to constantly educate people about it OR to listen to them talk about how awesome they are because they are totally not racist and they totally read this book/saw this movie/listened to this band concerning Gypsyness and so they are experts and it's just soooooo cool that I'm Gypsy and blah blah blah. And then a few minutes later they'll use the term "gypped" or something else really fucking dumb and I just can't take it anymore.
Anyway, I get pissed off a lot because people use the term "Gypsy" when they really mean "Bohemian" or "homeless" or whatever. And sometimes it's obviously just ignorance, like when the National Geographic had an article about cowboys-- honest to God cowboys that go out with horses and cattle and stuff in the 2000s and live with the land, and they refer to them as free spirited gypsies and whatnot throughout the article. That infuriated me, but at the same time, that's such a common use of the word. And is it so bad to associate "Gypsy" with "hard working"?
Then there's stuff like Zhena's Gypsy Tea. First of all, "Zhena" means "woman." Or "Wife." That's like going around saying "Hi, yeah, my name's Female Smith. Want some tea?" But whatever. I can get calling a tea "woman tea" or even "wife tea." It's a marketing thing. But then I get to lines like Celebrating the Gypsy spirit means finding your own way to celebrate life and inspiring others to do the same. It's kind of like being a Magical Negro, but more childish. After all, Remember, sparkles are a gateway to the gypsy world. Anything bright will do. Ha ha ha! Those crazy Gypsies! They are just like magpies, or small children! Sparklies and bright things TOTALLY capture everything there is about all Gypsy culture ever, everywhere. Just tie a jaunty scarf about your waist and you, too can be a Gypsy! It's just that easy.
She claims that her grandma is Gypsy, from "a little village in the Ukraine," and that her parents were trapeze artists in Moscow's circus. During WWII they "walked through war torn Ukraine" into Germany, and then emigrated to the US. Because, you know, it was totally easy to get around Europe during WWII when your papers said you were Gypsy. Or circus performers. The story really doesn't add up, and it's incredibly odd that someone who identifies as "Gypsy" would then turn around and say that sparkles are what being Gypsy is all about. I mean, I could see sparkles as being a gateway to the circus world, totally. It's just so incredibly crass that someone's taking what's ostensibly her culture and packaging it for whitey the way whitey expects it to be packaged. You know, full of flowing scarves, made up names (Zhena Muzyka == Woman Music), sparklies, and feel good crapola.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is that this racist packaging accompanies a product that invests so heavily in women's rights and comfort. Their website claims that the women who work for Zhena's Gypsy Teas are paid a living wage and get health benefits and maternity leave and stuff, which is amazing not just in the USA but in the third world countries the tea is produced in. So as much as I want to totally get my hate on for the people involved in this, they do good stuff too.
I get trying to make a buck, and I totally get using your culture to do that... to a degree. But this just seems so dishonest, to claim to be part of something authentic, and then peddle the most whitewashed, tourist-friendly, false version of that to the world at large. It's inauthentic. And it's pretty insulting to people who do identify with that culture, to have it reduced to hip scarves and sparklies.
Anyway, I get pissed off a lot because people use the term "Gypsy" when they really mean "Bohemian" or "homeless" or whatever. And sometimes it's obviously just ignorance, like when the National Geographic had an article about cowboys-- honest to God cowboys that go out with horses and cattle and stuff in the 2000s and live with the land, and they refer to them as free spirited gypsies and whatnot throughout the article. That infuriated me, but at the same time, that's such a common use of the word. And is it so bad to associate "Gypsy" with "hard working"?
Then there's stuff like Zhena's Gypsy Tea. First of all, "Zhena" means "woman." Or "Wife." That's like going around saying "Hi, yeah, my name's Female Smith. Want some tea?" But whatever. I can get calling a tea "woman tea" or even "wife tea." It's a marketing thing. But then I get to lines like Celebrating the Gypsy spirit means finding your own way to celebrate life and inspiring others to do the same. It's kind of like being a Magical Negro, but more childish. After all, Remember, sparkles are a gateway to the gypsy world. Anything bright will do. Ha ha ha! Those crazy Gypsies! They are just like magpies, or small children! Sparklies and bright things TOTALLY capture everything there is about all Gypsy culture ever, everywhere. Just tie a jaunty scarf about your waist and you, too can be a Gypsy! It's just that easy.
She claims that her grandma is Gypsy, from "a little village in the Ukraine," and that her parents were trapeze artists in Moscow's circus. During WWII they "walked through war torn Ukraine" into Germany, and then emigrated to the US. Because, you know, it was totally easy to get around Europe during WWII when your papers said you were Gypsy. Or circus performers. The story really doesn't add up, and it's incredibly odd that someone who identifies as "Gypsy" would then turn around and say that sparkles are what being Gypsy is all about. I mean, I could see sparkles as being a gateway to the circus world, totally. It's just so incredibly crass that someone's taking what's ostensibly her culture and packaging it for whitey the way whitey expects it to be packaged. You know, full of flowing scarves, made up names (Zhena Muzyka == Woman Music), sparklies, and feel good crapola.
Perhaps the worst thing of all is that this racist packaging accompanies a product that invests so heavily in women's rights and comfort. Their website claims that the women who work for Zhena's Gypsy Teas are paid a living wage and get health benefits and maternity leave and stuff, which is amazing not just in the USA but in the third world countries the tea is produced in. So as much as I want to totally get my hate on for the people involved in this, they do good stuff too.
I get trying to make a buck, and I totally get using your culture to do that... to a degree. But this just seems so dishonest, to claim to be part of something authentic, and then peddle the most whitewashed, tourist-friendly, false version of that to the world at large. It's inauthentic. And it's pretty insulting to people who do identify with that culture, to have it reduced to hip scarves and sparklies.