Today, Moving for Change released a statement in response to Jimmy Carr’s use of the Roma Genocide in ‘His Dark Material’ Netflix show.
In the show, Jimmy Carr ‘jokes’ that the lack of knowledge about the more than 500,000 Roma and Sinti people murdered during the Holocaust is because ‘no one wants to talk about the positives’.
Calls for Jimmy Carr’s show to be removed from the platform have been echoed by thousands of members of the public, 123 politicians, and 47 charities as part of the mounting pressure for the education curriculum to include the Roma and Sinti experiences as part of Holocaust education.
Moving for Change Chair, Violet Cannon, made this statement:
“As a woman who had been told recently things like, ‘Hitler had the right idea’, ‘you all need rounding up with gun towers over you’ and ‘you all want fire-bombing’, it is a very scary and unsafe time to be a Romany Gypsy in England.
“I felt deeply saddened by Jimmy Carr’s ‘joke’, but the audience’s applause was even more disconcerting. Carr sees my community, the Romany Gypsies, as an easy target for cheap laughs. We are not just the butt of your joke – hatred towards us is everywhere. A 2022 YouGov study found just under half of respondents held negative views about Gypsy and Irish Traveller people.
“But since Carr’s ‘joke’ aired, what has been more powerful is the huge waves of solidarity we have received and I sincerely thank every one of you for the support. I’d also like to thank The Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, The Auschwitz Memorial and HOPE not Hate for getting behind my community in our fight to have Jimmy Carr’s ‘His Dark Material’ removed from Netflix.
“We encourage those experiencing hate speech to report it through the Report Racism GRT website. Finally, we are calling on educational establishments for all ages to include Roma and Sinti culture and history in their core curriculum.”
