The Passing of the Romani Body

Abstract

Antiroma prejudice is among the most persistent and intense kinds of racial hatred in Europe. While criminal or demonic depictions of the Roma were created, their “blackness” was considered abhorrent, described as, for instance, yellowish and dirty, while their hair was always “shaggy” or curling “like vipers.” The “blackness” was believed to be an outcome of an uncivilized lifestyle, dirt, smoke from bonfires, or conscious creation – a picaresque camouflage. Romophobia or antiziganism have continued to rely on colour, visuality, and visibility of the body to exclude people by reason of race. The article discusses the strategy of passing which enables the Roma to survive in a racist environment or has been at times the only way to survive, as well as other subversive strategies of performing skin colour observed in the creative output of contemporary visual artists of Roma origin: Delaine Le Bas, Tamara Moyzes, Emilia Rigová and Kálmán Várady as well as creators and performers of Roma Armee and slammer Kristóf Horváth.