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“Scandalous Ethnicity” and “Victimized Ethnonationalism”: Pejorative Representations of Roma in the Romanian Mainstream
Book chapter

“Scandalous Ethnicity” and “Victimized Ethnonationalism”: Pejorative Representations of Roma in the Romanian Mainstream

Alina Vamanu and Iulian Vamanu
Postcommunism from Within, pp.265-292
New York University Press
2013
DOI: 10.18574/nyu/9780814724262.003.0007

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Abstract

This chapter looks at the persistence of anti-Roma hate speech in the Romanian media well beyond the country's EU accession in 2007. It seeks to demonstrate the production of “scandalous ethnicity” and articulates its role in contemporary Romanian ethnonationalism. It argues that prejudiced representations of Roma in the mainstream Romanian media is facilitated by a discursive inversion of the actual power relation between Romanians and Roma: while Roma are the disadvantaged group from both a socioeconomic and a cultural point of view, ethnic Romanians construct themselves as victims of allegedly “vicious” Tigani. This discourse of ethnonational victimization enables Romanians to cast extreme hate speech against the Roma as a legitimate act of self-defense and, therefore, as morally justified.
Romania Mass Media Social Movements and Social Change Romanians Roma prejudice ethnonationalism scandalous ethnicity hate speech

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