New Year, New Name

So as attached as I am to the word gypsy it needs to go. After posting my website "Gypsy_Riot" on a female empowerment FB group site, I was confronted by a fellow Facebooker. She pointed out how offensive the word gypsy was, asked that I remove it from my business name, and reiterated why she felt this was the socially conscious thing to do (as I recent graduate of the short term Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies program at Tri-C I felt compelled to listen, and attempt to make peace where I unwittingly had created conflict). She also sent along an article from bitchmedia written by Jessica Reidy titled “The Harmful History of ‘Gypsy’” . Reidy is of Roma descent, and gives a damn good argument for purging the word, even if I did cringe recognizing myself as the “white woman just trying to find herself” in the article's text.

I desperately wanted to keep the name "Gypsy_Riot" for my website. To me - it felt heavy and playful all at once. It reminded me of a line from one of my favorite Van Morrison songs, it conjured up images of exotic beautiful woman with long tresses and bangles, it evoked feelings of freedom, adventure, travel, and it looked so damn nice visually on my website (not to mention it took me forever to come up with). As Reidy's article articulates, these often romanticized stereotypes of the gypsy as popularized in pop culture are actually a big part of the problem.

Still, absurdely, I didn't want to let it go. I was one of the "oddly attached" that Reidy mentions in her article. Could I use the argument that I wanted to reappropriate the term? I mean my whole business concept is centered around building woman up, finding personal freedom, and connecting with a tribe who also wants to find meaning in the ‘wandering’.

Ummmm, considering I’m not of Roma descent (at least not that I know of – my 23 and me results are a story for a whole different blog post) - probably not.

I teach about concepts such as power, privilege, and bigotry in my English Composition class, and somehow, amazingly, I managed to conveniently not acknowledge my own offensiveness. I decided to use our FB exchange as I teachable moment. I walked into my class, pulled up my messenger and let the class see civil dialogue in action – in real life. This person didn’t like what I was doing, she laid out her reasons why with support/resources, offered alternatives, and offered to continue the conversation offline if I wanted. This couldn’t have been more timely as my students were drafting their own letters for change to be mailed out as their final major assignment of their semester, and Brittany had basically modeled writing that led to new viewpoints and ultimately changed behaviors.

So Brittany – if you are reading this. I want to thank you. Thank you for taking a stand for something you feel passionately about, thank you for being brave enough to have the conversation, and thank you for not making me feel insulted or defensive in the process.