ABSTRACT
“Do not ask me who I am and do not ask me to remain the same”—this is what the French philosopher and cultural historian Michel Foucault thought concerning the relationship we develop with our own image and the image of us formed by others. 1 In the 1950s a Gypsy nail-maker bitterly explained what people in Hungary generally thought about Gypsies: “The gadje [non-Roma] don’t even know that the Roma work for them, so they can have fancy houses. Who makes staples? The Roma. Who makes Rabitz mesh? The Roma. Who makes thumbnails? The Roma. Who makes steel clasps? The Roma. Who makes corner pins? The Roma. And who knows that the Roma make all these things? The Roma. No one knows, all they know about is lice and theft.” 2 These two quotes illustrate the difference between social science theory and the real relativism of a citizen living as a member of a minority group. What we say and what is said about us are equally relative. The important question is whether we have a real influence on what is said and written about us: on the discourse.
