In Romanian culture there is a strong myth about hard working Romanian immigrants doing their duty. It is usually emphasized as a racist reaction to another cultural myth, Romanian Roma thieves & killers present all over Europe.
And these two images are all over media with no critical reaction to their racist connotations. I found this article in Daily Mail about a Romanian doctor. A pretty telling image for the "hard working Romanians" in Western countries:
A doctor who described her Asian colleagues as ‘orang-utans’ has been suspended by the General Medical Council.
Dr Silvia Baciu, 43, made the comments after claiming she had been subjected to insulting and threatening treatment because she was a white European.
But the NHS Trust she worked for accused her of racism and the GMC yesterday criticised her ‘unacceptable racial behaviour’.
Dr Baciu, who is originally from Romania, worked as a Senior House Officer in anaesthetics at Basildon Hospital, Essex, from June 2004 to November 2005.
After she left the department, she reuested a meeting with the Trust to discuss alleged
discrimination at the hands of her colleagues. She prepared a 12-page document to support her claims.
The GMC heard that she had written: ‘It’s not my fault that in the heads of senior Asian colleagues, there’s no difference between an educated white woman and a donkey. It’s not my fault that I was born in Europe and not
in South-East Asia, like other trainees. It’s not my fault that I’m white.
‘I dare to suggest to you, mon cher, that ( some doctors) are exempt from known immigration laws.
‘The brainy Asian males of this department can’t place themselves before the law.’
Dr Baciu, who lives in Northampton, added in the document that she feared that European science
would ‘disappear’ because there were so many Asian doctors.
She added: ‘The orang-utan section of the department is ready for action and I assure you of their effectiveness.’
Later in the document, Dr Baciu claimed she had been threatened and harassed and found attitudes towards her ‘very hard to endure’.
The GMC was told that Dr Baciu had problems adjusting to working in the UK. Craig Ferguson, for the GMC, also said there were concerns over her communication skills and her ability to complete written assessments.
Dr Baciu said that the word ‘orang-utan’ did not refer to the doctors’ appearance, but their aggressive and threatening behaviour, both in public and private.
But Mr Ferguson said: ‘Any reference to members of an ethnic group who differ from the dominant group in the UK because of the colour of their skin is racist, and any suggestion to the contrary is unsustainable.
'That this could be considered as anything other than racist is a nonsense.’
Suspending Dr Baciu for six months Ralph Bergman, who chaired the hearing, said: ‘The period of suspension will enable you to reflect on your unacceptable conduct, to take steps to become more aware of the unacceptability of racial behaviour and to satisfy a future panel that you have gained the necessary degree of insight.’
Mr Bergman added that Dr Baciu’s decision not to give evidence herself was concerning. The GMC recommended that she attend a training course in diversity before her case is reviewed later this year.
4 comments:
Mihai,
What do really know about the Romanians working in Britain? Probably nothing. I am a Romanian woman living in UK for 16 years now, so I see the story differently. She is woman doctor in a country where most doctors are men, probably even more in her specialism. And many doctors in UK tend to be of Asian origin (India , Bangladesh, Pakistan). Worse she comes in Romania and is a professional, not a cleaner. And that hurts some Asian (and not only) egos in Britain.
I make a digression to clarify what I'm trying to say above. When I tried to get an annulment of my Catholic marriage, the representative of the diocese of Westminster RC tribunal asked me: Why did you go to university in England to get a degree and professional job? You could have taken a menial job instead.
Had I been a English professional woman, nobody would have dared to question my reason for going to university. But I was Romanian, i.e. holding a nationality that in British eyes should produce only labourers and domestic staff, not professionals.
I understand that there is discrimination that you face as a Romanian woman in a Western country. There is no way I can deny that inequality is reinforced on various levels and there are people facing it every day. But from aknowledging and fighting discrimination to using it to discriminate others it's a big step. You are using the fact that you are discriminated to legitimate your own discrimination and that is very problematic for me. You are using the same discriminatory logic to treat people around you and for that reason you are just reinforcing your own discrimination. And the irony is that i really know a lot about Romanians working in UK by my twisted life experience.
Mihai,
You misunderstood my previous post. What I tried to point out was that Dr Baciu had been subject to derogatory comments of racial (xenophobic) nature from her Asian collegues. The Northamptonshire NHS Trust never took her complaints seriously, more likely because she was Romanian. After getting angy and making herself some derogatory remarks, the NHS sided with her racist abusers and called her a racist. This was an abuse of power because the NHS trust did not explain who were the targeted victims, namely the orangoutans. Dr Baciu never said specifically who they were. So they called her a racist and sent her to an awareness course because they knew that any accusation of racism made against Dr Baciu won't stand in court. Had Dr Baciu said who were these orangoutans, she would have ended with a criminal record for racism. The NHS had no case of racism against her, otherwise it would have ended in the court of law. She was actually the victim of racial abuse, not the perpetrator. Her only mistake was to make some general derogatory comments that they were used against her.
You write: “What I tried to point out was that Dr Baciu had been subject to derogatory comments of racial (xenophobic) nature from her Asian collegues.... After getting angry and making herself some derogatory remarks, the NHS sided with her racist abusers and called her a racist”. So when the ‘Asian colleagues’ make ‘derogatory comments’, they are ‘racist’ and ‘xenophobic’. When Dr Baciu makes ‘some derogatory remarks’ herself, she is a poor victim of racism. I fail to see the logic in this argument. I do not claim to have close knowledge of this particular case, only the details that I have read in the media, which is probably your case as well. Maybe Dr Baciu was indeed a victim of institutionalized discrimination, maybe she was not. What and how you argue however is highly questionable. Through the (may I add, condescending) argumentation of your defense of Dr Baciu you condone racist behaviour and ‘some general statements’, as long as it’s done by the ‘right’ people.
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