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The Most Painful Tattoo[editar]

THE CHALLENGE

The Most Painful Tattoo is an awareness-raising campaign of the Fundación Secretariado Gitano against discrimination and in favour of the dignity of Roma people.

I am Roma and I am untrustworthy. This is the message that Amanda, a young Roma woman, was tattooed on the 16 November in front of the media to raise awareness on the invisibility of prejudices.

With this challenge, Amanda wanted to call the attention of the whole society, asking for their support so that this message could become into a positive message. If the campaign reached the 10 million impacts on Twitter the message of the tattoo would change.

The result was beating the initial challenge posed by FSG: to reach more than 10 million people on Twitter and thus turn the tattoo into a positive message: “Roma and Trustworthy”. The support garnered in the three days previous to the tattoing, in which social media was mobilised in solidarity with Amanda and her cause, meant that the target set was achieved beyond expectations. By the time the tattoo was finished (11:00 AM Madrid time), Twitter had recorded a total of 26,820,404 unique users, 6,882 tweets and 31,244,040 total impacts.

Countless gestures of solidarity were made for this particular campaign, including from well-known politicians, journalists, actors, artists...

Image of the message tattooed
Image of the message tattooed

AN INITIATIVE WITH IMPACT

The Fundación Secretariado Gitano (FSG)’s campaign #ElTatuajeQueMásDuele (The Most Painful Tattoo) rallied society in solidarity with the Roma community, reaching more than 25 million people through Twitter thanks to the support of numerous public figures (journalists, artists, politicians and more) and thousands more people from Spain and internationally. 

Isidro Rodríguez, Director General of Fundación Secretariado Gitano, was delighted by the campaign's success“We would like to thank everyone involved in this act of protest who has managed to 'overhaul' Amanda's tattoo. Our aim in this campaign was to highlight the daily rejection suffered by many Roma men and women due to prejudice, which leaves a 'painful' mark, as would a tattoo, with the distinction that a person would normally get a tattoo of their own free will… because they want to wear it and show it off". He went on to add: "The outcome shows that there are a great many of us who reject the prejudices that brand and condition us, although there is still much ground to cover.  It is our hope that awareness campaigns such as this help to put an end to discrimination and rejection towards the Roma community". 

Fundación Secretariado Gitano has been issuing annual reports for the past 12 years documenting numerous cases of discrimination that affect Roma people throughout Spain, but which represent "a tiny fraction of real incidents, because often the Roma community is unaware of the discrimination. It assumes it and it goes unreported”, remarks Rodríguez. 

Sara Giménez, Head of the FSG Equality and Anti-Discrimination Department, notes that “Discrimination is still happening everyday, it goes unnoticed by society-at-large, but affects thousands of people every day. It exists when renting a home, entering a leisure establishment or looking a job, for instance, with no thought of the impact of such actions on the everyday life of Roma people – limiting their personal, educational and job development. It hinders the exercise of our rights as the fully-fledged citizens that we are". 

The Special Eurobarometer on Discrimination 2015 confirmed this vigorous rejection of the Roma community by European society. Moreover, based on data complied by FSG in 2015, Roma women fall victim to discrimination more often than men (nearly 52% of recorded cases), entailing double discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity and gender. 

In its most recent report on Discrimination and the Roma Community, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano found that antigypsyism is a particular form of racism endured historically by Roma people. It is founded in stigmatising and translates into discrimination, hate speech and hate crimes. "Combating anti-Roma sentiment must become a clear objective for public authorities and political leaders, with targeted prevention and awareness measures and protection for its victims."

Spanish society famous people supported the campaign
Spanish society famous people supported the campaign

THE ISSUE OF DISCRIMINATION

Social rejection of Roma people is an issue that affects thousands of citizens and which jeopardises their Right to Non-Discrimination. The numerous cases of discrimination against Roma people are related to the difficulty in accessing work, renting a home or entering an entertainment venue, among many other daily situations.
To eradicate discrimination it is necessary to make it visible and demand greater attention from public authorities, institutions and social organisations. Advancing the real equality of Roma citizens will improve the democratic health of all of society, making it more dignified and fairer.

Amanda Silva during the tattoing session
Amanda Silva during the tattoing session

WHAT WE PROPOSE FROM THE FSG?

At the Fundación Secretariado Gitano we believe in the right of all people not to suffer discriminated and defend the principle of Equality, which is the basis of all our work.

The defence of equality and the right to non-discrimination are the basis for all of our work. Therefore, the Fundación Secretariado Gitano proposes, among other measures:
  • Greater protection from public authorities of the right to equality and dignity.
  • Approval of a Comprehensive Equality Law to address discriminating acts which do not constitute a crime.
  • Creation of an independent Equality Body, which assumes all powers and responsibilities established by European regulation
  • Encouraging the action of the Hate Crime and Discrimination Services of the regional prosecutors’ offices and their coordination with other agents involved.
  • Raising society’s awareness to achieve greater social rejection for flagrant anti-Roma acts.
We will continue to work to make cases of discrimination visible and to report them, supporting the victims and promoting policies that guarantee equal treatment.

Campaign related documents

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