Racism, Gypsies, immigrants, problems & solutions

[Zenith]

And I believe racism cannot be fixed only by trying to educate the people into accepting a minority, but also into helping the minority - the one who's having an inferior culture - to rise to a higher level.

This is some dangerous ground - I'm not going to comment because I'm not gipsy, but are you advocating erasing their culture? I'm not my girlfriend, but if I was her, I'd probably say "Yes, gipsy culture sucks"

I believe you misunderstood me. What do you understand of culture, specifically?

What I meant by culture is actually, well, mentalities. Think about it, people who lack education and are being treated as outsiders cannot quite develop a nice culture. And cultures change, in every country. There are many gypsies accustomed to theft, to scamming and fraudulence, violence, etc. Basically, if you moved all gypsies in nice apartment blocks in a nice neighborhood and all would have jobs, it is possible that only ~20% of them would strive for a better way. The rest will turn the apartment blocks into slums, there would be violence, people would not go to work, would continue to steal, would be drunkards, etc. Things like this did happen before, so just throwing money cannot solve the problem. Re-education is needed.

It is possible that for many adult gypsies it is very difficult to change (after having lived within a destructive environment and with very bad 'education' - basically, taught to steal). The children can be more easily educated, but their parents must somehow hold to the families for their children to be able to go to school (even, illiterate parents may see no need in their children going to school).

Wait, racists outside of Texas being discussed on AF? What the fuck, over?

You need to come to Italy, Portugal or France to see how racist we can be. It's just a very subtle non noticeable racism, but it exists.

Here it's worse, I believe, but only for the gypsies. We've got some number of arabs (muslims), hungarians, germans, etc. but these are all treated properly.

I know that here there are communities of gypsies living outside the cities (as outcasts, basically), in tents, with no electricity, no water (at taps), no education, just like the middle ages. But yes, they do live like this in other parts of Europe as well. Anyway, I'm sure politicians & mayors in Romania wouldn't be concerned if there were Romanian ethnics like this as well, but looking gypsy (i.e. black, but also the way of talking) does decrease the chances of getting a job. For jobs that require higher studies, looking / being gypsy doesn't count, because the gypsy can be assumed to have a proper (home) education and that he holds a good behavior.

I sometimes pass by some Gipsy women begging but I usually ignore her just like I do with any other homeless people, unless I can really spare a coin. In my case I smoke and quite frequently I smoke outside so they see me as a supplier for cigs - Bad luck for them, I always and tell them the pack is over

I'm sometimes feeling bad about this but... most of the time I go past a beggar or a homeless man, I avoid looking at him. I quite never spare any coin (a thought like, "it wouldn't help him much for the long run anyway..."). I sometimes wonder "what could have happened to him that he ended up this way?" and think about a distant future in which I desire to get involved in some association that helps homeless men or poor people. But I never do that. I always keep the intention but postpone it for a very distant future.

Also, I am quite reluctant to beggars. I know there are cases (at least here) where a guy or a woman dresses up in ragged cloths, goes to a bazaar or some place where there are people buying & selling, begging, and at the end of the day he / she goes home, dresses back normally, and goes shopping for things not quite critical for survival. As about children beggars, their parents are quite likely to send them to beg and when they get home they take their money and use the money to buy alcohol (for themselves) or something. In other words, I would feel better about dropping some coin if I knew I really give to someone in need.