Jonathan Lee, who is of Traveller origin, works for the European Roma Rights Centre as their Communications Coordinator. Nigel Smith has interviewed him for the “Deep Dive” program on YouTube’s network67society channel.
Lee discusses how social media has made anti-racism work much more collaborative today than it ever has before. He also discusses how under-reported everyday rights violations against members of the Roma and Traveller communities are across Europe.
Taken together, the many different groups of Roma and Travellers are Europe’s largest minority, but their geographic distribution has until recently been a hindrance to the development of their transnational identity. Life expectancy for many members of these communities is fully 15 years shorter than that of their fellow Europeans.
Antigypsyism remains a socially acceptable form of prejudice in Europe today. In this interview, Lee discusses the origins of the term, how inherent the concept has been and remains to European culture, and how approaches based on integration alone confuse the causes and effects of Romani and Traveller deprivation.
