7.30 pm Monday 18th April - New Theatre, George Street, OX1 2AG

JIMMY CARR cracked a ‘joke’ about the Sinti and Roma people in a Netflix show about what happened to them in the Holocaust. This was an appalling racist quip. The truth is that hundreds of thousands of Gypsies, Roma, and Traveller people were killed in the Holocaust.

Historians estimate that as much as 25-50 per cent of the entire Roma and Sinti population of Europe were victims of genocide at the hands of the Nazis, a crime of almost unimaginable proportions.

To this day, affected communities in the UK and across Europe still struggle to navigate this immense collective trauma and come to terms with the scale of grief and loss.

Challenging these remarks is particularly important in Travellers communities which often receive adverse publicity along with verbal and physical abuse.
Furthermore communities of Travellers are going to come under further pressure from the Police Bill which, while refusing to ensure that they have adequate space to live on, will use harsh criminal law to reinforce their removal from their existing homes.

We urge Jimmy Carr to use his considerable comic talents to ‘cock a snook’ against the rich and corrupt and refrain from cheap insults aimed at the victims of oppression and violence, particularly when connected to the Holocaust.

Hardcore racists will gain succour from Carr’s remarks; this is particularly dangerous because many people find anti-Roma racism acceptable.

Racism and the ultra right are on the rise every time they rear their ugly head they must be challenged whether it is it in the form of vile racist jokes or violent marches on the streets.