| Cleary397 said: hmm.... It might be comments like this that make him seem just a little bit racist - "I was asked ‘if a group of Romanian men moved in next to you, would you be concerned?’ And if you lived in London, I think you would be.” On top of this, he has also made remarks which are insulting to women as well. Stating that they are "worth less" than men Is that the kind of leader you want? |
Problem in general with that quote is Romanians are not a race. I am Romanian and most ethnic Romanians are white and the only major difference between Romanians and other people is they speak Romanian.
For a little context, in Romania there is a lot of conflict between the ethic Romanians and the Romanis (gypsies). Ironically negative Romanian sterotypes such as Romanians are poor thieves who breed like rabbits and destory everything are exactly the same sterotypess used by Romanians against the Romanis.
These sterotypes exist because Romani people generally live poorer lifes and have mucher higher crime rates than ethnic Romanians and face societical discrimination. Romani culture and Romanian culture are completely different and often clash because of this, and with the majority of Romania being populated by ethnic Romanians, it's pretty obvious to see why Romanis got the short straw. There's a lot of Romanis in Romania, and also from Bulgaria too so when they go to countries like Germany, France or the UK they are just referred to as Romanians or Bulgarians.
So I'm not trying to defend UKIP but I do want to explain why I think UKIP believes this. And I do think scapegoating Romanians and Bulgarians (and Romanis for that matter of fact) is wrong, UKIP not only echoes what some British think but also what Romanians think.
Which the majority of this conflict comes from a clash of cultures. Which is generally why people do not like Romanis, although perhaps some people dislike them because they have slightly darker skin, in my experience it is the social friction between these two ethnic groups.
So is Nigel and the UKIP racist in this case? No (although to be fair, some definitions of racism include ethnic discrimination which in that case, yes UKIP is racist) but they do have prejudice and they do discriminate against Romanians and probably from the assumption that Romanians are Romanis (the similar names do not help) and Romanis have social and cultural friction with Romanians and the British.
