One of the nicest things that happens on Twitter is when you realised you reached someone and influenced how they see others, for the better. The below DM I received is shared with the writers permission. I get a few of these, but this one sort of sums up lots of them. 1/
I really don& #39;t say that much about culture. In fact, I skirt it quite hard a lot of the time. There are people far better placed to talk about traditions, languages, heritages, histories, etc than I am. As a rule I tend not to even clarify my specific background.
2/
There& #39;s a reason for that. When I say "ok, I am this" more than 50% of the time I will get "it& #39;s not your lot, it& #39;s the other lot". That can get in the bin. All travelling traditions are valid and all travelling people are human. You can& #39;t use me as a way to split the pack.

3/
Also, many of us are complicated. A lot of Romany advocates I know have one non-Romany parent. A lot of Irish Travellers I know have never travelled and don& #39;t want to. "New" Travellers are a 3-generation cultural tradition at this point. There are many cross-overs between us.

4/
So it& #39;s rare I talk directly about heritages. I usually RT others. What I tend to talk about it laws, social attitudes, common experiences, the weather, the kids, the traffic, food... Life under the hedge.

Admittedly this is currently stalled for the duration.

5/
I get a lot of followers who hope they& #39;ll get pretty painted wagons and ponies. I have absolutely never shared an original image of either. On purpose.

What I do on here, is humanise the villified. I do that most powerfully by being human, being no better or worse than you.

6/
If you are learning anything from me, as this person has, it& #39;s that travellers (of every tradition, and I am passionate about this, all travelling people) are just people. And that the intersection of our people& #39;s and society is absolutely systemically bigoted and degrading.

7/
Thank you so much all of you who have written me something nice at some point. In this times of unhappiness it particularly means a lot to me.

But thank you more those of you who are listening. You are the change I want to see in this world. https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="💐" title="Blumenstrauß" aria-label="Emoji: Blumenstrauß">

8/8.
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