Over the years, for both Linda and Michael, a major focus of our human rights work in Europe has been on Roma rights and fighting discrimination against Roma. Michael in particular is often asked about drawing connections between the struggle for Roma rights and his experiences with the African American Civil Rights movement.
On February 21, 2018, we started our Salon year off with a Salon featuring Michael and the young Spanish Romani activist, Vicente Rodriguez Fernandez. Vicente is a close friend of ours, and, more importantly, a committed, energetic, creative, and innovative organizer for Romani rights and human rights, who is as passionate about truly grassroots work as we are, and whose out-of-the-box ideas challenge the direction of existing human rights work in Europe. He is the founder of RomaPop, an organization devoted to challenging racist images of Roma in pop culture and was named by Forbes as one of the 2016 "30 under 30" in the policy field. He is currently Co-director of the Legacies of Empires program for the University of Washington. Of course, most of you already know Michael, who has had a lifelong career in human rights, as part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which played a central role in the African American Civil Rights movement, and later as Director for European Programs of the American Friends Service Committee.
In their conversation, Vicente and Michael began by recounting their personal and family histories, illustrating some of the commonalities between the challenges faced by Roma and African American communities, and discussed what drew each of them to connect with the history of the other's community. Moving into the current day, their presentations emphasized the need to question stereotypes and stock narratives about marginalized communities, and, in our European context, about Roma in particular. The presentation sparked intense conversation that continued in deep discussions long after the formal program ended.
