Racism Against Gypsies in Turkish and American Films

Abstract

Keywords : Amerika ve Turk Filmlerinde irkcilik -- cingeneler.

Romani people dispersed worldwide after they left India about a thousand years ago. Since they do not have a state that can protect their rights and act on behalf of them, they have encountered nothing but maltreatment throughout history. Some scholars give the estimated number of the Romani people living in the world as twelve million. For many centuries Romani have been craving recognition, the admittance of their existence. Romanies are one of the fringe-groups that has been subjected to severe racism. This project analyzes the racist depiction of Romani people in two Turkish and American films. Cinema was selected as the main subject because cinema has an enormous impact on the masses. The reason why this project uses Turkish and American films, and analyzes the condition of Romanies in these films, is that both countries have many similarities in handling the Romani issue. The mainstream society of both countries has the same approach, attitudes, thoughts, and prejudices against these people. Roma have a unique lifestyle, which is an exclusionary one as well. Hence, nowhere have they been regarded as a people who should be given equal righs.This project aims to depict how the unreal image of the Roma has been exploited in film and how the wrongly constructed concept of them caused these people to suffer for centuries