Is it racist to joke about Romanians stealing stuff?
Posted by flash_gamer500@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 135 comments
For any Romanians out there, I am just wondering about this stereotype. Where the Romanian will steal your car, and your wallet, and your house, and your girl. so, I'm just wondering, does that actually bother you? Like, I'm American, all I know about Romania is from hoi4, my grandma talking about how pretty it is, and nothing else besides memes.
seanugengar@reddit
It's racist to blame an entire nation for the actions of a few. In Greece it's the Albanians for example.
Matrix740@reddit
Everywhere it is the Albanians at some point
BlackHawk2528@reddit
Every fucking time a bad thing happens in Greece, immediately the newspapers write how Albanians did that without any proof. As if Greeks are well-behaved and only listen buzuki and drink Ouzo all day.
CeleryRadiant8305@reddit
That’s not entirely true. Yes, that was the case but 20 years ago or more. Albanians integrated with local population and now the “target” is other nationalities. I’ve seen with my own eyes an Albanian woman blaming “all these foreigners coming in Greece that she doesn’t like” - talking about Pakistanis. The some woman like 30 years ago was chased by the police and had hard time just because she was an Albanian working in Greece. Times change, but certain attitudes remain. In the end of the day it’s about personalities not where they are coming from. ♥️
altonaerjunge@reddit
You understand that albanians where in greece before the foundation of the modern greek state ?
Legitimate_Kick_5628@reddit
This is such a German thing to bring up man , leave it out of the conversation. You are right about it but it’s this German übercorrect factual mentality
GimmeFuel6@reddit
He’s not German though, is he
seanugengar@reddit
Oh man... Wait until someone tells the nationalists, that some of the leaders of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman empire, were in fact Arvanites. Albanian settlers, primarily in Peloponnese. 🤯 As a matter if fact, some of them were Muslims who fought against the Ottomans as well.
Ujemegaz@reddit
He implies the refugees during the 1990s, who went there for looking for better paying jobs.
saddinosour@reddit
I just sit at home like a sim and only break plates while I dance zebekiko, drink tsipouro, play tavli, eat mezze and have gay sex with olives
BlackHawk2528@reddit
saddinosour@reddit
Sorry I meant I have gay sex with olive oil***
BlackHawk2528@reddit
Disturbing
saddinosour@reddit
Sorry I can’t tell if you understand I am joking 😭 I was just making a joke because you said “as if Greeks are well behaved and just drink ouzo all day and play bouzouki”.
BlackHawk2528@reddit
No I dont kink shame you. If gay sex with olives whatever that is makes you happy than why not 🤣
saddinosour@reddit
HAHAHA thank you for accepting me
PersimmonTall8157@reddit
Is that still the case nowadays? Heard there’s a lot of non-European immigrants in Greece nowadays, thought they stole the spotlight of the Albanians.
Life_Whole_1889@reddit
Its a whole region thing not to like albanians
Ujemegaz@reddit
As the folks says, if everyone likes you, then there is a problem with you.
Tomorr3@reddit
Being hated by southslavians is a compliment
Tomorr3@reddit
It doesn't matter. Their hatred for Albanians is innate.
Ujemegaz@reddit
You turned the favor with more stereotypes. Nice.
BlackHawk2528@reddit
Better with sterotypes than stigma, dont you think ?
Tomorr3@reddit
Being lazy is a good stereotype? 🤣
BlackHawk2528@reddit
Who said they are lazy, I said beinf wellbehaved
Tomorr3@reddit
"only listen buzuki and drink Ouzo all day"
BlackHawk2528@reddit
Yes like a well-behaved citizen
Tomorr3@reddit
Ok ok
ItiPutChilotii@reddit
is gypsies with Romanian papers in our case.
tdannyt@reddit
It's not racist it's xenophobic
seanugengar@reddit
As terminologies, they are indeed different. In reality they overlap. If someone hates someone just because they are foreign to them, where is the line as to who is foreign to them? A border? Culture? Religion? Language? Ideology?
tdannyt@reddit
Well in your example of the greeks and albanians, they hate albanians specifically because of their reputation, culture, etc. Doesn"t mean they hate bulgarians. In thid case id say it's completely xenophobic and not racist, as race wise, they're quick similar
sheynzonna@reddit
Maybe in the past. It's now gypsies.
seanugengar@reddit
There always will be a minority, that will be used by those in power to distract and divide. Hey look at this tree, while we are burning the forest behind you.
JazzlikeAsk8039@reddit
*migrants from other nationalities, gypsies were always hated
SwimmingAttention133@reddit
not Romanian, i think it's distasteful , it's like "all americans are fat and stupid". You know it's not true, it's not that funny , it's overused , it's not racism. It's just... meh
ChaosKeeshond@reddit
That's a poor comparison though because over 70% of Americans are literally classified as overweight.
It's not true about Romanians and stealing but this defence just ain't it.
kureysalp@reddit
You forgot stupid
xolov@reddit
Well I mean we've become pretty fucking fat on our continent as well so it's a bit pot calling the kettle black.
Your country for example is at 67% overweight nowadays.
Of course we don't have as many of these people you see on TV in literal wheelchairs, maybe seen one or two in my life but I guess they are considered extreme cases over there as well.
J0hnnyBlazer@reddit
The only real answer here, I knew it has to be a kid asking this and quick check on profile he play minecraft and viedo gaymes, he's a gaymer, he's gayming
flash_gamer500@reddit (OP)
I’m not gonna respond to everything, but at least where I live, in California, I joke with my close Mexican friend about Mexican culture, and he does the same. I didn’t know that it would be like this. I just wanted to see if it was like as it was here. But now, everyone is blaming the Romas. I don’t really understand. Isn’t that racist?
floare_salbatica@reddit
I despise even more Romanians who make these insipid jokes. You're not as funny as you think, buddy!
Fun-Incident-9216@reddit
is xenophobic. And is not just "meh" is very inappropriate.
Cattle13ruiser@reddit
You came in Balkan subreddit and complain about inappropriate?
We joke about genocides here, calling someone fat is on part of the culture.
Here you go, one of my favorite movie scenes from The Guard. Underappritiated gem.
TurdEye69@reddit
iT is iNApProPrIAtE ☝️🤓
jaleach@reddit
Is it Romanians or Gypsies? Just saying I saw a documentary about Gypsies in Romania during the 1990s and they were a big problem. They showed a prison and people were packed in the cells like sardines. They also showed these high rise apartment buildings where they lived and it looked like Somalia. The police avoided the area unless they absolutely had to go in there.
oofboiiiii@reddit
mainly gypsies, yes.
Old-Cardiologist2853@reddit
Aren‘t gypsies Romanian citizens?
jaleach@reddit
I really don't know.
Old-Cardiologist2853@reddit
Here in DE they are considered romanians bcz they are romanian citizens.All they do is steal and this has damaged the image of hard working and honest romanian people.
jaleach@reddit
It's tough to make the distinction, even though everyone knows there is one. Same here in the USA. Everyone knows who is committing most of the crimes. They're also Americans.
I just know Europeans hate Gypsies. I've heard Hitler-tier stuff about Gypsies come out of Europeans' mouths. It's pretty crazy.
Every country does this, though. Back in the day in America, it was the Irish and Italians. Irish women were derisively referred to as Bridgets since people with money would hire Irish help, and some of the women had the name Bridget. Pretty bigoted. There are more slurs for Italians than I probably know.
Eastern European immigrants, including Slavs, were referred to as Hunkies. No idea where the term comes from, but it was meant to be offensive in its day. Nowadays, almost no one would recognize the term except for the descendants of these people.
When I was a kid in the 1970s, "Polack" jokes were a big thing. We had a Polish kid in my friend group, and we mercilessly scuzzed him about being Polish. He had a grandmother who lived with the family, and she didn't speak English. She'd call him home by calling his name, Kevin, except she'd pronounce it like Keben. Again with the jokes. No one even knew why jokes about Poles were a thing. Why were they? No idea.
MariusRZR90@reddit
I do it and I'm Romanian.
I mean jokes not... /s
Vaisiamarrr@reddit
I don’t care that you’re being racist, i’m just mad that you’re being racist towards the wrong group of people
flash_gamer500@reddit (OP)
Hey sorry everyone if that was disrespectful, I’m not the wisest person ever and I was just curious.
Final_Nebula3533@reddit
Is the plain truth, they know it as well and trust me they don’t give a fuck. They will continue to steal and scam for a living, very few roma people are moving away from that mentality but props for who does (1 in 100).
grrrfreak@reddit
Jokes aren't inheritlyvracist, but it dependsxa lot on the tone ( either admittingva problem without actually considering a nation or people responsible vs blaming it on the ppz )
Vivid_Try_6296@reddit
If you aren't balkan then yes.
Plane-Lie-4035@reddit
i wonder now how stupid all americans must be /s
Raknel@reddit
You shouldn't joke about other people's culture 😔
Zealousideal_Rain_79@reddit
We’ve already spot the bozgor here!
dehydratedarkness@reddit
As a romanian, I think it's only racist if you take these things seriously and if it impacts the life of Romanians for no reason. Like if you accuse an innocent co-worker of being a thief even though there is no evidence and they've never stolen anything. But if it's just harmless memeing around, I don't see the problem.
iadaci@reddit
Well said, I think it's great that we are the buttjoke of Europe by having the negative stereotypes of gypsies being applied to us, stereotypes such as thieves, beggars or criminals are just fun, I love them.
PrettyChillHotPepper@reddit
Distasteful. When Romanians make jokes about orselves it's like black people saying the n word but you aren't Romanian and you shouldn't say that kind of shit.
flash_gamer500@reddit (OP)
Sorry
Necessary-Noise5578@reddit
Its not racist cause Romanian is a nationality and not a race but it is prejudiced
iadaci@reddit
Romanian is also an ethnicity which is the majority in the country of Romania.
urbanOutlaw04@reddit
It depends. I personally think the nickname Robmanian is funny af🤣
Whit3SouL@reddit
It is if you have an IQ which is lower than room temperature.
Tell us more.
urbanOutlaw04@reddit
Someone forgot to take his pills before going to sleep
Whit3SouL@reddit
Indeed, don't forget to take them next time, it's already showing symptons.
Drunkendx@reddit
Romanian or Roma people?
Because those two aren't same...
Any_Security_8846@reddit
Well Romanians get confused with Roma gypsy in the dumbass West.
PisicaIntergalactica@reddit
When I was in high school (not in Romania) we went on a trip to another European capital city for a week. We slept in a hostel, so I was in the room with other classmates (all girls ofc). I was the head of the class/responsible of the class (idk how to say that in english) that year. Well, when I was showering one of the teacher came inside our room and asked my classmates where I sleep and asked them “and do you trust her?”. Well, they trusted me enough to vote me as responsible of the class for many years. Lol. These jokes can quickly become a real life bad experience and to be honest I don’t wish that to anyone. I was strong enough to understand that the teacher in question was quite limited and ignorant, but maybe someone else was going to feel differently. I don’t even like Romanians who joke about that.
floare_salbatica@reddit
Same, to me it shows low intelligence when Romanians themselves reinforce these stereotypes considering how bad we have it outside the country. Even if we work harder than the locals, it's still like we have to "prove" who we are, to fight the stigma. It's funny that a former German coworker once sent a screenshot about some Romanian criminal band in the work WA group. I simply left the group. Later on she told me that I shouldn't take it personally, it could just as well have been Serbians or Albanians. Just goes to show how Western people see us as potentially criminal. I'm not gonna be a twat and reinforce that.
radroamingromanian@reddit
It’s rude and hurtful. One or two comments I can let slide depending on what it is, but more than that and you’re being a dick. I don’t understand why people would ask something like “is it ok if I insult your country?” Lol Balkans do it to each other and that’s a bit different.
floare_salbatica@reddit
Is this rage baiting? 🙄
Specialist-Sea-638@reddit
no it doesn't bother us. Just don't call us gypsy....that would be a problem, a big one :)
Calivivaldi@reddit
what do you think people are meaning when they say you are stealing wallets, copper etc. ?
ItiPutChilotii@reddit
what do you feel when people say italians steal when in fact italian zingari steal?
Specialist-Sea-638@reddit
It's a complex answer. Life was very hard in Romania in the 80's and 90's. We needed to learn to extra cash , because honest work was not enough. Not necessarily stealing or corruption, but a 2nd job, seasonal work, work in countryside, any type of small trades.
Any extra money was good, no matter the source. The theft was always small value...
Second aspect: theft has also different meanings in our language:
to steal (someone's) hat/eyes/heart: To charm, attract the attention of, or win over someone.
To steal one's own hat: To deceive oneself, to deceive oneself.
To steal the start: To act too early (figuratively), to start something before the right signal or time.
To steal the current: To behave confusedly or absent-mindedly.
To steal a trade: To learn a trade by observing a master.
To steal sleep: To fall asleep, to be overcome by sleep.
To steal someone's (or steal) sleep: To be unable to sleep (to lose sleep).
To steal someone's (or steal one's) feet (by the eyes): To deceive with great skill.
To steal (something) from the scale/measure: To cheat when weighing or measuring.
To steal (or steal one's) time: To spend time pleasantly, making time pass more quickly.
To be robbed of the scenery/of thoughts: To be distracted, absorbed in something.
To steal (or steal) the horses from the bicycle: To do something stupid, to hurt oneself through carelessness.
Calivivaldi@reddit
You didn't get it. when people talk about romanian thieves they don't think of the romanian burglars who could be romanian ethnics from poorer areas, they are talking about gypsy pickpockets, copper thieves, nomad camps ... thief is just a key word for gypsy
Fun-Incident-9216@reddit
Don't bother you . Of course will bother majority.
ItiPutChilotii@reddit
95% of the Romanians that steal are in fact gypsies/roma/romani with Romanian papers. There are also Hungarian/Bulgarian/Spanish/Italian gypsies, you get the idea.
You can joke about them because is true, but if you joke about actual Romanians I take offence because I do not steal, I work in a multinational, also freelancing and pay taxes.
No_Magazine_6806@reddit
As a matter fact, it is not _Romanians_ but Roma. They sound the same but they are totally different thing. One is European ethnicity (Romanian language is one of the Latin languages), Roma are migrants from South East Asia, different ethnicity completely.
Raknel@reddit
As a Hungarian I beg to differ
Business-Childhood71@reddit
Romanians are not a race
JimmyPuffpuff@reddit
As a joke sometimes it's okay. But I am personally a more sensitive individual and it really bothers me. Because I never stole anything in my life and I hate being judged and looked down upon because of something that some people in my country do. And I also try my best not to believe every stereotype that I hear about other countries as well because I know how some of them really suck.
harvestt77@reddit
This is for my Romanian friends (no one else would understand anyway) 😂
https://youtu.be/782CRJ_AyjY?si=uJF8P4lrSP0yCqJU
kettykitten@reddit
I love it 😂 How does someone from Albania know about Radu Pietreanu?
harvestt77@reddit
Let's say that I spent some time among Romanians when this stereotype was being shaped or mai pe romaneste, mi-am petrecut cei 7 ani de acasa printre romani 😉 I should have posted this link (from 7:50), it's even funnier.
https://youtu.be/2wQR_cp0z6M?si=KjDmgXLOQnr9nNbA
KittenDecomposer96@reddit
Firstly, what is hoi4 ? That being said, as a romanian i am of two minds on this. I would never consider it racist but sometimes it's annoying because i have personally never had anything stolen or stolen anything myself so i don't get to experience the true feel of a Romanian. Jokes aside, if the joke is funny i like it, if it's not, i don't, but that applies to all jokes.
What i really don't like is gypsies being so closely associated with Romania and being told everyone here is a gypsy. They are mostly the ones who steal so these two stereotypes are linked. In American terms, it's like saying everyone there is black even though they are only like 15% but in our case it's even more drastic since we have around 4-5% so i guess a more accurate comparison would be assuming everyone in the US is asian.
BiscottiExcellent195@reddit
hearts of iron 4, hoi4 is a ww2 war simulator
AiShaormaStauNaiCeaw@reddit
No, me and my foreign friends joke all the time about stealing their wallet when they come to visit Romania.
iadaci@reddit
Let’s say there was an ethnicity living in your country and all their negative stereotypes are applied to yours, would you be ok with that?
kettykitten@reddit
If it’s a joke, two or three, it’s okay for me. If a person continues joking about that, even after I tell them to stop, then it’s not okay for me anymore.
Sector3_Bucuresti@reddit
"If you're Romanian, please answer this question. Where's my wallet?" x20 in the UK
kettykitten@reddit
In my hand, duh 😂
Nicholas_Maduro_1337@reddit
At this point it is also not a joke anymore. Having fun is different from using jokes to be racist.
RestepcaMahAutoritha@reddit
It cant be racist if youre Romanian since everyone in Europe is the same "race", except for roma and jews. Then it's racist.
Romanians while not perfect we do not steal anything more than any other Europeans. However a minority with a name similar to ours, the roma, do steal for a living.
Romanians get upset when people are too stupid (or ignorant/arrogant) to distinguish between the two groups.
Big-Worry-9631@reddit
roma and jews are ethnicities. there's no scientific backing for multiple 'races'. that's just in the anglosphere.
european roma and european jews have mixed so much they're very much very local at this point, while various people who define terms don't call them indigenous because they came less than 1000 years ago.
same with the tatars.
Sucukkinq@reddit
I think people are extremely resilient to racism in the Balkans. Most of the time it's just banter, but even when it’s real, you have to try very hard to get under someone’s skin.
Frequent cycles of conflict and economic hardship have made dark humor common; it’s mostly humor, not racism. Even if it is while annoying and bad everyone is struggling with similar bureaucracy or the economy, so ethnic insults feel secondary. It's like a 'we have bigger problems than getting offended' kind of mentality. Also people here prefer a direct insult they can see coming over passive-aggression or polite exclusion i think.
It also matters if it comes from inside or outside the Balkans. There’s a 'we’re in the same mess' mentality. If it comes from the West, it’s interpreted much worse.
vbd71@reddit
Yes, because they say Romanians, but usually mean the Roma minority.
Hour-Promotion-2496@reddit
They don't differentiate
Nicholas_Maduro_1337@reddit
I do
Dear-Ad1582@reddit
Bubba... They say Romanian as in citizen of Romania.. That's the usual lump category... From a specific country. They don't differentiate between moldovean, munten, oltean, ardelean, ungur or rom...
BiscottiExcellent195@reddit
"hey guys, it is racist to be racist? just asking"
Nicholas_Maduro_1337@reddit
Asking for a friend
PotterPokeHealer@reddit
If you ain't racist against your fellow Balkans, then are you really Balkan???
morallyflexiblelion@reddit
I thought it was the gypsies
Calivivaldi@reddit
sometimes is not even them but south american and north african pickpockets who are being teached to say they are from "Romania" in order to not create stigma against their own people ahahaha.
If romanians want to save their face they are 20 years to late
ab3lla@reddit
it is the gypsies
casper_pwnz@reddit
If you're in a Balkans sub, we know it's just banter and no one will call you a racist except some fringe loonies.
If you're talking to a Westerner or in some American-dominated sub, you're gonna get deleted and banned for making a racist comment. They're so far up their own asses, take themselves way too seriously, and love to virtue signal on the internet.
ione_bear@reddit
Guess the strereotype is how when we would steal from you, we would keep stealing until you lost everything?
I guess it's a bit rasist. Ignoring the fact that stereotypes are bad and can't judge a whole nation of people over the actions of a few, and that being pushed into your face by some hardcore rasists or activists, I would say the stereotype is just a little ignorant. I mean do you think we would stop there? you still have a job don't you? we're coming for that too after taking your car, your house, your wallet and your girl. How's your health by the way? Good kidneys and such?
Careless-Situation68@reddit
nope. its not racist. its the truth in many cases.
Knj1gga@reddit
Yes, Robmanians would never do such a thing.
Ragnarsson__@reddit
It's racist to speak the truth?
Green_Money_7688@reddit
The anti-Roma people coming out now.
Pmike9@reddit
Son, this is the Balkans, not California. Nothing is racist here.
effyfromskins@reddit
crazy answer I was looking for :D
Pmike9@reddit
Its crazy and true and I fucking love the chaos in the Balkans!!!
effyfromskins@reddit
My grandfather was born in macedonia, grandmother bulgaria. One if them was raised muslim another christian, moved to turkey in 1947. Everyone in the family, complete atheists, and we had Tito's portrait in the kitchen growing up. :D
J0hnnyBlazer@reddit
this sub is completely regarded, its a minecraft kid trolling or just lobotomized and you fools get into greeks albanians etc, and your b*tch feelings, so easily baited
7amdrei7@reddit
What I've noticed is that Romanians get more upset because you assume they are Roma (gypsy) when you accuse them of being thieves. I'm not sure about the statistics but I'd wager a bet that it's the Roma minority that have created this stereotype anyway.
In Romania, some people use the word "thief" and "tigan" (a pejorative therm meaning Roma person) interchangeably. I used to work with a Roma guy and he had something stolen from his basement and some neighbor literally said to his face: "Well, some "tigan" might have stolen it.". Like a white person telling a black person "some ni*** might have stolen it".
ASD_213@reddit
I guess it’s racism just that personally I don’t see that sort of “racism” as a big deal. It’s just words, not every country has the same social taboos. That sort of swipe as someone’s ethnicity may ruffle some feathers, nationalism is still a thing here, but at the end of the day it’s seen as shit talking and not the capital sin it is in the anglosphere.
Also the way this works out in practice is Romanians are white we don’t rank high up your intersectional hierarchy so highly unlikely the type of crowd that clutch their pearls at racism would care anyway.
EfficiencySmall4951@reddit
Doesn't bother me personally
Substantial-One1934@reddit
Yeah and others think that Greeks are not trustful anyway.
Substantial-One1934@reddit
The people don't mean Romanians, but an ethnicity living there.
Fun-Incident-9216@reddit
First, we need to understand the words. Racism is about people of different races, are asian, black or other race than white? Yes, it is the same as Racism and is extremely rude .. the name of this is xenophobic, not racist.
Sector3_Bucuresti@reddit
Replace Romanians with Blacks and try to imagine if you'd still have a job the next morning if you said it. If you'd be fired or at least get a warning, it's probably bad.
domets@reddit
where in the Balkans do you work that you would get fired for a rasist joke?
Sector3_Bucuresti@reddit
Boy's American
Imaginary_String_814@reddit
Yes of course, it’s stigmatizing.
Do you like the jokes about fat ignorant Americans ?
Ok-Letterhead781@reddit
He wouldn't understand them
OkBarracuda4108@reddit
It doesn't bother me. But it is a bad think to spread about us, it is giving romanian aoutside the country a bad time. It is not racist as we are not a race but xenophobic (i think this was the word)
flash_gamer500@reddit (OP)
I see, yeah, your right with the wording, xenophobia is more about being afraid or opposed to outside things, primarily different foreign cultures. Race doesn't have a lot to do with it.