Subtle images of antigypsyism: An analysis of the visual perception of “Roma”

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses the powerful stereotypical media discourse that shapes and reproduces a certain racialised and prejudiced perception of people identified as “Roma” in Germany. Using a close analysis of a single picture – appearing as harmless at first glance – and through the reconstruction of its various interpretational contexts and semantics the paper identifies mechanisms used in stereotypical media coverage of “Roma”. This qualitative analysis draws on media analysis of antigypsyism as well as on research of photographic construction of the “gypsy” in order to analyse the contemporary visual regime of “Roma” in Germany. As it portrays “the Roma” as a fundamentally different and socially deviant group, this visual stereotyping is shown to be an integral element of the persistent antigypsyist ideology, deeply embedded in German society.

KEYWORDS:

• Antigypsyism
• racism
• Roma
• media
• discrimination
• photography

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. All translations from German to English by the author.

2. Throughout this paper, I use single quotation marks to designate the use of terms like “gypsy”, “clan” or “poverty migration” that communicate racialised stereotypes. If terms like “Roma” or “Sinti and Roma” that originated as self-designations are used in such a way, they are put in single quotation marks as well.

3. This also contains a more general analysis of the social situation in Bulgaria, Romania and Germany.

4. I want to thank Vera Messing for her hint to the Hungarian visual regime, mainly made up of “violent” and “aggressive” men. This difference in the visual traditions would be a compelling field of future research.