I’d like to address a few things 🧵

In the last few days, some voices have, stubbornly, & with no historical basis, denied the existence of the Roma in Britain in the 19th century, despite a wealth of historical evidence documenting continued presence since the 16th cent (1/) I have mentioned some of these sources in previous points. The evidence stems from historical documents, political acts (see the Egyptians Act), dissertations, archeological sites, etc. Not least, linguistic evidence is clear (2/)

In the last couple of days I’ve seen, again, lots of talk on here about the Roma Holocaust (Porajmos), & again lots of careless terminology and confusion equating Roma with Traveller. So I’m doing a little thread again addressing some common questions. So, who are the Roma? (1/) Simply, the Roma are a South Asian diasporic group originating from northern India and originally nomadic. Because they were nomadic, the Roma are heterogenous — there are many subgroups of the Roma (2/)

Okay, here’s a long(ish) thread now I’ve had a chance to calm down.
The Roma people are of Northern Indian origin. In Europe, Romas are visibly brown, which is what led to a history of persecution, that started off with 500 years of slavery and led to the Holocaust. (1/) All the way through the 19th century, the Roma were sold as slaves, with the price calculated per kg of ‘meat’. This is a poster for a slave auction in Romania. The term ‘tsigan’, generically used in Europe, comes from from medieval Greek tsigganos, and means untouchable. (2/)