Maybe it’s getting worse

Students at the Vranovska Street School in Brno
Natalie Havrdova, Sandra and Karolina
We three are best friends. When something happens to one of us it’s as if it happened to all of us. We’re very joyful: that is why we laugh all the time.
Our schoolmates call us bad names. Natalka is treated the worst by our schoolmates. She is a little bit fat, and she walks in a humpy manner. So they call her bad names – not only for her laughter but also for her way of walking and her body as well.
They keep calling us cat-dogs and cows and many other bad and vulgar words.
We’re sorry to say that not only boys abuse us: some girls do it too.
We know that our laughter bothers them. So we don’t laugh so much these days. But they never stop calling us bad names.
Some of them are so ruthless that they hurt us – a broken nose for example, and so on. They stabbed Natalka on a chair.
This was obviously a crime with racial motivation and it should not happen again.
Josef Milan
[Josef is responding to the story "If they kicked me with these boots” in the menu Meeting Others]
My cousin lives in Lisen. One day he was coming home late, and there were thirty-two skinheads standing in front of his house. They kicked him with their Martens boots. His ribs, one arm and one leg were broken, and he was in critical condition. They attacked him out of the blue, and for no reason.
Helena Hrazdilova
Racism is still alive in the world. You can see it in the story of a friend of mine. She met a boy of her dreams at school. But he was a Rom. She was exchanging letters with him and talking to him. Later they kissed at the playground. They were perfect friends, and their relation was really exceptional. When my friend’s father got to know about it, he nearly cut her in two. And he forbade her to meet him anymore.
My friend was very unhappy because of this boy, because she loved him so much. She decided to continue meeting him secretly so that her father wouldn’t know.
They are still together today and she is very happy that she did it against her father’ will.
Their behavior seems to me a bit vulgar to the rest of the world. But I do not think that they are all bad. They could behave better, but we are not perfect either.
My experience with Roms is rather bad but I know some Roms who you can talk to. I cannot say they are bad only because they are darker. On the other hand when I am returning home in the evening and I meet a band of “Gypsies” I can’t keep from feeling scared and not very safe.
I don’t know. I think that most of them are different. I can’t judge people by the color of their skin. It is also possible that we seem too pale to them.
A student who did not give her name
Roms?! What do I think about Roms? It’s a topic that is discussed in school quite often. But I don’t think that the situation is changing. Maybe it’s getting worse.
When I was small I often had problems with Roms. When I met them in the street they would abuse me with vulgar words and they were cheeky and called me bad names even though I was no friend of theirs. I didn’t even know them.
“Why are they like that?” I often asked myself. And the answer?….No answer at all. The older I was the less often I met the. But I haven’t found an answer to my question yet.
I would say I am quite a normal girl, but I have been having problems with Roms since I was small.
When I was still in kindergarten, I used to go shopping to a nearby shop. Once a Romany girl approached me and asked what time it was. When I told her I didn’t have a watch – because I didn’t have one – she slapped me in the face and left.
I was scared to walk along our street, but I could manage somehow. When you grow accustomed to the fact that you’ll only get one on your snout then you learn not to care: it won’t kill you. It gives you strength, and you won’t be afraid of anybody.
When a Rom kicked me I realized that I have to know how to defend myself. Nobody is allowed to touch me nowadays. I’d return it three times over.
Several students responding to “Who has a piece of the broken mirror?” in the menu “The Broken Mirror”:
We think that there is a piece of truth in this story. We wish the Roms, from our very hearts, to find their broken mirror.
And we also think that as soon as they find their broken mirror, they can take it and go back where they came from. And we also are of the opinion that Roms can’t be re-educated. We think that we can live much happier without them.