Gypsy is a racist term for an ethnic group called the Roma or Romani, who have long suffered from prejudice in Europe, and whom the Nazi's killed in the Holocaust along with Jewish people and other groups.
> Gypsy is a racist term for an ethnic group called the Roma or Romani, who have long suffered from prejudice in Europe
It is an exonyme, so shouldn't be preferred but is not a racist term in itself. It wasn't coined as a slur and isn't in itself derogatory. It is built in the same way Roma is from a time people thought the ethnic group came from Egyptia (well most likely what was then called small Egyptia so Epirus in Greece). It also often tends to be used as a synonym for nomads with people referring to the Irish Travellers as gispies.
The card effect however seems to refer to the stereotype attached to Romani which is very much racist.
As an aside, it is a lot less clear to me as a foreigner why crusade and jihad are seen as racist cards. They refer to historical conflicts which were motivated by religion not ethnicity. It might be because my native language hasn't stretched the definition of the word racism as much as American English did. The world now seems to encompass any form of prejudice in America but confusingly to me sometimes strangely not things which would be considered extremely racist in my native language like applying the world race to humans. Sometimes I feel like a cultural gulf is opening between both sides of the Atlantic regarding what is and isn't appropriate.
It is an exonyme, so shouldn't be preferred but is not a racist term in itself. It wasn't coined as a slur and isn't in itself derogatory. It is built in the same way Roma is from a time people thought the ethnic group came from Egyptia (well most likely what was then called small Egyptia so Epirus in Greece). It also often tends to be used as a synonym for nomads with people referring to the Irish Travellers as gispies.
The card effect however seems to refer to the stereotype attached to Romani which is very much racist.
As an aside, it is a lot less clear to me as a foreigner why crusade and jihad are seen as racist cards. They refer to historical conflicts which were motivated by religion not ethnicity. It might be because my native language hasn't stretched the definition of the word racism as much as American English did. The world now seems to encompass any form of prejudice in America but confusingly to me sometimes strangely not things which would be considered extremely racist in my native language like applying the world race to humans. Sometimes I feel like a cultural gulf is opening between both sides of the Atlantic regarding what is and isn't appropriate.