I won't distance myself from something for which I am not responsible

Commentary by Josef Banom: I won't distance myself from something for which I am not responsible
Prague, 24.8.2011 20:44, (ROMEA)



3

Two cases of attacks recently committed by Romani people against ethnic Czechs in Nový Bor and Rumburk have prompted anti-Roma, racist sentiment throughout the entire Czech Republic. Discussion forums, the media, and online social networks have outdone themselves in describing these situations, primarily never forgetting to emphasize that Romani people are responsible.

The discussions of these events that are being posted to the websites of serious Czech dailies have shifted toward such extremism that in a normal country, half of the posts would be removed by administrators and charges filed against the authors. Here are some examples:

"I'm not a doctor, but I would gladly sterilize all of the gypsy women you can send me free of charge. At the locksmith workshop I have tools and a pick-axe and a shovel in the woodshed."

"All it will take is one election where the right party gets into power and we will shoot you all on sight. You'd be better off as pig feed, you fuckers!"

"This is why it is necessary to establish militias and systematically liquidate the gypsy trash. These creatures (I am intentionally not using the world 'people') are not fit to live in a shared state among decent people. Naturally as a certain percentage, definitely, but not as the vast majority."

"Enough bullshit! PATRIOTS let's rise up and go after them!!!"

This is not about freedom of speech, but about inciting a racial pogrom. These remarks play to the lowest common denominators of human nature - desire for revenge, hatred, racism and xenophobia. It seems that part of the public is losing the ability to think normally. Instead, like sheep in a herd, they are succumbing to the intoxication of hatred, which is being richly fed by the media. Just like someone drunk on alcohol, these people, drunk on hatred, are losing their capacity to tell right from wrong.

Germany underwent a similar process both before and after Nazism was established. Otherwise non-violent, ordinary people, manipulated by an ideology and the media, lost their capacity to perceive the world as it is and joined the doctrine of hatred of all difference.

Like any normal person, I reject all violence, including what has happened in Nový Bor and Rumburk. I hope those responsible are punished harshly. However, as a Romani man I refuse to play the blame game being forced upon me by public discourse at a time of rising tensions between communities of different skin colors, especially when this has to do with collective blame. I will not distance myself from something I am not responsible for and which I had no opportunity to influence. I am not responsible for other people's actions, and neither are other Romani people in the Czech Republic.