this is due to be aired on @Channel4 on thursday. regardless of how balanced the programme may attempt to be, this description is absolutely disgusting. it’s really not often my breath is taken away by stuff but this is just... explicitly racist?
these (historic) tweets allegedly from the director are also pretty grim reading https://twitter.com/exlabourgrt/status/1249807250258104326?s=21">https://twitter.com/exlabourg... https://twitter.com/exlabourgrt/status/1249807250258104326">https://twitter.com/exlabourg...
it’s tropes perpetrated in that description that lead to a climate of hatred, violence +denigration of GRT community, both socially and structurally. that @Channel4 would seek to indulge+ sensationalise them is so wrong. they must take a look at themselves and their programming.
if you would like to see where this sort of racism leads, have a read of this. it misses the part where the lads who kicked johnny delaney’s head in allegedly shouted“he’s only a fucking gypsy”as they ran away from his lifeless body https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/jun/10/ukcrime.childprotection?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2003/j...
if you’d like a more recent example there’s this, from 2017 just outside of rome. the girls that were killed were 20, 8 and 4. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roma-gypsy-sisters-killed-camper-fire-rome-arson-investigation/">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/roma...
for an arson attack closer to home, there’s this from glastonbury, somerset last november. https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/somerset-news/people-who-started-caravan-fires-3515159">https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/news/some...
i’ve know GRT people who’ve had their homes surrounded +attacked. those who’ve been driven out of towns bc of threats. those who’ve been beaten + attacked for being “pickeys” and “gypos”. those whose kids have faced the same. those who’ve been denied service, or harassed by cops
this is without even mentioning the attacks through planning law, the dereliction of duty on the part of local authorities to legally provide adequate sites nor the attacks the tories are planning on the community.
the framing of this doc just provides cover for all of this and more. i’m fucking furious, this cannot stand.