Until coming to Romania she had never heard of Roma. The project “Revealing Romania” was the way through which the journalist Shaina Humphries knew them. After two weeks of investigation, Shaina says that, despite the racist attitude with which they are treated, the Roma do not hate Romanians.

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Most of the things I read about the Roma were told through somewhat of a critical perspective. Always looking AT the Roma, and talking ABOUT them, but almost never with them
There are many inconsistencies and contradictions in the Roma population, just like every other population. They are not ALL as poor and unhappy as they are made out to be
There is obviously quite a bit of racism against the Roma in Romania
It is a majority of the Roma that accept their lives and their place in society as natural. They are just so used to being discriminated against that they think it is normal
The Italian government's actions from the past couple of years have made it even closer to impossible to lessen the racism there
The Italian government's actions from the past couple of years have made it even closer to impossible to lessen the racism there

Discovering the Roma from Romania
Divers.ro: Whose idea is the project “Revealing Romania” and which is his goal?
Shaina Humphries: Well this was the final part of a semester-long course for about 10 journalism students, including myself. Our professor, Nancy Benson, has a lot of experience with international reporting, and she has spent time in Romania before (working with the Center for Independent Journalism). She has done this twice before, with different students each time. First, they went to Peru, then they went to China 2 years ago, and she chose Romania for this trip because she thought it was a very good time to report there, after Romania joined the EU.

So we spent the entire semester learning about Romania, and as we researched the country and the news that's going on there, we each decided on a story topic. Some topics were Romania's tourism industry, the healthcare system, the Hungarian population in Romania, people who leave the country to send money back to their families, and my topic- the Roma.

Divers.ro: Why did you choose the Roma topic?
Shaina Humphries: I chose to report on the Roma because their story reminds me of some of America's minorities. It is definitely not the exact same situation, but the fact that it is somewhat similar attracted me first, and then the facts that Americans generally have no idea who Roma are made me feel that it was a very important topic.
Most of the things I read about the Roma were told through somewhat of a critical perspective. Always looking AT the Roma, and talking ABOUT them, but almost never with them.

Also, I am very interested in writing about people. About real human beings. Even here in America, I always try to write more feature stories and profiles, rather than hard news. Hard news is like facts. I think stories about people and about culture are much more interesting. I would have been very bored and unhappy if I was writing about government or something like that. Then again, Romanian government might be kind of fun to write about.

Divers.ro: Who were the roma people for you until coming to Romania?
Shaina Humphries: Before beginning the class, I had no knowledge of the Roma. At all! Even after I began to learn about them in class, I saw them as this group of poor people, who had a very sad story to tell, and I felt I needed to show their situation to people in America. Looking back, I think I was a bit foolish to believe any population could be generalized so much.

After spending time in Romania, I saw that there are many inconsistencies and contradictions in the Roma population, just like every other population. They are not ALL as poor and unhappy as they are made out to be. I think the biggest surprise for me was the Roma's feelings towards Romanians. I think there is obviously quite a bit of racism against the Roma in Romania.

“I'm not racist, but...”
Divers.ro: Why do you think that?
Shaina Humphries: And the funny part is, the most racist people that I met, always seemed to start off with “I'm not racist, but...”. Everyone seems to feel that they had good reason to justify their hatred towards the Roma. One woman said, “I got my wallet stolen by a gypsy, so why should I like them?”.

I asked Romanians on the streets of Bucharest and even Cluj to tell me about the Roma, and I got lots of answers like: “they should disappear off the face of the Earth,” “they don't want to work or go to school; all they want to do is steal", “if they waned to get a job it would be easy for them to get one, but they're lazy.”

What surprised me the most is that the Roma do not hate Romanians. They just don't. I expected it to be similar to the US. In our history, the oppressed population generally has a certain hatred for their oppressors. But the Roma do not act this way.

When I asked Roma “how do you like the Romanians?” or when I was in Italy “how do you like the Italians,” most of them said: “oh we like them. There’s no problem with them.” I asked them: “how do the Romanians (or Italians) feel about you? How do they treat you?”. They said: “they treat us OK. There's no difference between us and them.” I couldn't believe it. I still can't.

Discrimination has become usual
Divers.ro: How do you explain this situation?
Shaina Humphries: Many of them insisted that they don't want to be any different. They ARE Romanian. One man told me: “it's like Jesus said in the bible. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.” That's one way!

But I also think that this population is so used to being treated this way, because they have been treated as second class citizens compared to the rest of the world throughout all of their history. They don't know any better. They don't see that other people treat them badly, because they think that's the way it is supposed to be. So when they are clearly being discriminated against, they see it as normal behavior. They don't see that people are treating them wrong.

Now that doesn't mean that they ALL don't see it. Obviously some of them do, but I definitely think it is a majority of the Roma that accept their lives and their place in society as natural. They are just so used to being discriminated against that they think it is normal.

Divers.ro: Can this situation be changed?
Shaina Humphries: Like anything, I think it is possible for it to change. But I don't think it's very likely in the near future. A lot of things need to be put in place for the Roma, in order for them to become a part of society, but the integration has to work both ways.

Shaina Humphries (20 year old) is in the third year of Broadcast Journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Together with other nine journalism American students, she took part in the project “Revealing Romania”, an action deserved to present the effects of the Romania integration in the European Union to the American public. The investigations took place in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca and Rome/Italy. The articles published by Shaina Humphries, and the other journalists during the progress of the project can be read accessing http://will.illinois.edu/romania. (Mihaela Dumitrascu – DIVERS –www.divers.ro)