Inferiority and Invisibility: The Psychological and Transgenerational Impacts of Roma Slavery on Descendents

• In Event: Reclaiming Race Narratives in Romania: Archives, Memory and Reckoning

Abstract

Like a shadow cast across generations, descendants of Roma slaves carry a deeply imposed, ingrained, and psychologically manifested sense of low status and distorted sense of humanity. Drawing on pre-existing literature on the topic and a comparative analysis with literature and experiences of African American slavery, I will examine how individuals internalize, externalize, and ultimately renegotiate constraints of perceived and assumed inferiority. I aim to explore the transgenerational impact of Roma slavery in Romania and dynamics of how descendants construct their identities within a framework of inherited social exclusion, stigma, and low socioeconomic status. The scars of slavery and stigma continue to shape the psychological barriers that influence how Roma descendants access and exercise agency. The enslavement of Roma bodies lives on in Roma minds and cultural memory, reinforcing an “invisible wall” shaped by systematic and historical oppression.

Author

• Cristiana Grigore