I have not only ascended my soap box with a vengeance, I have painted it gold and sparkly, and then emailed it to multiple news outlets. I am that enraged.
If I start, it will just run into an enraged capslock rant, so rather I’ll copy and paste one of the letters I wrote to a reporter in St. Louis:
Around 9:30 this morning on the Phillips and Company show on Y98, Guy Phillips and his cohost Jen made several shocking racist comments about Romani–more commonly known by the derogatory term ‘gypsies’. They called them ‘thieves’ and ‘freeloaders’, in addition to other comments, mocking them. This had been after they covered a story about Madonna making comments during a concert in eastern Europe, asking for the Roma to be treated equally.
The Roma are a historically persecuted peoples, and this denial of even basic human rights such as healthcare and education continues today. They are fragmented and vulnerable, due to their inclusive nature and therefore have been used as scapegoats for crimes and social issues for centuries.
Groups such as Amnesty International have been working hard to secure rights for this tiny, persecuted minority. In many places, they are still tortured by military and police officials in Eastern Europe. Their children are segregated and given lesser schooling than their Slovakian counterparts. Madonna did a GOOD thing in calling attention to the human rights violations and urging for equal rights. Guy Phillips not only perpetuated a stereotype, but made callously racist comments.
I am hoping that a reporter will pick up this story, in an effort to elicit an apology from Y98 and Guy Phillips, and to help education the people of St. Louis that the Roma are NOT thieves and freeloaders, but rather a persecuted and vulnerable peoples who need to be spoken up for, instead of attacked.
For more information from Amnesty Internation, click here.
Even more about the violation of children’s rights in Slovakia here.
Secondly, you will remember me Nujood Ali last year, the young girl in Yemen who successfully fought for a divorce after being forced into marrying as a child.
Now word comes from Yemen AGAIN about atrocities regarding child brides. Fawziya Ammodi died at the age of TWELVE after a painful and protracted childbirth. She was forced to drop out of school and marry a 24-year-old man in 2008 at the age of eleven. I fight the urge to type all of this in capslock, because I am blown away and enraged all at once.
This young girl died because of lack of education, human rights, children’s rights, and the use of earth logic. Once again, Yemen is able to leave me dumbfounded that it could allow children to be married and sexually abused in such a way, and think it okay.
