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INTER PRESS SERVICE
March 15, 2002, n.p.
Copyright © 2002 by INTER PRESS SERVICE, distributed by Global Information Network.
Czech Republic: Gypsies Protest "Racist" Gallery Director
By Brian Kenety
PRAGUE, Mar. 15 (IPS)--The Roma (Gypsies) have done little to educate themselves or advance their race, yet demand special treatment. They are unable to live in harmony with white Czechs.
And, claims National Gallery director Milan Knizak, while the work of Roma artists may be suitable for display in an ethnographic museum, it will not hang in his museum.
"Unfortunately, I cannot [display Romany art] thus far. Their work is not of sufficient quality. But it could be placed in a Romany or ethnographic museum," said Knizak in a Feb. 22 interview with Mlada fronta Dnes, a leading daily.
For Romany activist Radka Kovackova, a signatory of a petition since launched to remove Knizak from his post, these remarks are "outrageous" and unforgivable.
"It is difficult enough for grassroots organizations like ours to try to change people's attitudes--their negative stereotypes about the Roma--without public figures like Mr. Knizak reinforcing their prejudices," Kovackova told IPS.
Segregation and discrimination toward the Czech Republic's estimated 250,000 gypsies has been exhaustively documented over the past decade by groups including the United Nations, Save the Children and philanthropist George Soros' Open Society Fund.
"When I heard Knizak's remarks, I was not surprised by the sentiments, but found it unbelievable that a public figure would speak them freely," said Kovackova, chairwoman of Athinganoi, a multicultural organization that runs the Roma Students Information Center in the Czech capital, Prague.
In the Mlada front Dnes article and in subsequent interviews, Knizak, a controversial artist who made a name for himself in the 1960s for organizing illegal "happenings" under the noses of the former Czechoslovak communist regime, went on to make sweeping generalizations about the Roma people.
"Gypsies do very little for themselves. They are not able to find a desire for education within themselves," he said.
Jews and Roma have both been discriminated against throughout history, he said, "[but] Jews carry the trauma of their history much more heavily than Romanies, and at the same time they are able to share the same space with us," added the National Gallery director.
Besides that post, Knizak is also a member of the state-appointed council of public broadcaster Czech Television (CT).
Angered by Knizak's statements, Romany and Jewish activists on Feb. 25 filed a petition to government leaders seeking his resignation from the council post.
The petition, signed by dozens of Roma and several Jewish groups, said it was "outrageous" that a public figure could launch an "unprecedented attack on a threatened and easily recognizable minority" group.
"We emphasize that Milan Knizak is a highly placed civil servant, whose position is funded by all citizens of the Czech Republic, including the Roma" and "he should be dismissed...because he has seriously undermined the stature of his (public) position."
The petition says that Knizak does not respect the principles of the law on Czech Television, under which a Council member must ensure that television develops "the cultural identity of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic, including members of national or ethnic minorities."
For Kovackova, a signatory of the petition to remove Knizak, his remarks about the ethnic group's scorn for education were the most hurtful.
School dropout rates among Roma in some areas top 75 percent. The Czech government and its office for Roma affairs has acknowledged that more should be done to reduce poverty among the group, which is also plagued by substandard housing and high unemployment.
Last year, parliament allocated more than $1.75 million in new funds for Roma education projects spearheaded by the Ministry of Education.
But for generations, the school system has reinforced prejudices of the Czech white majority.
For example, Roma children--for many of whom Czech is their second language, after Romani--have been classified as mentally deficient and sent to "special schools."
"I would not like to see this issue fade away. I would like to see Mr. Knizak removed from his position," said Kovackova.
It seems unlikely that will happen. Knizak can only by dismissed from the Czech Television council by parliament. He can be dismissed from the post of National Gallery director by Culture Minister Pavel Dostal.
But Chamber of Deputies Media Commission head Ivan Langer, a member of the opposition center-right Civic Democratic party (ODS), has said he would not seek Knizak's dismissal.
Dostal told the weekly Respekt that Knizak "put the National Gallery into order and it would very ungrateful of me to dismiss him just because he slipped in some interview."
Transitions Online, a Prague-based publication that tracks Central and Eastern Europe issues, said it was "shocking" that many members of the elite in societies "professing to be tolerant and open" have yet to learn the borders of acceptable discourse.
"Instead of condemning his statements, some of the country's most influential leaders defended Knizak. Parliament chairman Vaclav Klaus--the country's most influential politician and a political ally--called the 'commotion' around the statements the result of a 'misunderstanding' and a 'hypocritical witch hunt'," noted the publication in an editorial.
"Even casual comments do matter and 'trickle down' to the populace. That is doubly true in a small country like the Czech Republic...(where) politicians often seem like pop stars, continually interviewed in newspapers, magazines, and on TV--very often about themes having nothing to do with politics."
Indeed, in subsequent interviews this month, an unapologetic Knizak has insisted that he is not racist, but nonetheless laments the "end of free speech" in the Czech Republic and the current climate of "reverse discrimination."
Knizak told the Lidove Noviny daily after the petition against him was circulated: "I am certainly not a racist. I consider this campaign to be orchestrated because I am an unwelcome person for many within the (CT) council and National Gallery."
Defending his statements about Roma artists, he said, "Roma, unfortunately, do not have any artistic traditional culture, except for dressing up and that kind of thing."
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