Unethical exploitation of Roma in #Borat #romani #gypsy #ethics #roma #brown #india #centralasia

[florida.florian]

The Romani villagers were exploited into thinking they were in a documentary about their struggles in Romania, they were paid cents for their work and misrepresented, Cohen took advantage of their lack of English ability and legal protection to misrepresent innocent people and exploit them. This is not how you properly do a satire by treating marginalized people like show animals and it’s very different from showing the real racial biases of Americans in his later interviews as the Roma were misrepresented on our culture and way of life in a way that was extremely offensive to our culture.

[kiran]

It Would have been easier to hate on this movie if it wasnt so goddamn hilarious at some parts.

[vpenguin]

Wow. I knew about a fair number of controversies about Borat, but I have never heard about this one. It really goes to show how Romani exploitation is accepted compared to all the other groups who are discriminated against in the film (and other of his movies).

[ToxicTony]

Villagers:Talk mad shit
Also Villagers:Sure we’d love for you to film Borat 2 here.

[mcspinixvids]

SBC and the crew lied to everyone: Romani, Americans. That's the style.

[PaulAllen]

That's why I like Conan O'Brien so much more. He goes to a particular country or to particular people and makes fun of himself and makes those people laugh. Unlike Sacha Cohen who goes to a particular country to mock at them. This is disgusting

[cuckmasterkat]

Satire is just bullying when its directed at those who are already down

[gxtmfa]

Now it’s going to be even harder to make a documentary about the poverty and suffering in Roma villages because of the distrust he engendered.

[bmona]

This reminds me of snide remarks old kdrama (some recent kdramas still do passive aggressively) makes with Filipinos/South East Asians/South Asians or if a character goes to the Philippines/South East Asia (except Singapore)/South Asia. The struggle with unnecessary hate/discrimination is not exactly the same but I can kind of relate. The best thing we can do about such treatment is to keep fighting!!

[jeambeam]

Whats ironic is the Kazakh president maybe ex president hated this movie too due to his people being shown as Romani but then proceeds to say a bunch of racist shit which just makes him fit the stereotype of suppose Kazakh people shown in the movie

[i.c.weiner]

This is so cruel. Growing up jewish my mother has always been very open about the atrocities the roma faced, especially since they were affected by the holocaust as well. To see another jewish person treat the roma like this is disgusting. He of all people should understand how disgusting this is

[junkin]

I'm from kazakhstan and was always angry at this movie for stereotyping country and culture that was not very known already, so I ve never watched it. The fact that they exploited romani people like this is awful, it should've not been done. It's not satire if it hurts real people like that, it's just beating down

[francesengland]

The film is satire. And I enjoyed it before I knew they exploited the village. I assumed the village was in on the joke. Now it’s just cringe to think about. Comedy shouldn’t punch down.

[dietjesus]

Sup, Kazakh native who now lives in the US here. Anytime I mention to people that I was born in Kazakhstan they either have no idea where I'm talking about or they go "BORAT?!?!? WAWAWEEWA, very nice."
And then I have to just sit there and be like "ha, yeah, that."
Got to admit it does get a little irritating

[punkyfeathers]

A really great documentary about modern Romani struggles is Welcome Nowhere it’s about a Romani village my daughters family was from being displaced and moved into train cars.

[pusheenqueen]

What. The. Fuck.

I never saw this movie cause when it came out I was like "oh that looks dumb" then forgot it existed. I'm floored. This is just sickening.

[claudeyaz]

It happens to amish people all the time with no outrage. I won't say the accused behaviour is good. But let's not pretend that it isn't common. It is common

[sunshinemachine]

I'm very sorry for the situation, I didn't know the story behind this movie and I haven't seen it because I really don't like that humor or it attracts me, I knew what made fun of cultures but not at this level!!!
As a Mexican I can understand the courage, rage and anger at the mockery of your culture and that we are portrayed with idiotic and false stereotypes that they still make fun of us and they see us as people who are ignorant, poor and live in the desert, obviously not!!!

[simi]

never saw the movie because I always felt it was not my kind of humor, but this piece of info about the making of it really takes the cake. utterly disgusting.

if he had done the same to anyone in the US they would have taken him to court and he would have bled millions and would have had his movie banned or at least those scenes. he did it because he felt it being abroad he wouldn't get any repercussions. Absolutely despicable human being.

Edit: also, it doesn't qualify as satire if he actually lied to those people. if you want to create satire everyone participating has to be aware of it and be in on the joke. this is not satire, it's just plain sinister.

[stevenv]

And then he went and complained about antisemitism at some conference. As if this guy has room to complain about discrimination. Another thing he did is film a Palestinian man from Bethlehem and call him Osama and a terrorist. I think he told him he wanted to film his hobby or business too.