Brno, Czech Republic: Romani Hub organization targeted with antigypsyist graffiti three times in the last two weeks
The Romani Hub organization, headquartered on Cejl Street in Brno, Czech Republic, where it provides aid to the local Romani community there, has been repeatedly attacked with racist graffiti. During the last 14 days, racist messages have been posted to the door of their new office and the door of the building itself.
“GYPSIES TO WORK!” was written on two separate occasions on a paper posted by Romani Hub on its office door explaining their project, and most recently somebody graffitied the door to the whole building with the message: “We can’t stand Gypsies in this building”. The chair of the association, Tomáš Ščuka, has reported these attacks to the police.
Ščuka, who is also a member of the Czech Government Council for Roma Minority Affairs, found the first message on 1 January; it was rewritten there one week later. Those messages were written with a pencil on a piece of paper the organization posted on its door explaining the project.
The most recent message was written on the glass entry door to the building with permanent marker. Romani Hub’s office has just been in the building for a short time.
“We have this new office here since December, when we set it up. Right now we are slowly moving in and starting to work here,” Ščuka explained to news server Romea.cz after reporting the attacks to the police.
“Such attacks or speech is not surprising to us here in the Czech Republic. This is a consequence of the lax approach taken by the authorities for a very long time toward anti-Romani speech which, as a democratic society, we are basically legitimizing by overlooking such incidents and staying silent about them,” Ščuka told Romea.cz.
“Combating antigypsyism is one of the crucial priorities of our association’s activity. Hateful messages on the door of our new office just confirm to us that Romani Hub’s direction and vision are responding to the real state of affairs,” Ščuka said.
Romani Hub is an organization of experts who have long dedicated themselves to the issue of the Romani community in the Czech Republic. They offer professional partnerships to local and state administrations with the aim of drawing attention to the current situation of Romani people and actively contributing to the changes needed to improve the situation.
The organization says it is striving to create an environment where Roma will be able to apply themselves and live as full-fledged members of society.
