I think both Bulgarians and gypsies share the fault. I admit that I am prejudiced against most of the Roma people, who wander on the streets, and who stole my purse with all my money, and my documents exactly near the "Sisley" shop in Sofia you're talking about. But I would never behave rude to a Roma if he/she hasn't been rude to me first (and of course, this applies not to Roma only, but to everybody:)). And it is also the government's failure to provide equal opportunities for the Roma minority.

I also have a friend, who is Roma, and he is a very well-educated and good-mannered person.

The problem is that we stereotype too much. We are incredibly intolerant to those who we consider "different". Terribly wrong, and takes a lot of time to get a rid of that habit.

I can resist anything but temptation.- Oscar Wilde

You are touching here a very sensitive issue to Bulgarians.

I think most of the Bulgarians are prejudices to a certain extent to Roma minority. Probably everybody that lived or just spent some time in the capital experiences a robbery...To me it happened twice...and I will never forget those moments. The first time was especially unpleasant. I was in my first year in high school (15-16 yrs old). I don't live in the capital so I also needed time to get used to the "big city life". When my purse was stolen in one of the buses, I felt so helpless, so miserable... I was just walking on the streets sobbing and I knew nobody can help me find my purse. Thank God I had some money in my pocket and could buy a ticket for the train back home. And from then on, I am always keeping an eye on all my stuff when I see a Rome passing by. I know it is discriminatory but I can't help it.

And sure, this is not the case with all the Romas. I think this is a practise in the bigger cities mainly. I can talk about my town (that is about 6-7 thousand people in all),for example. We have never (so far) experienced robbery or theft that was proved to be made by a Roma. Those people have mingled with the rest of the citizens. I must admit that they do not occupy high positions in the town administration or something like that but there are jobs for most of them and their kids graduate at least primary school. So, basically, there is mutual respect and understanding between Romas and Bulgarians. I hope this can be projected to the whole country soon!

Thank you for bringing up the issue. I am really looking forward for the comments of the rest.

I add some more points about how these things work. Regarding the Roma and crime: in Hungary, some sociologists conducted a study (one, surprise surprise, no one has done before) of police statistics, and found that

1. the general level of registered crimes in regions with high percentage of Gypsies is actually lower than elsewhere,
   
2. but the ratio of 'solved' crimes is significantly higher!

In some rural town, there were break-ins using some technology. Police looked through their files, and found that they imprisoned a Gypsy guy for similar crimes a few years back, who was rleased since. So they arrested this guy. There was not a shred of evidence linking him to the new crimes, what's more, he had two alibis for the time of two break-ins. But, the first alibi: he was at a wedding of relatives, was dismissed because his entire family can't be trusted as witness... and his second alibi, his (non-Gypsy) neighbour remembering that he came over to borrow some tool while she was watching a film on TV, was dismissed because she wasn't entirely sure it was that day... apparently, not even the state attorney thought of checking a fucking TV programme!...

And thus without a single evidence, after a flimsy dismissal of his alibis, he was sentenced. Another five solved crimes for the statistics.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

ie. whenever I find myself being systematically prejudiced against a box of people, I try my best to overcome by accepting that I am prejudiced.

As long as you don't do that, as long as you refute that you are, and just say things like "but I'm not prejudiced, it's true that our jails are full of Romas, I'm just stating the facts", you won't be able to do anything about it.

A further aspect of Gypsy discrimination, but I say this in general as I don't know if the situation holds in Bulgaria too, is inoffficial segregation in education. Gypsy children are put into a separate class in larger schools, or even shoved off to the classes for the mentally challenged, there even have been cases of separate dining. So the education issue itself is partially a result of the problems, not just cause.

_{*Lunatic*, n.
One whose delusions are out of fashion.}

* Official census data (2001 census results, available on the Internet at http://www.nsi.bg/Census/Census to i.htm).
** Based on expert estimates of the size of Roma population.

Doing the numbers for robbery: Roma/Bulgarian rates = (38.1 / 9.0) / (55.2 / 83.6) = 6.41
The ratio for misdemeanors (eg, shoplifting) is apparently greater.

Perhaps the shopkeeper was reacting to a real statistical risk, underlined by repeated experience, resulting in a defensive response overlaid with an understandable emotion? As the diarist says, this is (part of) a vicious circle.

I'm concerned about the tendency of progressives to attempt to fight the unfair, damaging, misery-perpetuating effects of sterotypes by preaching to people that their experience isn't real and that their responses therefore are driven by purely irrational hatred. The result, I think, is chiefly to suggest that the preachers aren't reality based.

Words and ideas I offer here may be used freely and without attribution.

I see this as a variation on the larger European theme of the exclusion of minorities from the national mainstream culture. The difference here is (merely) that the Roma are a native ethnicity with a fairly even geographic distribution - instead of a migrant population concentrated in urban centers, as in e.g. Germany, France and NL.

To say that it is up to both sides to overcome the antipathies between the two groups is true as far as it goes; unfortunately, it fails to account for a whole range of issues. In Germany and France, the experience of exclusion has caused "parallel societies" to form, which prove a barrier to integration/assmilation measures. I would imagine that that is also the case in Bulgaria.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

I know how it feels. I am a Kazakh from Kazakhstan, and I was myself once discriminated against ... in my own country ... by my own people. What's worse, on the basis of my ethnicity. Really.

The issue here was also in my complexion and overall physical appearance. In the begining. Then my origin became the problem.

I was then in Almaty, a city in the south of Kazakhstan (ex-capital), where the Kazakhs are the overwhelming majority. They are usually very dark-skinned, eyes - typical Asian cut, language used - a horrid dialect of Kazakh.

I speak Russian most of the time since that's the language most people understand well in the part of Kazakhstan I am from. I also happen not to look like a typical Kazakh. Even my hair is curly - unusual for KZ. :)

Anyway, I was prohibited from entering a cafe, because those #$%*@#s thought I was Russian. After I told them what I personally thought about people of their kind - in perfect Kazakh - they did not apologize! Exactly because the Kazakh I spoke was too perfect for the region. I was called a name, which they happily give the northerners like me and was shooed off the premises.

Human idiotism sometimes seems to be limitless.

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government -- Edward Abbey