ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the social psychology of dehumanization, defined as the implicit or explicit denial of humanity, dignity and humanness of people by exploring dehumanization as a cognitive, as well as discursive and symbolic, process. It explores about various stories of transgression present Romani people, who are described as people 'outside moral reach', unworthy and undeserving of equal treatment. Talk of Roma as violators of pivotal social and moral conventions, as morally and spatially transgressive, delegitimizes their way of being in the world. This chapter examines the symbolic and discursive actions, meanings and presuppositions that facilitate the denial of the humanity and dignity of Romanies, and highlight some of their societal consequences. The tangible contemporary manifestations of violence against Romanies in Europe shows that violence is a manifestation less of individual, irrational mindsets, than of collective, ruling-state institutions and policies to uproot as the wretched face of poverty, lawlessness and transgressive and immoral behaviour.
