Cover of Swiss Magazine Draws Accusations of Racism

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11. loads of Eastern Europeans have the exact same stories about gypsies - because they're made up.

There's one that's told across several countries about how gypsies destroyed public housing that was so graciously given to them by the loving government. Every time you here it, it either happened in a neighbouring city, or it was just before the person telling the story was born, etc.

The real truth is that the Roma have been discriminated against in Europe for hundreds of years, and that discrimination goes on to this day. Just in the 90's, the city of Usti Nad Labem in the Czech Republic built a wall between the Roma and the Czech neighbourhoods, cutting off the Roma from the better parts of town and convenient shops and services.

Institutionalized racism is real and alive. Of course there is a disproportionate amount of petty crime committed by the Roma population of Europe, because petty crime is disproportionately carried out by the poor everywhere. Read some of the posts in this thread and substitute "Jew" or "black" for "Roma" or "gypsy" and see how you feel about the statements.