Oh, the situation was definitely bad until after the WW1. The 1899 murder trial is the Hilsner affair I mentioned above. The Jews weren't alone in being persecuted, though they definitely took the brunt of it; there were several massive "waves" when non-catholic Christians had to leave the Czech countries and go into exile - but I guess they were accepted in the protestant countries, while the Jews really had nowhere to go. So back then, it was bad, and it's disconcerting to realize how proudly we consider the famous Czech Jews (writers etc.) "our" people, when the stories about the pogroms are barely touched upon in historical lessons. That may have been excusable when our independence was still very fragile and new (you want your fledging reborn nation to be proud and not become fixed on their old fuck-ups), but in 2018 it will be a hundred years since "Czechoslovakia" was formed, so we should give up the fairytales we've been telling each other and seriously reflect.
Still, I think after WW1, things have calmed down a lot since we finally had our own country after some 500 years under the Habsburg rule. Also with the "beloved hero" Tomáš Masaryk leading the country, I don't think any wider antisemitism would have stood. But it's hard to say.
Now what is a problem nowadays is the anti-Romani prejudice. It's not just a question of race but also a social-economical problem - the vast majority of Romani people are from the bottom class of society, with barely any education, often one or both of the parents in the families unemployed. Then there are the ghettos which are a serious problem - if you're not Romani, you should absolutely avoid these places or you risk getting hurt by the gangs.
So for various reasons, there is this "us" versus "them" mentality, on both sides. And it absolutely has to change, but it won't happen until the social-economical situation changes. We desperately need Romani role models; people who would come from this society, talk about their experiences and be proud of their background. We need Romani children to become more educated - too many teenagers never even complete their Leaving Exam and drop out of school at fifteen, but those few who get out of the ghettos and actually do go to universities and such all seem to tell the same story about how their families now consider them "traitors" and they had to choose between an education/career and their origins.
At this stage, it's white people telling how to fix things and Romani people telling how to fix things, but there isn't any form of dialouge. And for all the wonderful proclamations made by "human rights supporters", I don't see this changing anytime soon :(
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2015-04-18 07:23 am (UTC)Still, I think after WW1, things have calmed down a lot since we finally had our own country after some 500 years under the Habsburg rule. Also with the "beloved hero" Tomáš Masaryk leading the country, I don't think any wider antisemitism would have stood. But it's hard to say.
Now what is a problem nowadays is the anti-Romani prejudice. It's not just a question of race but also a social-economical problem - the vast majority of Romani people are from the bottom class of society, with barely any education, often one or both of the parents in the families unemployed. Then there are the ghettos which are a serious problem - if you're not Romani, you should absolutely avoid these places or you risk getting hurt by the gangs.
So for various reasons, there is this "us" versus "them" mentality, on both sides. And it absolutely has to change, but it won't happen until the social-economical situation changes. We desperately need Romani role models; people who would come from this society, talk about their experiences and be proud of their background. We need Romani children to become more educated - too many teenagers never even complete their Leaving Exam and drop out of school at fifteen, but those few who get out of the ghettos and actually do go to universities and such all seem to tell the same story about how their families now consider them "traitors" and they had to choose between an education/career and their origins.
At this stage, it's white people telling how to fix things and Romani people telling how to fix things, but there isn't any form of dialouge. And for all the wonderful proclamations made by "human rights supporters", I don't see this changing anytime soon :(