Being Roma in England, growing up I got called gyppo and all kinds of other nasty things, but the only thing that pissed me and my family off would be when people mistook us for travellers, aka pikeys. They're two completely separate ethnic groups, and we're always blamed for each other's shyte. As much as I love this movie, it's deeply irritating that Ritchie continued to perpetuate this ignorance.
shareAye, 's true, tinkers (irish travellers) aren't a thing like zingaro.
Though I don't know if the creators actually were ignorant of if it was part of the script for the characters to be ignorant as is how it tends to be.
Would be pretty bloody unrealistic if a single one of the characters could tell the difference.
Yes, they are. Gypsy = traveler. Pikey = Irish travelers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Travellers
Gypsy does not refer to a race of people or ethnic group but rather a way of life. Ritchie isn't perpetuating any ignorance, it's you who is ignorant of what the term gypsy means.
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Gypsy
2. A member of any of various traditionally itinerant groups unrelated to the Romani.
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Why does it piss you off.he is,calling them pikies and they are travelers.
There not gypsies.
The question is: would anybody in the movie know or care that there was a difference?
These guys aren't the kind of PC sensitive types to actually care about other peoples. They probably generalise a lot, I'd imagine.
It's only fair to allow Ritchie (or any filmmaker) the leeway to write characters whose viewpoints are different than ours. I certainly don't want to have crime-farces like this interrupted every ten minutes by a bulletin explaining why gypsy is an offensive word and pointing out the differences between Irish travelers and Roma.
Actually you're wrong Sasha.
The reason being that there is really two definitions of the word 'gypsy' in England. The older, more original usage was a more general, generic term to any travelling, wandering folk (many of whom were of Roma ethnicity but not all).
A more modern usage is directly as Roma Gypsy ethnic group. Especially since the mid nineties with increased immigration of Roma.
'Irish Travellers'/knackers/pikies if they were in england would have been called gypsies by the natives. They would have no other word for such people. They might not even have been able to distinguish a difference. Or have cared.
I know, I'm a Sinti/traveller (father is a sinto, mom is a traveller) mix from the Netherlands. Here we have a pretty large population of Sinti people and while they do mix with the travellers a lot, they prefer to only identify with their own culture. Travellers and sinti people here in NL do have a lot in common though. Both the words "gypsy" and "pikey" piss me off actually, both are racial slurs and definitely wrong.
I do think the people in England are more stubborn when it comes to people of other cultures. Even "white Europeans" can do no good I heard.