Sonic'

Ok, it seems my original post has been vaped

It was a serious question, that did end up getting muppetised slightly

Now is the word Gypsy no longer allowed, or is it another one of those stupid PC rules now

The eldest (who is 8 next week) has a new friend at school, who calls himself a gypsy, has always lived in a caravan, and been to 10 schools, the eldest has learnt the word Gypsy from him and only him, and she has been told off by her Teacher today for using the word Gypsy whilst talking about him to one of her other friends

If he considers himself a 'Gypsy' then surely it is ok for her to use that term

Appreciate serious answers this time, obviously some people took offence for the original thread to be vaped, unless I missed something in the last few hours

Turbohot

To my uderstanding, teacher is asking your eldest not to use Gypsy word as a precautionary measure; to nip the probablity of discrimination against that child in the bud.
I don't think gypsy word is officially forbidden yet for rational use. Gypsy Traveller Liaison Officer post exists in some Welsh councils. Best thing will be not to make an issue of it with the school, and just get on with it IMO. It's the stigma that is attached to this gypsy word, that gets teachers' goat, i suppose.

Sonic'

Her Teacher told her she has to refer to him as a traveller though so it cant be all about being equal and the same etc but did go on to say that Gypsy is a bad word and should not be used

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

I honestly don't know if the word gypsy is no longer allowed by law, but my feeling is that the school is just following along with all the PC crap dictating what we can and can't say. If a traveller refers to themselves as a gypsy, which many may well do, it is likely it is PC hype, and they themselves have no problem with being called that.

Before long we will have no dictionary left as it seems by the minute, there are less and less words we are allowed to use, regardless of the context.

Sonic'

Quite possible Swati, but the boy himself refers to him being a Gypsy as it is his roots, and he has no problem telling people he is a Gypsy, and actually wants to be called that by his school friends

David Lock

Common sense in 2008 says you need to be careful about the context (if you want a serious answer).

I am sure it's fine to talk about Romany Gypsies in a historical sense but it's not PC in a living-in-caravan sense nowadays. I would use the word myself but that's not the point. Same as Jimi Hendrix's girlfriend saying her mum "didn't want any scruffy ******* in the house" when talking about Jimi. That's fine because of the context but not if you or I had said it. dl

Will

Why was your thread vaped?? A real shame IMHO. If you ask me the word Gypsy is not offensive , what else should we call them? tramps, waste of space etc etc. or is it that the word gypsy isnt allowed

Tam the bam

On a similar topic a friend of ours child was constantly being bullied at school by another classmate, his parents were getting frustrated by the child being unable to sleep at night and not wanting to go to school, so they told the kid to hit back (ignoring the schools guidelines) but he'd reported to his teacher about the bullying and nothing was done.

Anyway he took his parents advice and hit the bully back, he got in trouble from the teacher and his parents called to the school.

They asked why their son was now the villan as the other kid was bullying him for a good while before he went against the schools rules and hit back, they replied 'It was because the child was ethnic minority and were afraid to do anything about it' When they did eventually confront the child he said he bullied him cos he didn't like him!

I think teachers are like everyone else now, afraid of speaking out incase they get branded a racist or bigot in this pc madhouse once known as Britain!

Sonic'

So by her Teacher trying to be PC as to not offend the minority, she is actually offending the minority by telling everyone inclduing him that they arent allowed to use the 'G' word which is what his parents and himself believe and tell people they are

I undertsand with the context thing David, and I assume that is why the original thread got vaped, because it did get out of the context of the original question, myself included, but looking at the posts upto about 7pm it was light hearted banter (at least thats how I saw it)

Its funny Tam, two of the kids have been sujected to some bullying and I have told them to hit back too, because the school have done very little about it (at least the first incident they didnt, despite it happening during Anti Bullying Week, and a very long strong letter to the Headmaster)

Lee247

Gypsy is not a racist word. It refers to Traveller. Anyway, who gives a stuff. At the end of the day, this PC garbage is just that, garbage.
You want to tell that school to get on with its job of educating the kids Sonic and not coming out with all this PC trash

Tam the bam

My magic finger agrees with Lee

David Lock

The P word has always been a sensitive subject on SN. I am sure there is a sinister background to this but best not to ask I expect.

Probably like being rude about the Mafia on an Italian car site

OllyK

Gypsys are a sub-set of travellers.

Government seems to have no issue with the term
Gypsies and Travellers - Housing - Communities and Local Government

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Yeh Gypsy is allowed, has anyone watched Max and Paddy`s road to nowhere ?

Gypsy Joes tv shop in the back of that big van, its where pslewis got his plasma from

pwhittle

yes you can use it, it's a BME category. It doesn't apply to all travellers though, hence usually using the term Gypies and Travellers (often incorporating Showmen). And there's Romanies, and English Travellers / Irish Travellers.
We did a report last year entitled Housing Support Needs of Gypies and Travellers, which was widely circulated, and and involved interviewing many Gypies. No-one thought the title inappropriate.

Teacherls, like many, spend too much time trying to cover themselves, despite being ill-informed in many cases.

ex-webby

Here we go again

mr impreza

is it POSSIBLE, for you to instead think along the lines of "shame your thread got vaped, I wonder what the important reason was." rather than "scoobynet is ruining everything for us, and this is the latest thing they've managed to concoct just to p1ss us off!".



-

The big problem with threads like this. Is that sooner or later some clever sod thinks its funny to post up "F*cking pikeys, get your own internet connection" or similar.

This changes the thread from a discussion into something offensive.

If someone started a new thread entitled "I hate pikeys", and then went on to insult an entire race of people, do you think we'd allow it to stay?

Well the problem is, sooner or later, someone turns decent, normal discussions about sensitive topics into exactly that, and it is THEY who ruin it for everyone.

This one is going the same way, and anyone who posts anything along those lines will receive infractions, their posts deleted, and possible cause the entire thread to be deleted.

Just have a bit of common sense. If you want this thread to remain, don't use offensive language! It really isn't complicated.

Leslie

Didn't you have a problem with that school before Sonic? The teachers certainly seem to be very over sensitive about some words which in their normal context are correct names for the people concerned and have been from time immemorial. It is only people's minds which might put a wrong connotation on the word and they are the ones who are really guilty of causing trouble.

Gypsy refers to a race otherwise known as Romany Gypsies as we all know and it is quite ridiculous of anyone to take exception to the word being used with no intention to offend. That teacher is quite wrong to castigate your child for using it.

Gypsies are basically travellers and therefore tend to live in caravans of course.

There are people of course who attempt to emulate them and they are the ones who often cause problems. They tend to stay in one place if they can and are usually pretty awkward customers. They are the ones who wreak damage and create filth taking benefits with no sense of responsibility. They are not gypsies as such and in the days of my youth they were known by an old English name, ie "Didicoys" if I have spelt that correctly. Romanies are a proud people and should not be associated with them.

Les

Will

Edited for Webmaster

SteveScooby

iTrader: (2)

On the diversity course I went on recently they said that Gypsy is an acceptable term, but apparently Gypo is as offensive as Ni***r

Adidas

The Mother of an ex of mine proudly called herself a Gypsy. She was very quick to point out there was a huge difference between being a Gypsy and a P***y.

If the friend of the OP's eldest is happy with the title and his parents haven't got any issues, where's the harm??

RussBoy

Absolutely. As I said in my original (vapped) post, the term 'Gypsy' over here is actually quite complimentary in context but then they don't have the 'P' word here yet. I actually lived in what was really a Gypsy village for 2 years and they were lovely people (seriously). I've also met real gypsies in the mountain villages in Romania (I have Romanian programmers working for me) and they too were nice, kind people with good values. Therefore, banning 'Gypsy' or insinuating it's in any way racist is a joke. It's not.

fivetide

iTrader: (1)

Reminds me of the Chris Rock Black people hate N****ers sketch. My mate has to deal with travellers a lot in his job (environmental warden) and even within their own community they have their own groups. He was told by a group of Welsh travllers that he'd get no trouble from them but to "watch out for those Irish over there, they are proper pik*ys"

Seems that there is a clear distinction between the two and it isn't really fair to tar everyone with the same brush.

5t.

p1mark

A genuine question.

What is the official difference between a traveller, a gypsy, and a pikey?

Or does the term pikey refer purely to 'lower class' gypsy's i.e gypsy's are law abiding folk and pikey's are not?

Not trying to upset any of the above Mr Webby, i am genuinely interested if there is a real difference or is it just percieved?

EvilBevel

Was that before or after he recorded "Band of Gypsys"?

Adidas

Gypsy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Irish Traveller - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pikey - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HTH

Sonic'

TBH I did look at Wiki for the term Gypsy, and it does state that it is a derogatory word

Now we all know the validity of Wiki

Simon/Webby I knew why (or at least had a damn good idea) as to why my original thread was deleted, hence this time asking for serious replies to try and keep it on topic, including myself as I was guilty of having some banter at the expense of others, including Donna and her eldest (whom the post is about) as they have do infact have romany blood in them

Les, yes we have had some minor issues with the school over one thing or another, this latest one just seems a bit stupid considering the boy stated quite clearly that he is a Gypsy, now the Teacher is not even allowing him to state his own race (for want of a better word)

The eldest was confused to say the least, so we tried explaining last night that Gypsy is ok to use, more so that her friend has stated this, we have used the word too as Gypsies do have a permanent site not that far from where we live

In answer to Mark's question I always thought the word Pikey was for the type of person Brad Pitt portrayed in ****** ( I think that was the film) and was of Irish descent (essentially an Irish Gypsy/Traveller) however I may well be wrong on that one

hectic

problem with the English language , is its a B'a$tardised version of ye Olde Anglo.. there has been so many words added over the years, its now just a mish mash of so many different cultures words.. what ever happened to DIVERSITY?? to being different? are we now as a race, to be merely clones of some PC-esque ideal?
there are words I use in every day terminology that may possibly offend some liver livered ,ultra hypersensitive folk,.. well TUFF *******!
I personally am pretty broad minded and thick skinned and will take no offense to most stuff (unless its personal or aimed toward my immediate familyby those that dont know me)
If by pure association of pikey's Pykies gypo's etc being irish, then Im part Pikey, so y'no what??

Fekk you all an ya bolliggs'

Removed.

Leslie, that bought back memories, one of the kids I went to junior school with was of "mixed race" I believe the PC term is. Nothing to do with Romany Gypsies, but kids used to call him "Didicoy" all the time, poor sod.

From Wikipedia. "Didicoy (Romani diddicoi; also diddicoy, diddycoy) was a 19th and early 20th century term of the Roma (Gypsies) for travellers with no Roma blood. There was often fierce competition between the groups, and the Roma tended to blame their own reputation for criminality on the didicoys masquerading as Gypsies.

Among the settled population in Britain, ironically, the term became a slang expression for "Gypsy"."


PC-ness is a very difficult area. My mates at work call me Chunky, Fatboy, Big Fella. When we were taken over by an American company, the diversity police went beserk! I don't care what people call me, as long as it's not late for meals.

In all seriousness, times have changed, and everyone has to be more careful with their language. You have to assume that you will offend someone if you are not careful, until you know otherwise. But then you may still fall foul of the current rules and social etiquette, because even if I don't mind you calling me Fatboy, someone else that overhears your comment could be offended.

Just be glad things aren't as strict as the good old US of A!

jods

WTF has it got to do with them?

I'd tell 'em to wind their necks in and keep their beaks out unless they wanted a poke on the snotter.

*****

Leslie

Thanks for the info Chunky, looks a though my memory did not fail me for once.

Yes you are right about what we say these days with all the PC Plonker nonsense, it is dragging us all down and causing far more problems than the slight risk of offence most of the time.

Les