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May. 29th, 2022 06:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
feotakahariSaw a Romani Tumblr user claim that Romani, as a culture, don’t want outsiders writing about their culture. I wasn’t able to find any non-Tumblr posts about this, but some other Romani Tumblr users agreed, so it’s at least shared among some folks.
Don’t get me wrong, I know nothing about Romani culture and am not planning to write any characters who are culturally Romani. But this attitude seems culturally suicidal. “Outsiders don’t understand or respect us, so we’ll make a rule against them portraying us. Then the only outsiders who portray us will be the ones who break the rule, meaning ones who don’t understand or respect us.” You’d better get some artists within your culture who’re really popular with outsiders, or else the disrespectful bullshit will be all most outsiders see, making it self-perpetuating.
Don’t get me wrong, I know nothing about Romani culture and am not planning to write any characters who are culturally Romani. But this attitude seems culturally suicidal. “Outsiders don’t understand or respect us, so we’ll make a rule against them portraying us. Then the only outsiders who portray us will be the ones who break the rule, meaning ones who don’t understand or respect us.” You’d better get some artists within your culture who’re really popular with outsiders, or else the disrespectful bullshit will be all most outsiders see, making it self-perpetuating.
