#violence against romani

[cruelsister-moved2]

interesting how all the coverage of the greek riots thats painting them as negative and troublesome and aimed at conservative audiences have headlines like “roma clash with police” but all the coverage that frames it as a valid protest against police brutality are just like “protests after boy shot”

#its so complex too bc romany leaders were appealing for peace bc theyre obviously aware that like #theyre going to get blamed for whatever happens and itll fuel more violence against them #so they literally cant win its so fuckeddd #theres still no (english language) update on his condition #ppl in the tags were saying he's passed away and its being covered up to stop more backlash #but i dont want to speculate unless someone has a source #i cant find anything new just still saying hes in hospital

[fuck-hamas-go-israel]

Ethnic cleansing? Genocide? Apartheid?

Throwing around these buzzwords to describe the Israel-Hamas war because you’ve seen them on social media doesn’t make you right, and it doesn’t make you an activist.

It makes you ignorant, intellectually dishonest, and lazy for parroting biased talking points with no concept about what these terms actually mean.

What is apartheid?

Well, it was first used to describe the political system in South Africa and today’s Namibia whereby racism was institutionalised. This manner of governance meant that clear racial segregation would occur, in a manner that benefited the white race and would actively oppress those who had darker skin.

This meant that there were white-only spaces, white people would get prioritised when it came to education and jobs, and relationships/marriages between white peoples and coloured people were illegal.

Is Israel objectively an apartheid state? There are no laws that actively favour one group over the other. There is a sizeable population of Israeli Arabs that can thrive in the same way as the Israeli Jews can. There are laws against discrimination on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, and sexual orientation.

Palestinians from Gaza are allowed to work in Israel through a work permit system. There are about 150,000 Palestinians working in Israel, most of which live in Israel and some come from Gaza/the West Bank. They aren’t denied rights institutionally.

Is it harder to get a job or education in Israel if you’re a Palestinian from Gaza? Sure, because of different governments. It’s like how it’s a lot easier for you to find a job in your own country (in terms of paperwork and bureaucracy) than overseas. But you’re not denied the right to apply.

Of course, if you have a history of violence, a criminal record, or your family has ties to terrorists, then it’ll be a lot harder to get an approved work permit. But that’s not apartheid. That’s common sense, and a regulation practiced by all countries that minimally desire to protect their own population from danger.

Ethnic cleansing and genocide

These two concepts can go hand-in-hand. Ethnic cleansing refers to the mass expulsion or killing of a group of people based on their ethnicity. Similarly, genocide is the purposeful killing of a group of people solely with the intention of annihilating them.

Famous examples? The Holocaust, of course, where the Nazi regime believed in the superiority of the Aryan race and decided to declare genocide on the Jews, Romanis, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, people with “Asian features”, and many many other groups. Anyone who they didn’t think was “pure”.

Their aim was to ensure that the Aryan race propagated without having “impure” blood affecting the bloodlines. They even started a eugenics programme called Lebensborn to ensure that more pure Aryan babies were born.

More recent examples? The Rwandan genocide where the Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis on the basis of ethnicity. They mandated that Tutsis mention their ethnicity on state-issued ID cards in order for the Hutus in power to be able to identify them and then kill them.

Or the Yazidi genocide which happened so recently, in which ISIL killed, raped, and sent thousands of Yazidis into conversion camps on the basis of their ethnicity. They also took Yazidi women as sex slaves and raped and tortured them.

Or the Rohingya Muslims in the Rakhine State in Myanmar, and how there was a mass killing and expulsion of them from the country, forcing them to flee to Bangladesh to take refuge, crating the world’s largest refugee camp.

Or how ISIS killed thousands of people from Christian groups in Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Libya because of their faith, leading the US, EU, and UK to label this as religious genocide and condemned their actions.

Has Israel been practicing ethnic cleansing and genocide on Palestinians all these years?

Well, the birth rate of the Palestinian population in Gaza, the West Bank, and in Israel has been steadily increasing all these years.

So, no. No ethnic cleansing, no genocide. They are free to have as many children as they desire.

The UN Genocide Convention

The United Nations has 5 actions that constitute genocide.

1. Killing members of a target group

Israel is targeting Hamas officials with the aim of wiping out the terrorist group and ensuring that such a deadly attack on Israeli soil doesn’t happen again. I suppose you could call it genocide against Hamas, but they’re killing Hamas because they’re terrorists, not because they’re Palestinian. Shouldn’t everyone believe in genocide against terrorists?

But look at Black Saturday. Look at Hamas’ rhetoric. They repeatedly call for the annihilation of Israel and genocide of Jews. When will the media start believing what they say, word for word, instead of trying to spin it into “hmm maybe they want to kill all the Jews because they’re freedom fighters!”

War has collateral damage. Of course the innocent civilians don’t deserve to suffer just because of the actions of their government, but there have been warnings given to the Palestinian civilians prior to Israel striking the areas. There are consequences of attacking a country first, and then having that country attack you back.

2. Causing people of the group serious bodily or mental harm

The UN refers to sexual violence as the prime example of non-fatal harm.

Sexual violence has occurred. Hamas have kidnapped and raped women and even paraded the bodies of half-naked women around. But I f Israel had done the same, it’ll be the first thing appearing on everyone’s BBC push notifications (without even being confirmed as true).

3. Imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group

Many people refer to the blockade that Israel imposed around the Gaza Strip as an example of this.

This blockade was imposed by both Israel and Egypt in 2005. Its aim was to prevent smuggling of weapons into Gaza, and isolate the reign of Hamas to the region. This was to ensure the safety of Israel and Egypt.

Did this blockade pose serious challenges to the Gazan civilians? Of course. But that’s a consequence of having a terrorist government. If you have a terrorist group running your country, don’t be surprised if neighbouring countries are extra careful about who or what they allow in or out of the borders.

Many authorities from other Arab nations have also expressed approval of Egypt’s border restrictions, and even encouraged Egypt to flood the terror tunnels that Hamas has dug under the city. As a side note, other Arab nations have not historically been very kind or welcoming to Palestinians. Syria has killed over 4000 Palestinians, and many Arab countries are now refusing any refuge for Palestinians. But no one cares about that because it doesn’t make Israel look bad. All they do now is use the images of dead Palestinians under the hands of Syria and reuse them to propagate fake news.

The blockade has been labelled as a human rights violation because of collective punishment. Many humanitarian organisations believe that the blockade has caused the Palestinian civilians disproportionate harm.

Contrary to popular belief, Israel isn’t disallowing humanitarian aid from coming through the borders. Fuel, food, hygiene products, clothes, and shoes have been coming through the borders regularly for years. The Gaza Strip also has electricity and internet access and water.

Do all these items reach the Palestinian civilians? Well, there has been evidence that Hamas has been intercepting a lot of the supplies sent by humanitarian groups. This is not surprising since the UNRWA tweeted that Hamas has stole fuel from hospitals in Gaza in order to launch more rockets at Israel (but quickly deleted it after realising that it goes against their agenda to paint Hamas in a bad light.) In addition, the returned hostages have mentioned that there are many aid supplies hidden in the terror tunnels by Hamas. Instead of giving them to the civilians, they are hoarding it for themselves.

There has also been video evidence that some people are reselling these aid items in stores at exorbitant prices in order to turn profits. This has been well-documented for the last 10 years.

Is blockading the region to mitigate terrorism a disproportionate response? Well, it’s like asking if heightened security and stricter border control at airports is a disproportionate response after 9/11. Is being cautious and worrying about the security of your country an irrational reaction to the constant threat of terrorism?

4. Preventing births

Gaza’s population growth rate per annum is about 1.99%, which is the 39th highest in the world! Their population is allowed to propagate freely.

Israel isn’t preventing births of Palestinian babies.

5. Forcibly transferring children out of the group

No, Israel hasn’t been taking Palestinian children and forcing them to convert/keeping young Palestinian girls as sex slaves. Like I said, if this was truly happening, all the news outlets would be so quick to publish the story before verifying it.

Can we trust the UN Genocide standards?

The UN is known for corruption and have been exploiting the Palestinian people by selling them the humanitarian supplies instead of distributing them for free, which they should because these supplies literally are donations.

The UN also has differing standards of what they would label as genocide. For example, they refuse to call what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang as genocide, even though the situation does fit many of their own criteria.

Hence, to all of you out there overusing these terms without knowing what they mean, make up your own mind about things. No one can force you to believe anything and no one can force you to change your mind.

But at the very least, do your due diligence and educate yourself before spouting tired buzzwords. Repeating misinformation doesn’t help anyone and can be very harmful.

#i stand with israel #israel #palestine #gaza #stop hamas #pro israel #am yisrael chai #hamas #​fuck hamas #hypocrisy #i support israel #using buzzwords doesn’t make you smart #do your homework #do your own research #unrwa is a scam #make up your own mind #reading Al Jazeera headlines isn’t education #media bias #call out fake news #stop fake news #stop anti semitism

[writingwithcolor]

Am I handling the black woman character’s murder well?

@selfdxd2 asked:

Hello! My current project is a crime fiction set in KY, USA in which the instigating action is the death of a young black woman (W), with the first half being another young woman (L) investigating her disappearance and how it correlates with the disappearance of her close friend. That friend (P) is later found alive after having been kidnapped because he witnessed the crime, and is the POV character of the second half. He is also a white man, and him being white is relevant to other aspects of the story. My intention is for the "credit" for solving W's death to go almost entirely to L (who is also a woman of color, specifically Romani), and for the tragedy to be centered around the unfair loss of life and the pain of her parents and others who knew W rather than how bad P feels about it. My main cast also has two other prominent black women with arcs that extend outside this tragedy. All of this is intended to lend to one of the story's major themes of social invisibility vs visibility. So does this exploration of that stray into harmful territory from the outset? I know successfully keeping away from any white manpain traps will take active caution while actually writing the story and I intend to get sensitivity readers as I work on it, but I wanted to get some feedback on my starting point before going too far down that road. Thanks so much for all you do!

It is important for us to know why this young Black woman was murdered to give specific advice. 

Was it racially motivated, gender motivated, or both? 

Wrong place, wrong time? 

Did someone take revenge?

Was she involved in something insidious? 

Was it truly an accident?

Depending on the reason, you should explore and acknowledge this violence and the existing societal problem behind it. For help, see the crime stats on violence against Black women.

…and for the tragedy to be centered around the unfair loss of life and the pain of her parents and others who knew W rather than how bad P feels about it.

Yes, give a voice to the people most affected by her death. Other Black women, people, and Women of Color. This will help further not make it about the feelings of a white man. He is absolutely a victim of the crime too, being kidnapped, so his trauma does matter and should be tended to. But ultimately, he gets to live.

On that note, his life being worth kidnapping vs. ending begs the question; why wasn’t he murdered while the Black woman’s life had to end? And for representation purposes, why couldn’t it be the other way around (Where the Black woman lives and witnesses the crime, and the white man dies)?

This is why knowing your reasoning for her death is so important. 

Otherwise, if she was thoughtlessly murdered, it does feel like her life was incredibly devalued in your story due to her being a Black woman. It’s a serious and true problem, so I'm not saying not to write this. This just needs careful exploring. If you’re choosing to bring this real life problem into your story, it deserves full and respectful acknowledgement. 

Please check out our resources on writing tragic material, Black suffering and abuse and avoiding exploitation. 

More reading: tragedy exploitation tag

~Mod Colette

#Death #murder #tw #Black women #Black person dies first #Tragedy exploitation #Black suffering

[puttingherinhistory]

A lot of white people from smaller European countries that never directly owned colonies will try to play innocent and assert that:

a) there are absolutely no people of color whatsoever in their countries, their countries are utopic safe havens of whiteness simply just 100% white, and

b) because they never directly owned colonies (or at least colonies outside of europe) and that their countries are (allegedly) 100% white with never a PoC in sight that it's impossible for them to be racist, in fact if you try to call them out for racism that's violent American / western European imperialism and you should be ashamed of yourself you stupid yankee and realize not everywhere is the U.S

I'm telling you now not to fall for it. With a quick google search on their country it's almost a guarantee that you'll find that both a) there are indeed people of color living in their country, even *gasp* born in their country and b) there are likely going to be active and dangerous white supremacist groups in their country or at the very least news stories of racist violence against people of color in their country

Particularly violence against Romani people and asylum seekers from Africa and the middle east is really bad in these smaller European countries that like to play innocent.

And that's because a) often because they're smaller and not as powerful and wealthy as the big colonial powers they cling to the sentiment of "well at least I'm white" and b) they are not immune to cultural and ideological influence from their colonial neighbors

[lacewise]

Hey. I’m still seeing near daily hate speech on my timeline, especially to Jewish and Israeli people (minding their own business!!!). Stop it. Get over yourselves. People other than you also have a right to live.

Hate speech, bigotry, and threats are never acceptable behaviour. There should especially never be a time when intersectionally marginalized people don’t feel safe in communities meant for them on the basis of one of their other identities. I thought we went over this. That includes Jewish people. That includes, explicitly, every group that you think “deserves” it, because discrimination against them is “for a reason” (the only reason is discrimination). If it doesn’t, you have biases you need to unpack and grapple with… yourself. A good start is a lot of listening to Jewish people who explain how it’s discriminatory (which they shouldn’t have to do). No arguing. Just listening.

I’ve seen this about Black people, I’ve seen this about Romani people, I’ve seen this about Muslim people, I’ve seen this about Latine people, I’ve seen this about trans men, non-binary people, ace people, aro people, he/him lesbians—and I could go on. Right now, most often, I’m seeing it about Jewish and Israeli people (which are not interchangeable groups). It needs to stop. It needs to never have begun. You need to deal with this, now.

Unfortunately, I think I need to include some examples of antisemitism: sending Jewish people unfounded conspiracy theories and allegations is harassment. That includes using tags meant for in-Jewish community use.

Spreading the unfounded conspiracy theories because they “sound like” what you think about Jewish people is antisemitic discrimination.

Making Jewish people “prove” to you they have the “right opinions” before you’ll let them into spaces they have a right to access is antisemitic discrimination. Which you’d think a group of people who just learned collective punishment is bad would know.

Saying things like, (and I really hate quoting discriminatory language, so I won’t forgive anyone who made this necessary) “But so-and-so is Jewish” or “Did you know so-and-so is… Jewish…?” is monstrous. It’s antisemitic discrimination, and it’s pretty actively trying to cause harassment campaigns (or worse) against specific Jewish individuals. If you see that, you need to report and block whoever is doing it. I really don’t care what the current euphemism they’re using for Jewish people is, euphemisms have a history in discriminatory practices going back hundreds of years.

Trying to dox Israeli people, trying to mass report them off the internet, telling them to “Go back to their country” (really?), are all active and organized harassment campaigns I have witnessed. Which, after October 7th, strikes me as both violent threats and a support for terrorist attacks.

Some of you were platforming people who are clearly calling for progroms for months and then demanding to know why any Jewish person deserves to live in Israel.

This cannot keep happening. This cannot happen.

Don’t harass Jewish people. Don’t harass Israeli people, especially using antisemitic conspiracy theories. Not every Israeli person is Jewish, and every Israeli person cannot be constantly and individually held responsible for the failures and violence of the Israeli government. If people are committing crimes, you need to focus on the individuals and groups directly and provably responsible, and the government itself. And you still shouldn’t engage in hate speech or harassment campaigns. I shouldn’t have to debunk multiple conspiracy theories at once to say, “Don’t harass Israeli citizens.” You just… shouldn’t be doing it.

Don’t spread hate speech. Don’t engage in hate speech. Don’t engage in harassment campaigns. Don’t justify or defend other people doing it.

#off topic #not fiber arts #this is a daily thing!!! #it should not be happening AT ALL #I just… who raised you and why do they sound like Nazis #I just want to make pretty fabric!!! #antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #discrimination #harassment

[loumands]

Today (April 8) is The International Romani Day. The Romani people (also called Rromani, Romany, Roma) are Europe's largest ethnic minority with an estimated 10-14 million people, though knowing exact figures is hard because the Romani often live on the fringes of society and many Romani choose not to disclose their ethnic identity. The Romani are unique among peoples in the sense that they've never identified with any territory or claimed they have a homeland where they came from. Their origin was somewhat a mystery for a long time (the slur "gypsy" comes from Europeans thinking they came from Egypt) but later genetic research has traced their ancestry to northern India and more specifically to the casteless Dalits. The Romani arrived in southeastern Europe by the 1300s and in western Europe by the 1400s, and in modern times the live in every continent.

The Romani experience a very high level of discrimination and marginalization and are among the most persecuted groups of people in the world. The entire history of the Romani people has been filled with ostracization, deportations, slavery, and systematic abuse ranging from segregation to forced sterilizations. Anti-Romani sentiment reached its peak during the Holocaust when 25%-50% of the European Romani were killed in the genocide called Porajmos, and some countries' Romani populations were destroyed completely. After the war the communist Central and Eastern European states tried to forcibly assimilite and suppress their Roma populations. In the present day anti-romani racism continues to be extremely common, with the studies showing most Europeans (especially Eastern Europeans) have unfavorable views of Romani people, hate crimes against them being common, and many of them living in poverty and marginalized.

People have many misconceptions about the Romani that often trace all the way back to the Middle Ages. The Romani are often confused with other itinerant groups like Irish travellers which are culturally and ethnically a completely separate group. Despite being almost synonymous with the nomadic lifestyle most Romani nowadays are not migratory, and with those who are it's often not by choice but because of persecution or homelessness. Most Romani are Christians or Muslims and they don't usually practice witchcraft, and if they do it's never to try to curse of hex anyone. There is a prevailing conception that Romani are seductive and hypersexual despite that Romani communities tend to be fairly sexually conservative. Fetishization harms especially Roma women who are often victims of sexual violence. While it may be true that there's more crime among the Romani populations (there are conflicting studies about this) majority of Romani are not thiefs or otherwise criminals, and it's important to understand that the crime is a direct result of poverty and deprivation, with it often being almost impossible for the Romani people to get jobs or higher education and being generally rejected by the society around them. The Romani themselves are frequently victims of crime, for example being extremely overrepresentated among the trafficked people.

Despite all this, the Roma people have persisted for hundreds of years and managed to retain their culture and identity. The Romani populations around the world have very diverse cultures and traditions but have many similarities too. A very high value placed on the family and deep love that the Romani people have for each other is something i think has helped them to survive. Despite all the challenges i'm optimistic about the future and i believe that the Romani will continue to survive and things will get better even though it may take time.

#initially i thought write like a real masterpost with links and sources and all but then i realized i don't have time for that lol #so this is just a 'hey we exist!' shoutout post #roma tag #keanu.txt

[notyour-valentine]

The Boy in the Window 19 ~ Tommy Shelby x Reader (Series)

Chapter Summary: Arrow House and it's grounds is even larger when looking for a missing child in the night

Notes:  I've had to split this into two parts as it was getting too long, so unfortunately no Tommy in this part yet (but twice as much as planned in the next part) I do not consent to my work being translated, copied or posted elsewhere on this platform or any other.

Here, you can find my [Masterlist] and the [Series Masterlist]

Warning: Canon conforming mention of violence. Mentioned stereotypes of romani communities (18/21+). Your media consumption is your own responsibility. Expect spoilers for Peaky Blinders Season 1-4.

Wordcount: 5388

Part 19

[Previously]

She was wearing nothing but her old brown coat over her thin nightgown, but she did not feel the bite of the night air. 

But (Y/N) knew it was cold. She knew it with a certainty beyond what her body could feel. 

It was far too early in the year to hope for a mild night and there was still a chance for rain- let alone the dampness that hung in the night air, coating grass and tree and stone in a thin film of tiny droplets that would drape a white veil over the entire estate as soon as the morning light would break through the skies. 

However it would be hours before that happened.

And even then no one should be out here without a coat and proper, steadfast shoes, let alone now. 

And so while she did not feel the cold nip at her skin, she felt it in her heart- an icy terror that had gripped her, bringing tears to her eyes and an almost inhuman strength to her bones. 

Inside her, a war was waged - anger raged with anguish, despair fought with determination while blind confusion crashed against that kind of courage which bordered on insanity. 

Two dozen lamps were glowing all throughout the grounds like oversized fireflies, some closer, some all the way in the distance. 

There were many but not nearly enough to illuminate the entirety of the estate. Not even close. All these little circles of light they could create were nothing more than little rowing boats in a vast sea of impenetrable darkness. 

For all they saw, there was ten times as much as they didn’t, and even more that they couldn’t. 

(Y/N) did not know what was worse for her to hear, the echoing shouts or the suffocating silence that came after. 

All the while Frances’ words echoed in her ear louder than any sound of snapping twigs or crunching gravel. 

“The outdoor staff saw him as he was approaching the gate and then he slipped off or fell and disappeared before they could reach him.”

The fools had caught the damned horse but missed the boy. 

And now he’s out here all alone. 

She had known the estate was big, but not this big. 

It would take days to search every inch of it, even in daylight. 

But the cold night made it treacherous even to someone who was entirely familiar to it. 

Every root she came across could trip him up, every stone glistening with the damp night air could make him slip. 

That and more was all too easily overlooked in the darkness, let alone by a frightened, frantic little boy. 

What if he fell and hurt his foot, unable to get up again? Or worse - what if he hit his head? 

What if he was frightened by all the commotion and hiding somewhere they wouldn't find him? 

What if he was cold? What if he got too cold?

That thought made her wrap her arms around her tighter to stop herself from shuddering. 

She wanted to scream, to pound the earth with her fists until it cracked open, to tear down each tree if only it meant she could do something. 

But she could only do as little as the rest of them - stumbling through the darkness, shouting his name and trying not to succumb to desperation. 

Her mind betrayed her once more, flooding her with images of possible outcomes the way it had done throughout four years of war and later when she did not know what lay beneath the cloth or was sitting alone in her living room awaiting news of a man gone to face death again and again. 

Then she could have allowed these images, she could have allowed to sink into a pit of sorrow and fear, then when she had been equally helpless and useless. 

But not now. She could do something. She had to do something.

And deep down she knew she wouldn’t stop, wouldn’t be able to stop until they had found him. 

She thought the no matter what or how before she could stop herself and it made her chest ache as if someone had pried open her ribcage. 

Just as they finished crossing a grass area to a path, they were met by other searchers. 

“We’ve combed through from the Northern gates.”, one of the drivers that had led a searching troop explained. 

“And we went all the way to the river. There was no sight of him on the way but we kept a few men there to keep a look out.”, said a second. 

Oh God. 

She had completely forgotten about the river. It wasn’t a large one big enough to let boats pass, but wide enough that one couldn’t touch both sides at the same time, not even with two people. It wasn’t deep enough for an adult not to be able to stand in, but it was a different matter for a child. 

He should know not to go to the river!, she thought. He knows. He is a smart boy, a reasonable boy. 

(Y/N) took a shuddering breath. 

But he’s also a boy that stole a pony and tried to run off. 

“Did you check on the other side of the river? Towards the forest?”, Frances asked. She had returned wrapped in a long coat and thick scarf. 

“There’s no way across.”

Pacing up and down, she tried to gather her thoughts, to free them from her fears. 

She couldn’t shake the feeling that she knew the answer, or at least an answer, but every time she had nearly reached a coherent thought, another biting fear, another harsh image crossed her mind. 

Digging her fingernails into the palms of her hand she let the pain anchor her. 

“Where he normally go? Any special places where he might feel safe? Any hiding spots?”, one of the farmers asked. He was the one she had bought the honey from with the children just a few days ago. 

He had seen the commotion and the lights and had joined with his two sons, fourteen and sixteen, with the innocence of boyhood written all over his face. 

She swallowed hard and flexed her fingers as she looked around at Frances and the others.

“Apart from the stables.”

That was where they had checked first.

“The play areas empty and we turned the entire house upside down.”, Frances told them. 

That would have been her next suggestion - the kitchen and that spot in the servant’s staircase where one could see out to the paddock. 

She had never entered Arrow House and all she knew of it was from what they had told her. 

Crouching down on the floor she closed her eyes and tried to remember anything he or Emma had ever told her from her visits her, any place she mentioned in her games. 

But there had been so many stories, so many tales and she had been so distracted from time to time. What if she had missed it?

What if Emma had told her the answer time and time again and she had been to preoccupied with her own worries to notice?

But Emma hadn’t seen much. She usually just went to the stables for her lessons in the closed off paddock. 

(Y/N) remembered often how she’d complain about wanting to explore but Charlie had always been the insisting they go back to Warburton House as soon as possible. 

She should have seen the signs earlier and when she had seen them she shouldn’t have let Frances brush her off. 

Then they wouldn’t be here. 

That was why they had people search any possible route between the two homes. 

But nothing had come of that. Nothing at all. 

Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. 

Burying her face in her hands she thought back to times before that, to months past when Charlie had only just come to her. 

He had been so homesick then and filled with stories, about Frances and the maids and the time he spent in the kitchen - 

No, they already checked the house. 

He adored the stables but he wasn’t there either and they would have found him in the play area or the back gardens. 

If he had been anywhere near the fruit trees she would have seen him as soon as the car carrying them had arrived. 

He had talked of his toys a lot and of his horses more, of how he’d saddle them, tend them and ride them just like the way his father had taught him. 

Charlie could go on and on about the riding instructions and especially the rides they took to the trees and along the river and that one spot- 

Her head shot up as she sprung to her feet. 

“There’s a place by the river where you can cross it.”

“What?”, Frances asked her confused, but she nodded feverishly. 

“There’s a place by the river,”, she said, practically stumbling over her words and not stopping to take a breath. 

“It looks just like the rest but there’s a sand bank underneath the water. You can’t see it but if you know where it is, you can cross it easily. The water didn’t even go to his ankle he said!”

“Where?”, the chauffeur demanded to know, glancing around his eyes wide.

“I don’t know!”, she admitted, as it dawned on her that if Charlie had attempted to go to the river he might have gotten lost in the dark and that was a possibility far darker than any other she had thus far dared to consider. 

And unlike the canals, there was movement in the river. 

One misplaced foot and the water could grip hold of him and-

“I don’t know. I don’t know. We have to ask Tommy! He’ll know! He’s the one that took Charlie there!”

Still panting she turned to Frances, her lips now dry from all the open-mouthed breaths she had been taking.

“Where is he?”, she asked frantically. “We have to tell him. He’ll know. He has to know!”

In her urgency her voice climbed to a higher pitch than she normally used.

“Mrs Hale.”, Frances whispered, reaching out with her hands to steady her, as if she wanted to comfort her. 

Unlike all the others, the urgency had disappeared from her eyes, leaving pity in it’s stead. 

And pity was one thing she could not understand and the last thing she wanted to see.

“What? What?”, she demanded to know, staring at the other woman. 

Her tone was far from polite, but (Y/N) was beyond common courtesies and manners and she didn’t care who was there to witness. 

With regret in her eyes she shook her head.

“Mr Shelby won’t be joining us.”

A soft gasp escaped her lips in stark contrast to the rumbling of the earth she felt. 

For a few seconds all she could hear was the blood rushing through her ears sent their by her thundering, panicked heart. 

But then her anger washed out any trace of her fear.

“You can’t be serious!”, she snarled through clenched teeth, her eyes flashing. 

Swallowing hard, the housekeeper nodded. 

Every muscle in her body tensed to the point of bursting as now it was her turn to shake her head. 

“No!”, she snapped. “Absolutely not!”

She began to pace again but no longer in fear- instead a bottomless rage had claimed possession of her. 

How could he?

How dare he?

“Has he lost his mind?”, she shouted into the night, making a few of the bystanders flinch. 

Even Frances took a step back, but (Y/N) was quick to follow. 

“What does that- what does any of that matter now?”, she pleaded at her, her voice trembling as despair claimed her once more. 

She would beg on her knees for his forgiveness, would throw herself at his feet and at his mercy, would do anything and everything if it meant he’d just pull himself together until they knew that Charlie was safe. 

The fact that she even had to consider that, made her sick to her stomach. 

Her eyes burned the way they only could when they frantically tried to keep tears of at bay as she stared at the looming red stone building he had barred her from. 

Was her slight against him really so great that it would prevent him from helping them search for his son?

“He can continue to hate me all he wants once we have found Charlie! We need to find him!”

How could he hold onto all that even now, when all that mattered was finding Charlie and making sure that he was alright?

The invisible belt around her chest tightened once more and every breath felt like she was competing against the force of a dozen men. 

Or against the anger of one. 

In that moment she hated him in return, and when her eyes returned to the silhouette of the house, the one he had banished her from, the one Charlie had sought to escape, she felt vile tasting disgust claw its way up her throat. 

“No, Mrs Hale,”, Frances insisted, her hand finding her shoulder, “you don’t understand! Mr Shelby-”

(Y/N) never found out what Mr Shelby did or didn’t do or said or didn’t say as in that moment shouts were heard.

“We’ve found him! We’ve found him!”

~

The estate seemed twice as large now when they were rushing back in the direction of the house. 

With every breath of the cold air she took, with every beat of her racing heart, she repeated the knowledge she had now. 

They’ve found him. 

They’ve found him. 

Thank God they’ve found him.

They hurried towards the stables but not to where the horses were, but to the large stretched out shed at the back. 

A whole host of people were outside and it took quite the effort to shove past them all. 

“Why didn’t you check there earlier?”, she asked one of the estate workers. 

“We don’t like to go in there, Ma’am.”, he muttered, his face as pale as winter snow. 

“Who knows what’s in there?”, another added, spitting on the ground. 

“What’s in there?”, she demanded to know, her heart dropping. 

Her mind went to the blackest rumours that circulated around the Peaky Blinders, about the cuttings and killings. Once she had even heard that some people thought they collected the eyes they took or that they had hidden torture chambers to break the will of their enemies. 

Whatever hell lay beyond these doors, she wasn’t afraid enough and did not even hesitate for a single second as she entered the stuffy dark shed as the smell of wood and leather filled her nose. 

But inside, she saw no horror, no grisly scene - nothing of the sort. 

Instead she was met by three different gypsy wagons, some painted and decorated, others plain and simple. 

And she understood. 

For a split second she was little again, staring at the reddish glow of flickering light that came from hung windows and candlelight, the scent of incense and burning herbs filling her nose. 

Words, words she did not understand, chants almost, had rung out into the little courtyard. 

Devil’s work, they had called it, and branded Mrs Shelby a witch for doing so. 

There had been warnings too, to stay away, to not accept anything she might give them. That it was all cursed. 

But she wasn’t a little girl any longer. 

One brave stableboy was kneeling on the floor in front one of the two-wheeled one that had been tipped to the back to rest on the back. 

When she approached, he looked up wide-eyed and shuffled back to make room. 

“Charlie?”, she asked, suddenly frightened at what she might find. 

Her knees touched the cold floor and she leaned forward so that she could look underneath. 

“Careful,”, the stable boy warned. “It’s only tipped. If it loses balance and comes down this end it’ll crush you.”

She couldn’t deny it. The two wheels had made it like a seesaw. Pulling at one end would make it tip towards one, as the balancing bolts had been taken out. 

God help me, she thought as in spite of that, she scooted under, but she couldn’t get further than the level of the two large painted wheels. 

It was so dark in the shed, and even darker under there she could only make out movement. 

“Charlie, are you there?”

In the darkness she picked up a slight shift but nothing more. 

It might as well have been a cat. 

“Tell Harry to go away!”, a whimper finally came from the darkness. 

Relief made her clasp a hand over her mouth as tears threatened to spill out of the corners of her eyes. 

But it wasn’t over yet and so she gestured at the boy to leave, fighting to keep a fragment of her composure. 

“But the wagon!”

“It’ll have to hold.”, she insisted, “go- go!”

He hesitated, but then he obeyed, leaving just the two of them. 

She stretched her arm out as far as she could into the darkness. 

“It’s just me now, Charlie.”, she assured him. “It’s just me.”

But her words were only met by silence. 

“Charlie?”, she pleaded. 

“Everyone was shouting out there.”, he whispered and she heard the tears in his voice. 

“I know, but they’ve stopped now!”, she said trying to sound as cheery and light-hearted as she possibly could. But her voice still trembled. 

She etched slightly further even if her shoulder began to ache, but she just had to touch him. 

“Are you cross with me too?”, he said in the softest, faintest voice. 

“No, no Charlie - I’m not cross with you. Not a bit!”, she insisted, her tears hitting the ground of the shed. 

“You sound upset.”, he whimpered.

She struggled to find a convincing response, but no lie she could have thought up would have been enough and so she told him the truth. 

“It would make me so happy to hold you right now.”, she assured him. 

That broke the spell which had kept him in the dark. 

He reached for her hand first and she pulled him towards her, while at the same time shuffling out from underneath that wagon on her back, her hand covering the top of his head so that he wouldn’t scrape the edge of the old wood. 

And then they were out and in the light and he was in her arms again, clinging to her the way she was clinging to him. 

His face was nuzzled into her chest while she pressed her nose to the top of his head, one hand on his back, the other in his hair as she clutched him as tightly as she could. 

He was curled into her the way she had held Emma when she had been a baby. 

For a long while she couldn’t hear or see or thing. She just held him with the same desperation as he clutched her and they both cried. 

Sniffling, she finally pulled away, stroking his hair back.

“Darling, darling, I have to look at you.”, she insisted, but he only pushed his head further into her chest as if he sought to conquer a place in her heart as if it wasn’t already his. 

“Charlie please, I have to see if you’re hurt!”

Only reluctantly, did he let her pull his face back slightly. 

He was still wearing his pyjamas, partly stained by dirt with large wet patches on his knees and shin, as well as his sleeves. 

She didn’t miss that the fabric had split on one knee and at the edges blood had mixed with dirt. 

When she pried his hands away from her nightgown she saw the scraping on his palms. 

It took some effort for her to be able to move her arms far enough to shrug off her coat, succeeding only once Charlie had caught onto her intentions. 

Once it was off, she wrapped him up in it as best she could, leaving her only in her nightgown. 

“Does anywhere else hurt?”, she asked, stroking her thumb over his palm. 

He shook his head and leaned his head into her chest once more.

Sighing deeply she smoothed over his soft blond hair. It felt damp to the tough.

“What are you doing, huh?”, she asked, before cupping his cheeks and wiping his tears away. 

“I wanted to come to you.”, he confessed. “I want to stay with you, with you and Emma!”

His bright blue eyes were shining with tears as he reached up at her with his scratched hands shaking lips.

“I want to stay with you. Promise you won’t leave me.”

She shook her head and cupped his face. 

“I won’t. I promise I won’t!”

With that all the tension seemed to flee from his muscles as he snuggled into her once more and she just held him, thanking anyone who would listen to her prayers for the fact that he was alright, and safe and warm and in her arms again. 

It was long after Charlie had drifted off to a dreamless slumber of exhaustion in her arms, when her racing heart had settled enough for her to take a shuddering breath. 

When she finally gathered the strength to pick him up in his arms, she made sure he was still covered in her coat before she left the shed. 

The crowd of people had only ever grown and she was glad he was asleep and didn’t have to face them. 

Frances rushed towards her with relief written all over her face, but when (Y/N) saw her outstretched arms, she took a step back, turning to her side to remove Charlie’s sleeping form from her view. 

“We should take him back inside, Mrs Hale!”, she said softly, trying once more.

“He’s coming with me!”, (Y/N) insisted, before turning on her heel and storming back towards the cars as quickly as she could with him in her arms. 

“Mrs Hale, please!”, she heard Frances as the woman caught up to her. 

But when she saw the look on her face, the housekeeper’s eyes widened. 

“I asked you if something was wrong,”, she hissed under her breath, “and you assured me all was well.”

Frances swallowed hard and averted her eyes. 

“I asked you for Charlie’s sake and you lied to me and now look where we are! What it came to!”

“Mrs Hale, I-

“I don’t care!”, she snapped, shifting Charlie in her arms. “I honestly do not care.”

She was beyond that, far beyond. 

“So you can tell Tommy whenever he sees it fit to ask after his son that he’s safe and that he’s with me! Where he will stay!”

With that she left Frances standing but she didn’t get far.

Her own voice had been hissed and Frances had spoken softly but the voice of Polly Gray rang through the darkness. 

“Where do you think you’re going?”, she demanded to know, storming from the entrance of Arrow House like a fury from the stories. 

But (Y/N) was no longer frightened of her, and met her flashing eyes. 

“I’m taking him!”, she insisted, lifting her chin and glaring at her. 

“Oh no you’re not!”, Mrs Gray argued, in an almost mocking tone, as if this was all amusing to her. 

She came so close (Y/N) could not only smell the cigarette smoke on her, but also the vilest kind of a sweet smell that made her jaw clench. She reeked of sickness and other wretched smells. 

“Don’t think for one second that you will put a foot out of this estate with the boy against Tommy’s will. Who do you think you are?”, she sneered in a tone so low and threatening it would should have terrified her, but like earlier in the night, her anger defeated her fear.

Despite the blinding anger in her eyes, her voice was calm, and she was unbothered by the gasps and whispers her words earned. 

“I’m the one that went looking for him.”, she said unflinchingly. “Unlike you. Unlike your nephew.”

Mrs Gray bristled as if she had slapped her, which somehow made (Y/N)’s chest swell with confidence. 

“How dare you?”, she spat. “Tommy’s his father.”

“And a what a father he is.”, she shot right back.

Even now, he didn’t show his face, sending his aunt in his stead. 

Mrs Gray’s dark eyes turned cold.

“Give me that boy!”, she demanded. 

(Y/N) didn’t move a single muscle.

“Give him to me or I will take him from you!”, she threatened and looked ready to claw her eyes out.

“Mrs Gray!”, Frances said, coming from the sidelines, stepping in between the two women, her back to (Y/N) and Charlie. 

“Perhaps Mrs Hale and Emma could stay here. For Charlie. He’ll only try again, Mrs Gray. You know he will.”

The other woman’s jaw clenched.

“Mrs Gray, please!”, Frances insisted. “It’ll be what’s best for the boy. We can put them in the guest wing, far away from - from you know. 

And everything else can be discussed when Mr Shelby-”

“Fine!”, she sneered, cutting Frances off sharply before pointing her finger at her. 

“But only for the boy’s sake!”

With that she stormed back towards the house. 

~

She hated the idea with every fibre of her being.

 Her whole body and soul revolted against the prospect of entering let alone staying in this house with the children. 

Instead everything screamed at her to take them away from this place but she couldn't. 

All the maids and servants had been gathered for the search, and there was no way she could force her way out with the children. She’d need an army for that, and another if she hoped to get far. 

Once before she had tried to find ways to escape with Charlie, before she knew of his identity. Even then it had been risky and unlikely, but now knowing who he was, it bordered insanity to even try, not without an incredibly good plan and great allies. 

But at least this way she had them together. 

A shudder had come over her when she had first heard her heels click in the entrance hall of Arrow House. 

The flickering lights of the electric lamps did little to dispel the darkness. 

Once inside Frances tried to take Charlie again, but she shut her down immediately. 

He'd stay with her. They both would. 

She still did not know what had made him want to run and until she did, she wouldn't even consider letting them out of her sight. 

Finally, Frances had relented and shown her to a guest room. It was the last room in the last corridor and it took several minutes just to walk there. 

But it was large with a grand bed large enough for two adults. 

In a few minutes, the maids had made up the room, but it was void of recent use and seemed cold to her. 

Emma had thankfully slept throughout the entire thing, from when (Y/N) had taken her out of her bed, not wanting to leave her alone in Warburton House when needing everyone for the search, nor during the time she spent sleeping in Lisa’s lap in the car while her mother stumbled through the darkness. 

Even when she was placed on the bed, she only chewed in her sleep and rolled over. 

She couldn't do that with Charlie just yet. 

Laying him down on the sofa at the corner of the room, she began to unbutton the shirt of his blue silk pyjamas. 

"Here is the warm water, the iodine and an ointment.", Frances explained in a whisper as she brought it in, accompanied by another maid who held not only a spare set of pyjamas for him. 

"Thank you.", She forced out. 

Charlie had scrapes on his knees and palms and she first took care to rinse the dirt from them before applying the iodine as gently as she could. 

He winced, but didn't wake. 

All the while, Frances was standing behind her, not wanting to leave but not daring to raise her voice either, being silently and watchfully helpful. 

Once Charlie's wounds were tended to, she put him into a new set of pyjamas and carried him over to the bed, putting him down next to Emma. 

This was far from the first time these two had shared a bed and neither was disturbed in their sleep by the presence of the other. 

The tranquillity the two of them radiated was almost enough to melt her anxiety away. 

“We’ve put out some clothes for you, Mrs Hale.”, she said softly, nodding to a pile placed on the dresser. 

“Is there anything else you need?”

(Y/N) turned slowly to face her. 

Exhaustion had drained parts of her anger but a large portion still remained. 

"An explanation.", She said, her low tone making her voice lose none of it’s sharpness. 

The other woman swallowed hard and apparently rid herself of her tongue in the process as no words passed her lips. 

"I want to leave with them as soon as possible.", She told the housekeeper. 

"I doubt Mrs Gray would allow that without Mr Shelby's permission."

The mention of his name sent shots of electric pain through her body. 

He still hadn't shown his face and with every second that passed, the pit in her stomach grew deeper. 

Funny, really, how quickly affection, care and compassion could turn to cold, biting disgust. 

Shaking her head she controlled her voice only for the children's sake. 

"His boy goes missing in the middle of the night and he doesn't even care enough to show his face."

Saying it hurt in a different kind of way, the biting, throbbing way only disappointment could. 

Charlie deserved better, and a part of her thought she deserved better too. 

But maybe it was her fault? 

Maybe this no contact decree he had imposed on her had now extended to Charlie? 

No, that was too much. Despite his flaws, Tommy did love his boy. She had seen it countless times, and would have sworn on the Holy Bible for it. 

At least before tonight’s betrayal. 

She still couldn't believe that he could hate her that much to let it cloud his love for his son. 

"It's not that, Mrs. Hale.", Frances said, her voice so uncommonly faint it sounded almost fragile. 

"I'm sure he would have been right there with you if he had been able."

"What do you mean 'if he had been able?", She demanded to know, as a cold shudder ran down her spine. 

Frances shifted once more as if she searched for a way out of the corner she had painted herself into. 

“I shouldn’t say.”

“I think we are far passed what should and shouldn’t happen.”

The other woman nodded, but still averted her eyes before starting to speak. 

"Mr. Shelby's not been well.", She told the expensive wooden floorboards. 

"Not been well?", (Y/N) repeated, as something else mixed in with her anger and disappointment. 

"Y-you should get some sleep, Mrs. Hale.", She assured her with a smile that looked more like a grimace. 

"Tell me.", (Y/N) asked, her voice for the first time since this nightmare had started a few hours ago, completely calm. 

And maybe that was the reason why she did speak. 

"He's been drinking a lot- more even than his usual.", She began, "and all the whisky and gin doesn't help with his gunshot wound."

Her eyes widened. 

"A gunshot wound?"

Tommy hadn't gotten shot in the confrontation with Luca- there had been pain yes, but no but holes. She would have seen it and she would have remembered. 

Frances nodded. 

“It heals poorly and the drink doesn't mix well with the medicine he takes and we've lost track of the medicine he doesn't take. It makes him…I can’t really describe it.”

An icy cold began to spread through (Y/N) as she listened. 

Her eyes met (Y/N)s and she imagined seeing fear in them. "He's in a bad way, Mrs. Hale. A very, very bad way."

End of Part 19

~

Part 20

Thank you for reading! I’d be very grateful for feedback of any kind!

Taglist: 

@lilyrachelcassidy @jyessaminereads @watercolorskyy @books-livre @chlorrox @quarterpastmidnight @lilyevanswhore @polishcrazyone @zablife @just-a-harmless-patato

Tommy

@knowledgefulbutterfly @babayaga67 @signorellisantichrist @lespendy

The Boy in the Window

@katiebugg03 @esistmon @chlorrox @theshelbyslimited @budugu @woofgocows @orkwardx0 @judig92 @100percentamess @kabbuu @esposadomd @im-nowhere-but-also-somewhere @starsnsecrets @ladylovesalot @katiepie67 @acoolnight @chaotic-onigiri @ohshititsfenharel @muhahaha303 @xoprincessmel @shittingonyourgrave @pessimisticbiitch @elisa20beth @simran-preet19 @majesticcmey @akiisbae @iwantmyredvelvetcupcake @vodkainthecoffee @pearlstiare  @jk-acc @cutecurly-hair @lovecleastrange @kishie8  @kirenia15  @nervousmumbling @babayaga67 @mbv2361 @pheitvsx @alessioayla  @kishie08 @butterfly-skinnylegendegend @mrsmalfoyshelby  @lostgirl219 @rangerelik @kishie8 @burninggracesandbridges @just-a-harmless-patato @globetrotter28

#the boy in the window #valentineswritings #tommy shelby #thomas shelby #peaky blinders #tommy shelby x reader #thomas shelby x reader #tommy shelby imagine #Thomas shelby imagine #thomas shelby fanfic #tommy shelby fanfic

[ao3feed-brucewayne]

Lifelines

by SomebodyIUsetoKnow After everything that went down with the Crime Syndicate and then Spyral, Nightwing couldn't do it anymore. Five years after retiring the mask, five years after Bruce had once again cut him out of the family, Dick Grayson returns to Gotham. But Detective Grayson is not the only transfer from Bludhaven. An enemy from across the bay makes an explosive debut onto the scene of Gotham's organized crime that has the GCPD racing against a clock that could cost the lives of thousands. Including one of their own. The Batfamily has only seventeen hours before it is too late to reclaim the piece their family had been missing for far too many years. Words: 4365, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English Series: Part 4 of Must Be Tuesday Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics), Gotham Knights (Video Game 2022), DCU, DCU (Comics) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: Gen Characters: Dick Grayson, Kate Kane (DCU), Renee Montoya, Bruce Wayne, Dinah Lance, Duke Thomas, Tim Drake, Alfred Pennyworth, Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, Jason Todd, Damian Wayne, Cassandra Cain, Jim Gordon (mentioned), Maggie Sawyer (mentioned), Amy Rohrbach (Mentioned), Harley Quinn (mentioned), Poison Ivy (mentioned), Original Main Villain Character, Justice League Characters (Mentioned and Brief appearances) Relationships: Batfamily Members & Dick Grayson, Dick Grayson & Everyone, Kate Kane/Renee Montoya Additional Tags: Post-Forever Evil (Comics), Post-Spyral Arc (Comics), Dick Grayson is Not Nightwing, Detective Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne is Batman, Dinah Lance is Black Canary, Duke Thomas is Signal, Tim Drake is Red Robin, Barbara Gordon is Batgirl and Oracle, Stephanie Brown is Spoiler, Jason Todd is Red Hood, Damian Wayne is Robin, Cassandra Cain is Black Bat, Non-Consensual Touching, Non-Consensual Bondage, Canon-Typical Violence, Kidnapping, Hostage Situations, Bombs, Dick Grayson Whump, Hurt Dick Grayson, Romani Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne Gets Therapy, Trying to Explain why Bruce is/was a Bad Parent, Bruce Wayne Tries, he's getting better, Batfamily gets their heads out of their asses, Protective Batfamily, Batfamily on the Warpath, Hurt/Comfort, Explicit Language, Alfred Pennyworth is the Best, Alfred Pennyworth is So Done, Protective Alfred Pennyworth via https://ift.tt/8sXa3ED

#IFTTT #bruce wayne #batman #the dark knight #the caped crusader #gotham #dcu #dc #ao3 #ao3feed

[scarlet--wiccan]

Idk if you know anything about Ice from dc, but I believe she is also a Romani character? Since you’ve shared thoughts on Dick Grayson and Zatanna, I was wondering if you had any on her.

I do have thoughts, and they're not kind. With DC Comics, it seems like Romani identity is something that is only ever applied retroactively to validate a character's exoticness, mysticism, or sexualization-- sometimes a combination of all three. I'm not going to say that Marvel is necessarily better, but their inclusion of Romani characters is definitely founded on a better understanding of our realities, particularly in the Silver and Bronze Age. When you look at characters like the Maximoffs or von Dooms, you get a sympathetic portrait of European Romani history that actually makes valid and helpful points, in spite of the problematic imagery. Characters like Ice, Zatanna, and Nightwing generally only make shallow references to a gypsy heritage that confirms certain stereotypes about their upbringing, but has no bearing on their adult lives.

DC also has a stronger tendency to portray portray Romani groups as organized crime families, as we see in Ice's revised backstory, first told in Justice League: Generation Lost #12. In my mind, this is a much more dangerous stereotype than the usual witches and fortunetellers. Romani communities are heavily impacted by racial profiling and over-policing, in Europe and in America. It's one thing for media to present gypsies as a fictional race of fairy-tale spellcasters; it's quite another thing to validate very real state violence against a very real people by parroting racist propaganda.

Anyways, Tora Olafsdotter, formerly known as "Icemaiden", now known as simply "Ice," was originally depicted as a member of a reclusive tribe of magic wielders from Norway. I don't know how overt this is in the original material, but I would hazard that she is actually based on stereotypes about the Sámi people. "Fixing" this backstory by making her Romani-- just in time to maker her family into overt villains-- is very similar to what happened with Magneto in the 90s.

The Romanifolket are a real Romani group, based primarily in Norway and Sweden. DC gets points for naming an actual vitsa-- most Romani characters don't have one at all, or if they do, it's fictional, like Doom's "Zefiro clan." The name "Is Bygd" is made-up, though, as are the clan politics of Tora's family. DC loses what little credibility they'd earned by representing the Romanifolket as an extensive crime ring who uphold scamming and thievery as a cultural practice. That's completely fallacious, and extremely harmful.

In her revised origin, Tora is a metahuman, meaning her powers are a genetic quirk, similar to that of X-Men's mutants. Her fanatical forebears believe that she is a reincarnated goddess, and they wish to use her powers to, you guessed it, do more crimes. This reinforces the narrative that Romani people are ruled by their arcane superstitions and pagan beliefs, as well as the pervasive notion that we abuse children and force them into early labor and/or marriage for profit. Sound familiar? Everyone's favorite X-Factor writer loves that one. [x]

Ultimately, Tora denounces her entire community as "very bad people." Generation Lost frames her Romani upbringing as a traumatic experience Tora wishes to distance herself from, and Romani culture as an inherent evil for which she seeks redemption. In that regard, she's not unlike Marvel's Amanda Sefton, but unlike Amanda, Tora's story is told without an ounce of nuance, and it was written recently. In the age of digital research, there's no excuse for this level of ignorance. The story of Ice is probably the worst Romani narrative I have ever witnessed in a superhero comic.

#tora olafsdotter #ice #ice dc #dc comics #dcposting

[djuvlipen]

A little over a month ago, a 14 year old Romani child bride was murdered by her 14 year old husband, whose family helped him escape and who is still on the run. Her murder is going ignored by the local authorities and her family started a crowdfunding to hire investigators and fund the investigation. I don't want to guilt trip you into giving money, I am asking to spread the word about this case as femicides against Romani girls and girls in the global South are constantly overlooked yet shouldn't go unpunished.

Here is the link to the crowdfunding:

#justiça por Hyara Flor #Hyara Flor #femicide #child marriage #brasil #romani #violence against women

[thefruitypebblescastleoftorment]

5E: Haha, no, no, the Vistani aren't all evil minions of Strahd! That would be super racist.

Me: Oh, okay, so they're just like anyone else in Barovia?

5E: Well, no, he gives them special treatment. But it's because Vistani saved his life when he was younger, see, it's for a good reason! They just choose to live in Barovia because they're persecuted elsewhere.

Me: So they don't serve Strahd, then?

5E: Uh, well, "many Vistani" have "allowed themselves to be corrupted by Strahd," and they do his bidding. Also they scam adventurers and sell fake potions to them.

Me: Gotta say, that sounds pretty bad, 5E. I assume you at least have a variety of Vistani characters in the module itself?

5E: Well, no, both locations where you can find Vistani explicitly say everyone there is in league with Strahd. And all the Vistani you can encounter are either evil or neutral. Oh, except one! We've got a cool monster hunter Vistana who's good!

Me: Well, that's something at least. She does look cool, what's her backstory?

5E: She was mentored by Rudolph Van Richten, she's the only Vistana he likes, actually!

Me: Wait, Van Richten hates the Vistani? The lawful good character who's consistently portrayed as a tragic hero and a good and noble person? He hates a specific ethnic group of humans? One that's a stand in for a real-world ethnic group?

5E: Well, yeah. But he has a good reason for it! The Vistani kidnapped his son and sold him to a vampire lord--

Me: Isn't that a horrific stereotype that's been historically used to justify violence against the real-world Romani people?

5E: No, it's okay, because he's friends with the one good Vistana! Though he is training a tiger to kill all Vistani on sight and plans a tiny little genocide where he'll unleash it on the Vallaki encampment.

Me: So you're taking a myth that's been used to excuse violence against real people and using it here to excuse violence against a fictional group? A fictional group that's a stand-in for the real world one??

5E: I know it sounds bad. But it's okay because like we said earlier, all those Vistani are evil and working for Strahd. So you see, it's fine!

Me: WHY DO PEOPLE ON REDDIT KEEP TRYING TO DEFEND THIS?!?

#racism cw #curse of strahd #*shaking the module* why are you LIKE this #obviously i've changed all of this in my game but ffs #long post

[sabinastanart]

I went to the Buddhist temple on Mont-Pèlerin, in Swiss, for the second time, thinking I would spend an hour on meditation like last time. It is really quite inside and despite the amount of details and colours, it is a place that makes me feel peaceful.

Except that the day I went there were events I didn't know about because I didn't check to see if anything was going on. There was a conference in the morning, where a monk spoke in Chinese, I think, about achieving wholesomeness and teh importance of not doing anything unwholesome. What he said was translated in English in real time, but either the translation wasn't very good, or the teachings were a bit outdated or in anycase without relation to the world outside the temple. The monk gave an example about how regret can save you from having your bad deeds "ripen" saying if you do something illegal and get caught and show regret you may not be punished. I mean... Uh... Shouldn't you show regret by accepting your punishment for doing something wrong?... And should you show regret only of you get caught?

Anyway... After the conference and after all the monks and nuns and students went to eat, I stayed in the temple to paint. Some monks came back to prepare a table with food to share after the prayer at 2 pm. While they were preparing the table one of them started to talking to me and when he found out I'm Romanian, he started saying a lot of things that were ignorant, stereotyped and downright racist towards Romani people. He did seem to be aware of stuff when he spoke about the Holocaust, so he isn't as ignorant as he seems, but it also seems that he uses information to further his hate of people, specifically in the case of the Holocaust, of Jews. And than he started saying homofobic stuff, and kept saying "Sorry, it's just my opinion" and went on to say women should make babies and lesbians do not, so that is wrong. Some of the other monks were trying to get him to stop talking, but he kept saying "sorry, it's just my opinion".

I am disappointed to find there are people like this practicing Buddhism. He wasn't even a student, but a monk. However, after searching more on the subject and discovering about the genocide conducted by Buddhists against the Rohingya population in Myanmar, I guess another illusion is gone. Which is nice, because the monk who held the conference in the morning said that we should let go of out delusions. 💁‍♀️

I get it that Buddhists have been persecuted for centuries in India, but that is not excuse for this kind of violence against other people. It's the same narrative the Israelis have...

#buddhism #buddhist temple #history #everything is political #painting #monks #racism #homophobia #genocide #swiss #travel

[vernalloy]

why YOU should vote for RAZPUTIN AQUATO in the Autism Swag Summit AGAINST Kris Dreemur

looks at you. please. fur me. 🥺

generally nd game series. loboto. oh my god loboto.

little romani boy obsessed with giving out therapy and being a superhero

so many idle animations and voice lines. he's a zooming autist.

did i mention how much he knows about True Psychic Tales. sp-in lmao. doubly so given that he copies sasha's look, down to wearing a sweater and jacket in the Pacific Northwest summer

he's been 'tism-ing it up since 2005. thats a lotta years.

protagonist of all time i love him dearly

ok back to the games part. the psychonauts series is a very long takedown of the silly mental illness trope by taking what looks like funny behavior on the outside, going into that person's mind, and walking through how terrible it is to actually be dealing with that

there aren't really Villains here (other than spoilers man), just the misguided or mistaken, pressured past their own well-being.

our threats are dealt with not through violence, but by understanding.

papyrus is already there. lmao.

it'd be funny

please i want the psychic autists to go up against each other. could you imagine the fanart.

#propaganda post no. 3 #razputin aquato #psychonauts #(wow vern talk) #autismsummit2023

[romanistan]

“Violence against women in Romani communities is much more of a problem than it is in the majority society. It is not just more frequent, but also more aggressive,” says Ingrid Kosová, chair of the Quo Vadis association in Slovakia. 

#romani #roma #rómovia #slovakia #slovensky #slovensko #articles

[girlactionfigure]

Separated from his family, he searched for his two daughters.

He was like many others, after Auschwitz was liberated on January 27, 1945 - He had hopes that his family might have survived . . .

Under Adolf Hitler's leadership, the Nazi regime had killed an estimated 6 million Jewish people and millions of other victims whom he and his followers deemed Untermenschen ("sub-humans") and socially undesirable, including 2 million Romani people, 250,000 mentally and physically disabled people, and 9,000 homosexual men.

He was hoping he would find his wife and two daughters. Five years earlier, when he and his family had realized Hitler's racially motivated ideology was promoting hatred, bigotry, racism and prejudice, he tried to get his family out of Germany, but he had run afoul of restrictive American immigration policies designed to protect national security and guard against an influx of foreigners.

He had written his American friend, "I am forced to look out for emigration and as far as I can see U.S.A. is the only country we could go to. Perhaps you remember that we have two girls. It is for the sake of the children mainly that we have to care for. Our own fate is of less importance."

America had, however, changed its attitude toward immigrants, especially refugees, who were fleeing war torn countries.

He would eventually find out that his wife was dead. She had died of starvation in one of the concentration camps. He still had hopes that his daughters may have survived, but those hopes were soon shattered as well.

He returned to the hiding place, in which he and his family hid for two years, now empty, only filled with sad memories. A trusted friend of the family met him and gave him some papers, which turned out to be the diaries of his daughter. She had died at the age of 15 at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.

He remembered that his daughter was so full of hope, she had wanted to be a writer, she wanted her diaries to be published after the war. At first he was hesitant, but his daughter always dreamed of improving the world, and he realized that his daughter's words could help.

She had written in that diary, "It’s difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven’t abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

Otto Frank would publish his daughter's diary so others would never forget. The title of the publication became known as "The Diary of a Young Girl" or Anne Frank's Diary.

~~~~~

Friday, January 27 is International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

The Peace Page has shared many stories of Anne Frank, her family, and life during that terrible time. This is an updated story with new insights. The Jon S. Randal Peace Page focuses on past and present stories seldom told of lives forgotten, ignored, or dismissed. The stories are gathered from writers, journalists, and historians to share awareness and foster understanding. You can find more stories in the Peace Page archives. We encourage you to learn more about the individuals mentioned here and to support the writers, educators, and historians whose words we present.

~~~~~

“In his message for the International Day, UN Secretary-General António Guterres notes that the Holocaust was the culmination of thousands of years of antisemitic hate, aided by the decision of so many to do nothing to stop the Nazis.”

“It was the deafening silence – both at home and abroad – that emboldened them”.

“This, he continues, was despite Nazi Germany’s hate speech and disinformation campaigns, contempt for human rights and the rule of law, the glorification of violence and tales of racial supremacy, and disdain for democracy and diversity.

“In the face of growing economic discontent and political instability, escalating white supremacist terrorism, and surging hate and religious bigotry – we must be more outspoken than ever,” added the UN chief, drawing a parallel between the Holocaust and the present day.”

One of the exhibitions on displacement illustrates the stereotyping, misinformation, and conspiracy theories used by the Nazis, to vilify Jews, Roma, migrants, LGBTQIA+, or other groups.

~~~~~

In an NBC News report:

"The story of teenage diarist Anne Frank is known across the world. But a new survey suggests a “disturbing” lack of awareness about the Holocaust in the Netherlands, where she and her family hid for years before being discovered and deported to a Nazi concentration camp.

A Dutch Holocaust survivor and Jewish cultural leaders have expressed dismay at the survey, which was released Wednesday and suggests that more than half of the residents were not aware of the deportation and murder of Jews from the country during World War II.

The survey, conducted and released by the New York-based nonprofit Claims Conference ahead of International Holocaust Memorial Day on Friday, found that 53% of the respondents couldn’t identify the Netherlands as a country where the events of the Holocaust happened — rising to 60% among millennial and Gen Z respondents, meaning those under 40.

Historians estimate more than 70% of the Netherlands’ prewar Jewish population was killed during the Holocaust, more than 100,000 in total. Frank hid in a secret room in Amsterdam with her family from 1942 to 1944 before she died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp weeks before its liberation.

Despite widely available evidence of the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews, 12% of those surveyed told the researchers either that the Holocaust was a myth or that the number of deaths was greatly exaggerated — the highest figure for any of the six nations surveyed in recent years. For the Netherlands, this rises to 23% of people under 40.

~~~~~

In an article by Melinda Houston of The Sydney Morning Herald, she asks, “How many US citizens know their country refused a visa to the family of Anne Frank – a refusal that forced them into hiding in Amsterdam and ultimately resulted in their deaths?”

Writing about Ken Burns documentary, “The US and the Holocaust”, Houston states, “That’s the shocking fact that opens this typically sober, lyrical and exquisitely balanced documentary from Ken Burns.”

In the documentary, Burns presents information which Houston presents, saying, “In the 1890s, the US was indeed the promised land and its doors were wide open to immigrants. It was also a time of genocide of Native Americans. And the flourishing of slavery.”

~~~~~

In the new book, “After The Annex: Anne Frank, Auschwitz and Beyond”, author Bas von Benda-Beckmann “pieces together the chilling final months of the Jewish teenager and her family,” according to Chris Dean For Mailonline.

“He reveals harrowing stories about a friend’s attempts to throw food parcels over a barbed-wire fence to a starving and freezing Anne, as well as the punishing work she was given splitting open old batteries with a chisel and hammer.”

Anne, who would be 93 if she was alive today, and her family hid from Nazi persecution in the annex behind a bookcase in their Amsterdam home for two years before being caught.

~~~~~

According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, Antisemitic hate crimes have been rising in recent years, and could surpass 2021 numbers — a possible record year.

PBS Newshour also reports that The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks anti-Semitic behavior nationwide, found 2,717 incidents in 2021. That's a 34 percent rise from the year before and averages out to more than seven anti-Semitic incidents per day.

~~~~~

According to The Post and Courier, “we should remember that too many ordinary people did little or nothing to try to stop the Holocaust at the time. Yes, there were heroes such as Raoul Wallenberg and Oskar Schindler, but far too many others were aware of what was happening and remained bystanders.”

“We cannot rely on heroic individuals to be the difference,” says Doyle Stevick, University of South Carolina education professor and director of the school’s Anne Frank Center. “We need to build communities of upstanders.”

“To remember is not a passive, intellectual activity. It’s an active commitment to live the values that would have allowed every Anne Frank to live to her full potential. That’s the summons that we all should heed when we remember January 27.”

“Lessons about the Holocaust go beyond a significant chapter of World War II, beyond the 6 million victims killed by a totalitarian regime. They extend to the vital and ongoing importance of our coming together and understanding one another, wherever we happen to be.”

~ jsr

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page

#WW2 #Auschwitz #Shoah #Otto Frank

[wiltingwoes]

I do not have the energy to do serious threads (go figure im lame) so I’m gonna just info dump about the vistani culture w Beth instead because I love them.

• Vistani, a summarized version: To avoid cultural disrespect, we simply refer to them as traveling nomads or Romani (which is cutting it close already so that’s very loosely used), but you can obviously tell by the similarities to real ethnicities what they are based off of. The actual people they were based off of were the g.ypsies, but again, that’s frowned upon.

• They are commonly known to be fortune tellers, psychics blessed with divinity from birth (Mama Andreá), silversmiths, coppersmiths, haberdashers, cooks, weavers, musicians, entertainers, storytellers, toolmakers, and horse traders. Whatever coin they earn is usually shared amongst the settlement and friends within their circle. No one is left on an empty stomach or too cold on a winter’s night. This is why Beth still has her empathy and heroism intact — because she grew up with the knowledge on equality and family over anything else. These traits led to her permanent hedge knighthood.

• Vistani dress in bright cloths, bells, laces, jewelry, etc. While Beth prefers to always wear her knight armor due to her over-alertness, on the rare occasions she relaxes, she’ll wear duller colors of traditional garb. Bright colors don’t camouflage well and Beth never leaves her war-ridden mind, so relaxation and fashion always take second priority. Despite this, she will never forget her roots — so she can let loose when Barovia isn’t kicking her ass into the mud for the millionth time lmao

• Disagreement never results with violence. Usually, it’s through contests that end with reconciliatory singing, dancing, and storytelling. The Vistani are extremely laid back and chill. Beth hates needless violence, but kinda had no choice but to give in to her brutality as a Nosferatu that’s constantly hungry and takes on insane power when triggered. She’s verbally sharp and her intimidation (+5 which is hilarious because that’s even higher than some Strahd’s) crossed with charisma (+2) makes up for any physical assault, so she can stop quarrels before they begin because people are scared of her and not stupid enough to bark up that tree GFHFHGBB

• Quick to act when their lives or traditions are threatened, merciless when they believe they must be. On god. If you fuck w one Vistani, consider yourself damned at that point. These people travel in PACKS LIKE WOLVES. They can and will eternally curse your ass worse than a hag’s bite. They’re docile until fucked with, and then they hit so damn hard back — in numbers. Vistani can quickly become as lethal as armies. Think the court of miracles from the hunchback. Beth’s rage stems from how Noctus destroyed so many settlements and her own vardo, attacking mercilessly with the unbridled vengeance from every slain Vistani.

“ 𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐓𝐔𝐒! 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐁𝐄𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄 𝐃𝐑𝐎𝐙𝐃𝐎𝐕, 𝐃𝐀𝐔𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐒𝐎𝐔𝐋 𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐌𝐀𝐌𝐀 𝐀𝐍𝐃𝐑𝐄Á! 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐔𝐍𝐁𝐑𝐈𝐃𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐑𝐘 𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐍𝐈 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄𝐍 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐌𝐄! 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐈𝐑 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐅𝐔𝐑𝐘 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐑𝐀𝐆𝐄! 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐊 𝐌𝐘 𝐎𝐀𝐓𝐇, 𝐌𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐈 𝐖𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐇𝐀𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑 𝐅𝐔𝐂𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐍 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐀𝐌𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐌𝐘 𝐏𝐄𝐎𝐏𝐋𝐄’𝐒 𝐒𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐄! 𝐉𝐔𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐂𝐄! “ [ In ref to her second fight against Noctus after her forcibly made her attack her party as a Nosferatu beast. ]

• Her theme is Bloody Tears from C.astlevania too just for that extra spice lol

• The Vistani don't worship any gods, but instead believe in something they call ‘Threads of Fate.’ They believe that all actions have reactions and that fate's wound its strings around everyone. They are firm believers in the spirits, divine, and superstitious.

• Some Vistani women are blessed with prescience. Of all the great Vistani fortune-tellers, none compares to Madam Eva. Her party is close to meeting Eva’s settlement and I’m excited lol but Mama Andreá was a born psychic and passed that knowledge down to Beth at a young age, who had a glimmer of her prescience due to genetics. Beth does have a tarot deck given to her from Cassandra she has yet to use to tell minor events occurring in the future, but her power is not nearly as precise as Eva/Andreá or Cass’ tarokka. She tends to stick to daily fortunes or simple spreads.

• A prescient Vistani can't see her own future or the future of another Vistani. It is the burden of the Vistani's great gift that their own fates can't be divined. rip to Cass and Beth reading each other’s futures but I don’t think they’d want that anyway considering how much they hate their own lives in the first place BGHFHVCVB

• Beth’s human side comes out when she’s doing Vistani related things. Cooking meats and soups, dancing and story telling around a fire, using her castanets, jingling bells, dressed in her traditional clothes, etc. This shows greatly as her mother verse with Annalize, because she ensures Anna lives the full Vistani experience that both mothers couldn’t experience themselves as it was ripped straight from them due to vampirism and war.

Beth retires from her wandering knighthood immediately to become a house wife at that point. She’s always cooking hearty meals for Anna and Cass, decorating the castle in beautiful fabrics and decor, dressing her daughter in the most lavished garb and jewelry, and teaches her all about the divine to pass down her knowledge from Mama Andreá. Beth eventually owns her own vardo and names it in respect of her own vardo (The Copper Carriage) , now The Crimson Carriage. She adopts a settlement of Vistani who survived the fogs and, just as any other settlement does, opens the doors to any weary traveler. Cass takes her myrmidon status back and the two no longer dress in armor, but the traditional garbs, not wanting to treat their daughter to violence and really bring up their past of relentless bloodshed (Anna would figure it out sooner or later anyway because Beth and Cass are basically figures of high importance with stories that were passed around Barovia of who they once were lmao) . but this all simply an ✨ AU happy ending for both of them ✨ that I created and who fucking knows what’ll ACTUALLY occur in game I just want these two to have a dAMN MOMENT OF CLARITY THEY DESERVE GOOD THINGS FOR ONCE

#🐀 THE FALLEN KNIGHT. 🐀 #out of the keep 🐀