Coronavirus remains at a steady and distressing level; so does stupidity in my local paper.
On the Monday editorial page, regular columnist Gerald Krueger claims that his alma mater’s “Gypsy Day”, the ethnically insensitive name that Northern State University was going to remove from its homecoming festivities until locals and donors kicked up a fuss and said inclusivity is for pussies, actually celebrates Gypsy culture:
To abolish Gypsy Day would be something that is decades old and a deep celebration each year, it would be such a travesty to just forget it and move on after all of the years we have dedicated a whole week to those folks who circled the globe as folks on the move and established quite a revered group. They set an example of perseverance, independence and provide all of us gypsies a reason to celebrate this interesting life every fall to honor all of them. Believe me it is always done to honor these nomadic folks who have mostly faded and are all but no longer in existence [Gerald Krueger, “Gypsy Days Theme Has Been a Way to Honor the Nomadic People {paywall},” Aberdeen American News, 2021.03.13].
Sigh. I’d rather alumni and the community spend more time talking about the valuable service Northern State University provides by educating hundreds of students every year than about what we call the continued misguided bacchanal of the beer-fueled jockocracy. But since we’re here….
- If you’re honoring a people, you generally use the term they prefer, not the term your culture has imposed on them.
- The Gypsy/Romani people still exist, by the millions.
- Krueger isn’t celebrating actual Romani people; he’s marginalizing those existing millions and literally co-opting the term to describe and celebrate himself and his fellow Northern alumni.
- Calling your co-optation of another culture a “celebration” of that culture is white-privilegist bunk. It was bunk in Watertown; it was bunk in Washington, D.C.; it’s bunk here in Aberdeen.
Go Chess Club. Go Badass College Women. Go bankers, counselors, and teachers.
And go away, stodgy old white privilege.
Hitler killed 250,000 to 500,000 Roma (Gypsies) in 6 years out of total of 1 million to 1,500,000 Roma before 1939. This is the level of Holocaust equal to the Khmer Rouge killing 1/3 to one quarter of all Cambodians.
So how warped are the NSU donors? Are they going to honor Jews or Cambodians because of their interesting traditions? They have completely forgotten history.
There are 10 million Romani people in the world today, including 1 million in the US today. So in the US, Romani people probably outnumber South Dakotans! (Wikipedia, under Romani Americans and Romani people.)
Decades old? How about old and ignorant? Dried up, beer guzzling jocks want to turn NSU into a jock strap instead of the fine institution it is.
How about for each of those years that NSU beer guzzlers have been “playing” gypsy instead of understanding what happened to them, NSU can drop the name and tradition, and pay forward 60 years into the future Service Projects by NSU students and alums to help the Romani people in the US, Brazil and everywhere , however they can?
A college degree is not a license to abuse people, especially ones that survived the Holocaust.
Actually, the numbers of Roma went from maybe 1 million in 1939 to 10 million in 2021. That’s an increase after the Holocaust ended in 1945.
That would be enough for 11 South Dakota’s. (And 22 US Senators and 11 representatives). We just have to find the land in the USA for them to settle on, and then enough DC Democrats to create 11 new states. Any ideas? Southern Idaho? Southeastern Oregon? Maybe some land on Hawaii’s Big Island and west of Phoenix or north of Yuma, Arizona?
Maybe those NSU alums could spark a project like that, 11 US States of majority Roma ancestry? We can do it!
Isn’t just the celebration of homecoming another slap in the face to all the homeless in America?
Why not change it to “Dumb South Dakotan Day?”
What is stopping the powers that be from declaring December 29, 1890, “Good Indians Day?” You’ll never convince me magat morals would preclude anything that gross or perverse.
Maybe Neanderthal Day would be more appropriate given the actions of the participants.( no insult to Neanderthals intended)
Before we start dumping on Neanderthals, remember that many of us whiteys have some Neanderthal genes. Just reading through this article makes me wonder whether white folks may have gotten some of their skin chemistry from Neanderthals. Also, there seems to have been some bacterial and virus protection derived from Neanderthal genes. Interesting article on this:
https://www.the-scientist.com/features/neanderthal-dna-in-modern-human-genomes-is-not-silent-66299
It is nice that SDSU honors the homeless with Hobo Days.
I always had a lot of fun at those occasions, just call it get drunk weekend, it fits.
Mr. Anderson, driving with some old roaddogs to NSTC to swill cold beers with our fellow, Jim Hundstadt, at Gypsy Days was a special annual weekend trip back in the day. We always had a lot of fun at those occasions, also. Oh, the debauchery and the parade!
@SD is 20 per cent nonwhite, I am concerned with your vote for segregation. Wouldn’t it be more practical, inexpensive and dignified to take time and decolonize our thinking?