From the Gypsies to the African Americans

Author(s): Mihaela Mudure
Keywords: Gypsies, African Americans, emancipation, Other, discrimination, slavery, democracy, minorities
Journal: Journal for the Study of Religions and Ideologies
Year: 2003
Full text: http://www.jsri.ro/old/html%20version/index/no_4/mihaela_mudure-articol.htm
Publisher: Seminar for the Interdisciplinary Research of Reli
Abstract: This paper is an analysis of comparative multiculturalisms. Starting from the historical reality that both the Roma and the African-Americans were reified through slavery and discriminated against because of their racial visibility, the author analyses the position of the two groups in the Romanian, namely, the American society. The lead of the African-Americans in overcoming the racial stigma is explained by the author through: the opportunities offered by a powerful and consolidated democracy, and by the existence of an elite of the minority group. These factors should be envisaged by Romanian society when trying to make both the minority and the majority cooperate in order to avoid the transformation of the Roma into an under-class group, a great challenge with a view to Romania’s integration into the EU structures.