“Romany” is actually the angelized spelling of “Romani”. The Romani are people of considerable & distinct South Asian descent. (This is why Esmeralda is Brown and not White in Disney’s the Hunchback of Notre Dame.) The word has nothing to do with Romania and is purely Indian. It’s also the name for language, as it follows the similar naming conventions of words such as “Hindi” and “Gujarati”.

We arrived in Europe over 1,000 years ago and were immediately pegged as “Gypsies” since we were mistaken for Egyptians. We were then enslaved for over 500 years and still remain heavily oppressed to this very day.

“Gypsy” is a racial slur on par with “Injun"—a highly derogatory exonym that has nothing to do with our ancestry or culture. We do not call ourselves Gypsies” and we have nothing to do with Hippy/ie culture.

White Americans and Brits simply appropriated our culture and failed to acknowledge/understand that we are a real ethnic & racial minority with a 1,500-year-old culture. Unfortunately, Marc was one of those people. Had he grown-up in Central & Eastern Europe, he’d never use the word “Gypsy” in a hip sense and he’d never use an preferred nomenclature such as “Romany”, “Romani”, Rromani", Roma or Rroma.