gypsies: a question of love and racism?

I am currently supposed to be writing an essay about the reception of The Odyssey in the modern world by female authors. And it's actually such a dope topic because I love the books I'm reading (Meadowlands and The Penelopiad). So I'm just laying down the line that I love these books; this post is not to complain about the stupid essay, I'm not going to pull a Cady Heron and pretend to be dumb in order to get Aaron Samuels because a.) No Aaron Samuels has made me say "Grool," yet, and b.) obviously the entire lesson of Mean Girls is that Aaron only went for Cady after her and Kevin Gnapoor and the other Mathletes won the math competition.

Anyways, that aside had no purpose, except to flaunt my ability to drop maaaad amounts of Mean Girls references. Sorry. Okay but anyways, in the past 24 hours, I've read two articles dealing with the topic of gypsies, or rather, Irish travelers.

The first can be found here, but I'll give you the text:
(Headline: Gypsies May Move Into the Cincinnati Area)

"The Irish Travelers will likely end up in Cincinnati, according to an alert from the Mariemont Police Department. 

Area law enforcement agencies received information that the Irish Travelers will arrive in two to three weeks, the alert said. The group has several scams that target residents and senior citizens, the alert said.These include: 

• Black Top Scam – The black top scam consists of taking advantage of consumers by doing cosmetic work and over charging.• Tree Cutting Scam – The tree cutting scam consists of asking the resident to show them where the property line is located. They will distract the victim long enough for another group of travelers to enter the home and steal valuables.• Water/Gas/Electric Meter Reader – They act like meter readers and gain access to the house. They will also distract the victim so another group can enter and steal valuables. 

The group will arrive in 25-30 vehicles and will possibly stay in Mason, the alert said. Members are generally 14 years or older and the Irish Travelers intend to operate throughout the Greater Cincinnati region, the alert said. 

Citizens should call 911 or their local police department to report suspicious activity, the alert said."

So obviously I read this and was scared, like oh no, what if my parents totally get conned by these people and then next thing I know, they've gone inside my house and have stolen our valuables--aka my baby pictures and our everlasting Costco box of Nestle ice cream drumsticks? If my parents were to skype me and tell me that this had happened, I would literally start sobbing on my laptop, thus short circuiting everything. And my life would be ruined. RUINNNNNED!! Jk not really though, because I back everything up on a hard disk--chaaaa, that's called thinking ahead betches! 

Okay, so then I read this other article that can be found here, and it's way too long to copy the text, but the headline is "Kate who? Traveller Mary ensures she has the 'biggest, fattest' wedding as she ties the knot on My Big Fat Royal Gypsy Wedding" 

Here is a picture from the story:

Here is another picture from the story: 

So obvi, the conclusion that I've drawn from all of this is: Irish Travellers come take your shit and then pawn it to have a giant ass wedding. And you know what? I TOTALLY APPROVE. Like, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm sure tons of my early Wedding Barbies were Irish Travellers:

This trick probably stole all the teacups in my tea set when I wasn't watching so she could get this wedding dress.

And maybe TI and Tiny were Irish Travellers, too:

Anyways, the point is, that Irish Travellers are just people who like to look fresh at their weddings! But this brings me to my ultimate question: By sending out a warning to the Cincinnati community about this entire group of people, is Cincinnati being effectively, RACIST?! Because, one side seems to say, "Hell naw! If these assholes are going to come around stealing our shit, we should know about it!" but the other side seems to say, "Wait a sec, didn't Borat get called out for being racist against gypsies? And if Borat did it. . .isn't it wrong?"

It seems to be a younger crowd that has these doubts:

But that might be because only younger crowds were able to understand the cultural point that was being made with the following dialogue:

Borat: If this car drive into a group of gypsies, will there be any damage to the car? 
Car Dealership owner: It depends on how hard you hit them and all that. 
Borat: *Hard* 
Car Dealership owner: You might-if somebody rolls on the windshield, they could crack your windshield. 
Borat: How fast do I need to go to guarantee I kill them? 
Car Dealership owner: Uh-let me tell you something with this vehicle here probably doing 35-45 miles per hour will do it. 


Or, perhaps only younger crowds were able to sit through the movie. . .actually just kidding, apparently grandmas watched it too. . .





But anyways--I guess the question is valid: Is it racist that the Cincinnati community is warning us about "gypsies" coming? Are all gypsies bad? Is it even politically correct to refer to Irish Travellers as gypsies? 


I think it is valid that some people are questioning if it's morally okay for us to put out this warning against a group of people--after all, without a rebuttal or some sort of statement from their side, we effectively demonize an entire group of people who don't have high representation in our population, something that our history books has repeatedly shown to be dangerous. Though it may be tempting to bash on gypsies, Borat-style, we may do our best to tread on the side of respect--these people are, after all, just people like ourselves.