(From RPP Reporter, June 1999) In Hungary, the Roma population, estimated at between 550,000 and 800,000, are caught between racisms old and new. From the far right, in what amounted to a neo-fascist manifesto, Istvan Csurka in an article entitled 'Setting the Record Straight', published in the newspaper Magyar Forum in August 1992, declared that it was 'unhealthy' to blame skinheads for the ills of the nation: We can no longer
ignore the fact that the deterioration had genetic causes as well.
It has to be acknowledged that under priveleged, even cumulatively
underpriveleged, strata and groups, in which the harsh laws of natural
selection no longer function because it would do no good anyway, have
been living among us for far too long. Society now has to support
the strong fit for-life families who are prepared for work and achievement. As Marek Kohn pointed out, the formulation 'strata and groups' is a code understood to refer to Roma. Csurka was duly expelled from his party, the Hungarian Democratic Forum, and went on to form The Hungarian Truth and Life Party, committed to strive for a 'Hungarian Christian Nation State with folk roots'. Liberal hopes that Csurka had thus consigned himself to the political wilderness have since been dashed with his entry into Parliament after the 1998 elections, on securing the necessary 5% of the national vote. Nearer the centre of the political spectrum in this consolidated democracy, the discourse of exclusion is far more subtle, more resonant with the British New Right, than the German Third Reich. Former Prime Minister Gyula Horn, in a speech last year, exhibited traits of what some describe as 'new racism'. In contrast to the overt racism of the neo-nazi ultras, the dominant theme in this discourse is not biological heredity but the insurmountability of cultural differences. At first glance it is does not postulate the superiority of certain groups or peoples in relation to others but 'only' the incompatibility of life-styles and traditions, what Etienne Balibar has called–a differentialist racism. Horn's language, far removed in tone and content from the ravings of Csurka, echoed that of the mainstream right in West European democracies. The speech attempted to 'naturalise' the prejudices of the majority: It must also be said outright that a significant portion of society has an unfavourable experience regarding Gypsies' work willingness, abuse of public goods, and observance of community norms and rules....We have to state some basic principles and we have to realise them in practice. We do not think it acceptable–I hope that the Gypsies agree–that for Romani families the only form of making ends meet is the allowance received for the children, and this could be helped only if they (the parents) started working. It is harmful for the ethnic minorities as well, if masses of families build their lives, or are forced to build their lives, on an unemployed existence... In this excerpt, Horn managed to recycle 'common-sense' negative perceptions of the Roma and lend them a coherence of sorts. Effectively, the 'other' is collectively reminded of the need to observe the 'tolerance thresholds' of the majority. Horn reminded his audience that, "One's otherness, one's origins, does not give any right to social partiality...". Even those aspects of Romani life deemed to be positive were pathologised: It is a well-known fact that Romani society has well-organised local communities, and that inner solidarity is very strong among them. This fact has several positive results. Unfortunately, for historical reasons, this solidarity is often extended to offenders of the laws as well. Today, however, such phenomena are unacceptable even for an ethnic minority. It is my conviction that this phenomenon results in grave damage in the moral reputation of minorities. This is why I believe it is very important for the Gypsies to face this problem and to separate themselves from the criminals. The main themes are familiar to every ethnic minority in democracies old and new. Attributes of deviance, criminality, fecklessness, welfare-sponging, hardly absent from the dominant culture, are foisted upon the minority as if they were the sole repositories of all that is asocial. The 'realist social policy' tone of the rhetoric fails to conceal the hierarchical component: the majority culture assumes itself to be universalistic and progressive, and its artificers portray the minority as irremediably particularistic and primitive. Far more insidious than the ranting of overt racists, this differentialist racism cements the process of exclusion by blaming the victim. Horn's exhortations to the Roma to 'separate themselves' from what the 'nation' finds unacceptable is analgous to what Cornell West called the 'particularly naive and peculiarly vicious' conservative behavioural outlook towards Blacks in the United States. Exhorting Blacks in the US, or Roma in Central and Eastern Europe to see themselves as agents, not victims, is, as West describes it, 'a nice cliche for downtrodden people'. Such exhortations deny the lingering effects of both African-American and Romani histories–histories 'inseparable from, though not reducible to victimization'. Urging the Roma to separate themselves from damaging phenomena, to desist in certain forms of conduct, as if it were simply a matter of personal responsibility involves a cynical sleight of hand which obscures not only historical context but refuses to acknowledge the depth of racism which structures contemporary circumstance.
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