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/)