UPDATE, DECEMBER 8th, 2022:

Congress Website Record, A resolution celebrating the heritage of Romani Americans
PDF, Congressional Record, Senate, Dec 8th 2022, A resolution celebrating the heritage of Romani Americans

In April 2019, Representative Alcee L. Hastings, Democrat, introduced H.Res.292 - Celebrating the heritage of Romani Americans to the United States House of Representatives Foreign Affairs and Natural Resources Committees. February 2020 saw H.Res.292 re-referred to the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States.

In March 2021, Senator Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat, introduced S.Res.124 - A resolution celebrating the heritage of Romani Americans to the United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
December 8th, 2022 -- LAST WEEK, S.Res.124 agreed to in Senate with an amendment and an amended preamble by Unanimous Consent.

The amendment reads:
Whereas the ancestry of the Romani people, also called the Roma, can be traced to the Indian subcontinent;
Whereas Romani people have been a part of European immigration to the United States since the colonial period and particularly following the abolition of the enslavement of Romani people in the historic Romanian principalities;
Whereas Romani people live across the world and throughout the United States;
Whereas the Romani people have made distinct and important contributions in many fields, including agriculture, art, crafts, literature, medicine, military service, music, sports, and science;
Whereas, on April 8, 1971, the First World
Romani Congress met in London, bringing
Romani people together from across Europe and
the United States with the goal of promoting
transnational cooperation among Romani people
in combating social marginalization and building a positive future for Romani people everywhere;
Whereas April 8 is therefore celebrated globally as International Roma Day;
Whereas Romani people were victims of genocide carried out by Nazi Germany and its Axis
partners, and an estimated 200,000 to 500,000
Romani people were killed by Nazis and their allies across Europe during World War II;
Whereas, on the night of August 2–3, 1944, the
so-called ‘‘Gypsy Family Camp’’ where Romani
people were interned at Auschwitz-Birkenau
was liquidated, and in a single night, between
4,200 and 4,300 Romani men, women, and children were killed in gas chambers;
Whereas many countries are taking positive
steps to remember and teach about the genocide
of Romani people by Nazi Germany and its Axis
partners; and
Whereas the United States Congress held its
first hearing to examine the situation of Romani
people in 1994: Now, therefore, be it Resolved,
That the Senate—
(1) remembers the genocide of Romani people
by Nazi Germany and its Axis partners and
commemorates the destruction of the ‘‘Gypsy
Family Camp’’ where Romani people were interned at Auschwitz;
(2) commends the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum for its role in promoting remembrance of the Holocaust and educating about the genocide of Romani people;
(3) supports International Roma Day as an
opportunity to honor the culture, history, and heritage of the Romani people in the United States as part of the larger Romani global diaspora; and
(4) welcomes the Department of State’s participation in ceremonies and events celebrating
International Roma Day and similar engagement by the United States Government.

 

The Romani people of the United States of America deserve to be recognized by the United States government as a protected ethnic minority under the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Further Reading: 
Why is discrimination against American Roma ignored? | Margaret Matache, Jacqueline Bhabha

Within the borders of the United States of America, our global history and culture faces erasure similar to that of the people indigenous to North America. American schoolchildren often only encounter Romani people like myself, my family, and the estimated one million Romani Americans through literary stereotypes, racist tropes, and xenophobic core beliefs. These issues simply are not regarded as real issues, systemic problems, or human rights violations.

The basis of my demand for recognition and respect begins on the global stage and the anti-Romani and anti-Gypsy rhetoric that faces my people outside the borders of the United States in overtly violent behavior. Romani people have faced persecution, sterilization, execution, genocide, and many other evils across the ocean. There is a history of our people being excluded and left out, left behind, or killed. Microaggressions and macroaggressions of all types against Romani people certainly exist outside of the United States, the history of the Romani people's persecution by European powers is deep. Romanies in the United States face the constant reality of covert forms of racism and anti-Gypsyism on a daily basis without belief or reprieve from the greater portions of non-Romani populations. This lack of recognition, education, and cultural respect in non-Romani people in America lends to varying types of discrimination and anti-Roma bias. People in America view the Romani people as a costume or a behavior pattern (see: Unicorn Riot Article on American Police Utilizing Private Database to Racially Profile Romani People in the United States), and this is what I mean by microaggressions vs. macroaggression/outward aggression/violent assaults, although many Americans may not be aware of their microaggressions, it does not erase the colonial imports of anti-Romani bias and violence. And being unaware of microaggressions or history does not dispel the disproportionate over policing and sentencing of Romani people by Law Enforcement -- this only makes the pain of Romani Americans worse because there is evidence. Historical. Contemporary. Everywhere. 

As an often invisible or unseen, and entirely unrecognized, ethnic minority, we have nowhere to turn when facing prejudice or hate, regardless of what it looks like or who it is with -- non-Romani friends and strangers often define racism to us, tell us what bigotry looks like, and that we must be off or mistaken. It is embedded within American culture to disbelieve us, to not take us seriously, to see us as a fantasy or costume, or worse, born criminals and grifters. We are gaslit and told our issues are nonexistent or dramatized. We are profiled and disbelieved about such profiling. The racial slur Gypsy is utilized freely and openly by marketing executives, musicians, and artists, and the average non-Romani American.

Gypsy – a word used by non-Romanies to describe, incorrectly, and dehumanize us dates back to the enslavement and chattel slavery imposed upon the Romani people by the State and Government of the country Romania. When I walk into a Walmart Halloween section and see the stereotypical, and cartoonishly false, coin skirt and jewelry, sexualized and deemed appropriate for a costume, my humanity and the humanity of my ancestors is diminished. What happens to non-Romani folks who utilize our "costume" and then take it off? They get to play dress up without facing any of the consequences of being a Romani human being in this world. There is not a single slur in the world that is okay or that I am okay with. Gypsy is one that takes many forms, one that still sits on advertisements and is co-opted by non-Romani folks.

The United States of America has a long, involved, and intentional history based in ethnic and cultural erasure, starting with the genocide of the Native people and the enslavement of generations of Black Americans. The Romani people of America were not left out of this hatred and discrimination. We have been left out of history, though, more times than I could properly recount. 

Our history in the Americas predates the United States Government. Christopher Columbus, whom the government will be celebrating this Monday, traveled to the Americans with enslaved Romanies as cargo. Deemed undesirable by centuries of European monarchies, we Romanies were purposefully left out of the equation of the American Dream. 

Education plays a vital role in understanding, tolerance, and the respect of the humanity of unseen ethnic minorities. The average, school-aged American student will be exposed to literary tropes based in antiquated and racialized Christian core beliefs, one that threaten the freedoms granted to the American people regardless of race, sex, gender, or any other form of identity. These core beliefs, of European origin, are much like the tropes and stereotypes placed on the Native population of North America – without acknowledging the Romani people in society, education, or culture, the United States government can get away with erasing their lies and cultural manipulation for the benefit of the oppressive systems that keep us all in our colonial chains. 

Current Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinken made a statement regarding Romani human rights on International Roma Day – April 8th, 2021. Blinken offered another statement on the 8th of April 2022 with updated comments regarding human rights violations of Roma elsewhere. He refuses to acknowledge there is no actionable change being made by the US in regard to Romani Rights and Recognition. 

  “On behalf of the Government of the United States, I extend my best wishes to Roma everywhere on International Roma Day.

On April 8, we celebrate the rich culture, language, and heritage of Roma around the world, including the generations of Romani Americans who have helped build the United States.

Today is also a day to remember that many Roma continue to suffer from systemic discrimination and violence. Discriminatory treatment and stereotyping prevents Roma from fully participating in political, social and economic life around the world.  We urge governments to provide equal access to education, employment, housing, health care, and public services, and to uphold their international obligations to respect the human rights of all people within their borders.  During the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially important that public leaders condemn hate speech and its pernicious consequences and address and prevent health inequities that stem from systemic and structural racism.

The United States applauds the October 2020 working definition of anti-Roma discrimination adopted by the 34-nation International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, which provides a tool for governments and the public to identify the many manifestations of this persistent form of bigotry.

Every individual is born free and equal in dignity and rights, and the United States remains committed to human rights and racial equality, both at home and abroad.  On International Roma Day, we reaffirm this commitment to Roma worldwide.”

Secretary Blinken made this statement while knowing that the United States takes no actual steps within its borders to acknowledge and bolster its Romani citizens nationwide. He made this statement on International Roma Day, a day that exists because of the brutality and genocide our people have faced globally. How could this statement hold any value when the United States has all but wiped us physically from this country’s history? The United States may applaud all it wants, yet that applause will continue to feel performative until the Federal Government makes changes to how it teaches, protects, and interacts with its Romani denizens across the country. If the United States remains committed to human rights and racial equality, both at home and abroad, do you not think that the United States should recognize Romani people nationally and federally as an ethnic minority deserving of the Constitutional protections it claims to grant its inhabitants and citizens? I do not accept this reaffirmation – more work must be done, and it must include Romani representation on all fronts. 

We must change the way the Board of Education teaches the history of my people, our collective history. We must shift the perception of Romanies (or Gypsies, as some of us choose to reclaim this word and some do not) in the United States from the fictionalized tropes of Disney-based universes and the eroticized and sexualized criminalization of our bodies, minds, and spirits. We must engage education with factual history and the truth of what has been done to us as a people, within the States and abroad. 

We must be affirmed as a people. 

We must not allow the popularized usage of a dehumanizing and devaluing racial slur. Performers like Shakira and Stevie Nicks and Lady Gaga and various others assert lyrics about life as a “Gypsy” but face none of the systemic repercussions of claiming such ethnicity and heritage. These artists do not bolster Romani voices or the Romani perspective but perpetuate harmful stereotypes that allow prejudice, bigotry, and hatred to remain powerful. We must remove variations of the word Gypsy, such as being gypped. We must challenge these stereotypes and include the Romani community in both feminist and anti-racist policy and community. 

We must shift the public perspective of the Gypsy people to one that fosters the love and kindness that is inherent in our own cultural practices and artistic endeavors – no more fictionalized, tokenized, or sexualized American Gypsies. We are real people and deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. We have given to culture and country without acknowledgement and protections. We have been forced into assimilation, hiding, or death. 

I refuse to exist in silent erasure. I refuse to die in America’s colonial shadows.

I am calling on the United States Government to begin acknowledging, educating, and informing the American public through work with American Romani individuals, families, and institutions. We must establish Romani cultural centers nationwide. We must establish best practices for teaching our history and establishing authentic curriculum. 

We will not be erased; American Romani are at least one million strong. We are not going anywhere. Change becomes us. We are not in the land of the free and home of the brave if this country still believes in hiding people and their history to preserve the perception of American Exceptionalism. There is nothing exceptional about rewriting history and marketing an entire ethnic minority as a costume, a garb, or a band of criminals.