"They're starting to live." The re-education of Roma children as socialist colonization Cover Image

„Začínají žít.“ Převýchova romských dětí jako socialistická kolonizace
"They're starting to live." The re-education of Roma children as socialist colonization

Author(s): Jan Randák
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Univerzita Karlova v Praze - Filozofická fakulta, Vydavatelství
Keywords: The Roma; Communist Party of Czechoslovakia; re-education; postcolonial studies; racism

Summary/Abstract: State policy towards the Roma took various forms in communist Czechoslovakia. In the first decadeafter the onset of the communist dictatorship (1950s), it oscillated between two poles. While the firsthalf of the decade is characterized by efforts to emancipate the Roma population, including the support of Roma culture, in the second half of the decade the state government took restrictive measures,including a ban on nomadism. However, the state-encouraged and welcome emancipation of Roma fellow citizens was an ambivalent enterprise. On the one hand, the dictatorship took care over the Romafor fundamental ideological reasons and offered them a chance to become members of the majority ofthe society. On the other hand, it expressed its intention with a discriminatory language confirmingthe power asymmetry between the majority of the population and the Roma. At the end, the state didnot only fail to overcome racist stereotypes of Czech public, but rather confirmed them.

  • Issue Year: 2021
  • Issue No: Special
  • Page Range: 9-22
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Czech