in which Katta engages in frequent but justified capslock

[kattahj]

You know, Criminal Minds is one of those shows I've contemplated watching. There are some actors in it whom I like, it seemed pretty interesting, people I trusted spoke well of it.

I have to say, though, that any such desire is severely marred by child-snatching gypsiesWhat the everliving FUCK? No. NO, ABSOLUTELY NOT. Lord knows that there are a

Comments

[maddeinin]

I was pretty much watching it with my mouth hanging open, waiting for the twist to show that the Roma thing was a red herring.

[kattahj]

Just reading about it was unbelievable, I can't imagine what it was like watching it.

[maddeinin]

I found it more bizarre than offensive while watching, really, partly because I was expecting for someone to step up at the last minute and go OH YEAH AND BY THE WAY, THESE PEOPLE? NOT ROMA! and partly because... the actors weren't. Roma. (I don't know how much you know about the plot, but the family they cut to at the end to show that this is a systematic culture and not a one-family-gone-crazy deal was GINGER. All of them. Even considering that they kidnap little girls to make wives for their sons, that's some weirdass genetics at play.) So when there wasn't a NO REALLY, SOMEONE'S CRAZY GREAT-GRANDFATHER WENT AROUND THE BEND AND A CULT HAPPENED reveal, it was... strange.

[kattahj]

Ginger? That's... well, that's just plain weird. Though they do seem to confuse Romani and Romanian rather thoroughly. (I don't know why people do that. It was the same on BtVS. Why is it any harder to realize that Romani and Romanian are two different things than that Romani and Roman are two different things?) I don't know the percentage of ginger Romanians, but it's bound to be larger than the number of ginger Roma.

[go_back_chief]

What. The. Fuck?!

I watch that show ut I haven't seen that episode. I guess it hasn't aired here yet. That's some massive fail right there. But unfortunately, not the first time a show I like stereotypes Roma *coughbuffycough*

[kattahj]

Yeah, Buffy was pretty eye-rolly in several ways, but at least Jenny Calendar was a sympathetic, intelligent character. To go with all those levels of badness AND have all the Roma characters be child-bride-stealing murderers... ugh.

[kattahj]

I don't know why, just the way it's tossed out as a casual statement of fact -- applicable not just to the episode's bad guys, but to "a lot of Romani" -- stunned me.

More fun facts about gypsies, straight from The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

They certainly didn't seem to base their research on anything written within the last 70 years.

[vierran45]

Wow! I've never seen an episode of the show, but this sounds incredibly bad just from knowing how much Finnish Roma are discriminated against, just because, you know, "all gypsies are lazy and thieves," and the situation in Central or Eastern Europe is even worse.

To further this kind of stereotype is just appalling :P.

(A Supernatural icon might not be the best to comment, but the sentiment from the icon is what I want to convey.)

[kattahj]

I'm trying to imagine how anyone could think this ep was a good idea. The best I can figure is that they thought it'd be very unlikely for any Rom to call them on it. Which, unfortunately, is probably true. Good and bad side of picking on the pariah,

[sundayscat]

Seriously??? Do they realise that the romanis are actual people? That they are in fact a group of people that have suffered from oppression and oh, ethnic cleansing for centuries and are still heavily discriminated against? They are not some fantasy-race like elves or vampires that can be handily used whenever one wants a card-board villain - that shit has consequences.

[kattahj]

I think they don't so much realise that, no.